Atelier Tekuto: Tomorrow, the challenge of architecture

At the TOTO Gallery·MA, an exhibition dedicated to the twenty-year-long career of Atelier Tekuto's Yasuhiro Yamahita sheds light onto the experimental process that enables the architect to go beyond the everyday, bringing together students, professionals and artisans.

Tokyo's TOTO Gallery·MA is holding the first exhibition dedicated entirely to the twenty-year-long career of Japanese architect Yasuhiro Yamahita, whose work sets about challenging everyday notions. Born on the island of Amami Oshima, prefecture of Kogoshima, in the souh of Japan, Yamashita completed his studies at the Shibaura Institute of Technology in 1986. In 1991 he set up his first practice, renamed in 1995 with the designation it still carries today: Atelier Tekuto. Titled Tomorrow, the challenge of architecture, the exhibition takes up the double ceiling height of the gallery space with the Church of Soil installation, a scale 1:1 model made from blocks of earth already used by the Japanese architect in 2011 in the project Earth Bricks. Unique in its kind, it is the first structure in Japan built using only compressed earth.

It is this kind of experimentation that enables Yamashita to go beyond the everyday and bring together students, professionals and artisans with the aim of seeking unconventional materials for his projects. Yamashita writes and believes that the action is already contained in the materials themselves; if one wants to realise an action one has to give life to things. The architect describes how when he was young he dreamed of many adventures on the limits of the possible and that now, even though he is over 50, he has never stopped seeking adventure. The exhibition divides the work of Yamashita into two categories: "Seven adventures with things" and "Seven adventures with actions". They serve as a pretext for introducing his most interesting works including Lucky Drops, Earth Bricks and Mineral Reflection.

Top and above: <em>Tomorrow: The Challenge of Architecture</em>, installation view at the TOTO Gallery MA. Photos by Nacása & Partners Inc. — Top and above: *Tomorrow: The Challenge of Architecture*, installation view at the TOTO Gallery MA. Photos by Nacása & Partners Inc.

Models, projections and panels are articulated around the 1:1 model of the church, around 5 metres high at the highest point. It offers visitors a mystic space punctuated by crosses of light. Outside are two machines that demonstrate how simple it is to produce the blocks of earth used by Yamashita. Salvator-John A. Liotta

<em>Tomorrow: The Challenge of Architecture</em>, installation view at the TOTO Gallery MA. Photo by Nacása & Partners Inc. — *Tomorrow: The Challenge of Architecture*, installation view at the TOTO Gallery MA. Photo by Nacása & Partners Inc.

Through 22 December 2012
Yasuhiro Yamahita x Atelier Tekuto: Tomorrow, The Challenge of Architecture
TOTO Gallery·MA
Tokyo

Atelier Tekuto, <em>Boundary house</em> — Atelier Tekuto, *Boundary house*

Atelier Tekuto, <em>Church of Soil</em> — Atelier Tekuto, *Church of Soil*

Atelier Tekuto, <em>Earth Bricks</em> — Atelier Tekuto, *Earth Bricks*

Atelier Tekuto, <em>Mobile smile</em> — Atelier Tekuto, *Mobile smile*

Atelier Tekuto: Tomorrow, the challenge of architecture

At the TOTO Gallery·MA, an exhibition dedicated to the twenty-year-long career of Atelier Tekuto's Yasuhiro Yamahita sheds light onto the experimental process that enables the architect to go beyond the everyday, bringing together students, professionals and artisans.

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