Automobile is our rival to beat.
Came one day a client who offered us a business. He wished to have an atelier which can be used also as a gallery to present his work of ceramic art, which he made for pleasure.
With mere 1.5 million yen(=11,000 euro)which he saved to originally purchase a business-purpose Toyota Corolla sedan to spare as total budget, we started our project.
1.5 million yen. Ridiculously small sum of money for building any kind of architecture. Yet, it's good sum if you're going to pay away in everyday life. At least it affords you a "mobile room" with fancy air conditioner, car navigation system and power window. Question arisen. Are we sure we properly translate the money into the quality of architecture? Can ever be born objects that embody beauty and rationality in such architectural world, which is highly specialized and socially defined? These kinds of skepticism were something that bothered us over years. That's why we felt great appeal for the small budget he offered.
To beat an automobile in value by holding a thorough investigation into closed payment structure of architectural industry; to quest an object which is most rational and reasonable by treating an architectural structure as a plain object...
Motto of this project was like this: "Make great use of 1.5 million yen, and architecture get ahead of automobile".
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『SD-Review』2003.12/Kajima Institute Publishing Co,Ltd