Clarity and Complexity
Many architects pursue consistent themes that can be adjusted to any site or building type, while others take a fresh approach to every project, giving each a distinctive expression. FOBA, the firm that Katsu Umebayashi established on the outskirts of Kyo
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Many architects pursue consistent themes that can be adjusted to any site or building type, while others take a fresh approach to every project, giving each a distinctive expression. FOBA, the firm that Katsu Umebayashi established on the outskirts of Kyoto in 1994, has a foot in both camps. Continuity of space and respect for context are always evident, but the forty-year-old architect eschews a signature style or concept. “I always want to try something unconventional,” he observes, “otherwise, why take on a job at all? It should be new every time.” There is no clear line of development from which one can trace a steady evolution of form and language in FOBA’s work. From its debut to the present, the firm displays a mastery of problem solving and an eagerness to turn every limitation into an opportunity.
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Each project has its own unique character and descriptive name, which are as varied as the sites and the needs of the owners. These names—Aura, Porous, Pleats, and Skip, for example—have an expressive poetry far removed from the cryptic “M-House” and “Y-House” designations that are commonly used in Japan to identify projects without disclosing the location or the name of the owner. FOBA distills the essence of each building into a single word, which then becomes a member of its growing family. FOBA’s buildings respond to the physical constraints or freedoms of a specific site and to the contradictory desires of the owners for openness and enclosure, intimacy and distance. That mixture of objective and subjective conditions is filtered through dialog with the client. At the start of each job, the project architect will not visit the site without first hearing the owners explain why they want to live there and how. In describing the location, the clients reveal aspects of themselves and the elements that concern them the most.
Umebayashi then makes his own evaluation of the site and begins sketching ideas. Though he has no drawing board or computer, and may be directly involved only at the beginning of a project, his contribution is crucial to its success. Intuitive sketches, in combination with organizational diagrams of the constituent spaces, serve as the basis for the designs. These are then developed by team members in axonometric and perspective drawings by hand and, finally, with a computer. The process is one of exploration that can extend over years and go through multiple iterations, even after client approval of a particular scheme. “In our work, space—volumetric, dynamic, and continuous—comes first,” declares Umebayashi. “The movement of a human body through a building defines the space and connects physical reality to psychological perception.” This fusion of aesthetic and sensory experience prompts a comparison with contemporary choreography, which has redefined the language and intentions of dance, as FOBA has done for architecture.
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It is instructive to compare FOBA’s strategies with those of other contemporary Japanese architects, especially in its home city of Kyoto, where buildings ran
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