Measuring the immeasurable

From the Things Themselves and Small Tokyo aim to measure the immeasurable using cognitive instruments of analysis that are yet to be tested: precisely for this reason, both end up being fresh and new.

Benoît Jacquet and Vincent Giraud, From the Things Themselves: Architecture and Phenomenology, Kyoto University Press / EFEO-École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2012. Hardcover, A5, 115 color illustrations, pp. 541. JPY 8,000

Darko Radovic and Davisi Boontharm, Small Tokyo, Flick Studio & IKI-International Keio Institute for Architecture and Urbanism. Softcover, 17x24, pp. 112. JPY 1,200

Phenomenology is based on the idea that any everyday object can become an engine of knowledge. It is no coincidence that Edmund Husserl asked his students to describe boxes of matches or letterboxes as if they were universes. When a student asked a question that spoke of grand ideas during a lecture, the philosopher listened to him before finally asking, "could you express the same concept in small change instead of with large banknotes?" A similar intention can be found in Benoît Jacquet and Vincent Giraud's From the Things Themselves, and in Darko Radovic and Davisi Boontharm's Small Tokyo: making big ideas accessible in a simple way.

From the Things Themselves presents a range of contributions that link the phenomenology of Nishida, Husserl and Merleau-Pondy — among others — to architecture. In the book, studies of the Western desire to "structure" and give a logical "arche" to "things" is set alongside the Eastern necessity to allow space for intuition and for open systems. The book seeks to reveal how architecture is not a discipline that produces just "things", but in fact emerges from the "things" produced by it; not a discipline that organises "things", but that in part is generated by the "things" that it organises.

Benoît Jacquet and Vincent Giraud, <em>From the Things Themselves: Architecture and Phenomenology</em>, Kyoto University Press / EFEO-École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2012 — Benoît Jacquet and Vincent Giraud, *From the Things Themselves: Architecture and Phenomenology*, Kyoto University Press / EFEO-École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2012

From the Things Themselves describes various architectural works in relation to phenomenology: from the virtual world of Second Life to comparisons between Greek temples and Zen monasteries, along with Baroque churches, Chinese and Japanese gardens and recent works of contemporary architecture. Among the various essays appear emblematic titles such as Inhabiting Nothingness — on the meaning of contemporary living —, thoughts on the overcoming of Copernican geocentricism, as well as a reflection on architecture as the representation of a carnal echo. Terunobu Fujimori — ascribing himself the role of historian — writes a homage to Michelangelo in which he revisits the philosophic encounter between Kenzo Tange and Martin Heidegger.

From the Things Themselves offers the beauty of the material to those who love thought, while those who like theoretical speculation are offered the tangible reality of making architecture. The fundamental significance of this book lies in communicating that if one wishes to understand "the things themselves", one needs to look at not only tangible things, but rather at human beings, and their rapt and fascinated awareness of the world of objects.

Both books seek to make big ideas accessible in a simple way

The understanding of the large via the small can be found again in the highly approachable Small Tokyo — a collection of essays edited by Darko Radovic and Davisi Boontharm. Through different theoretical lenses, the book brings to light how two aspects live alongside one another in Tokyo: that of irreplaceable largeness — it is no coincidence that it is one of the biggest metropolises in the world — and the ubiquitous presence of the small. Small Tokyo demonstrates how urban spaces, in architectural objects and in the practices that make up everyday reality of the metropolis, juxtapose these two aspects of Tokyo's identity in a surprising, and only seemingly contradictory way. Small Tokyo makes a strong contribution towards creating a positive theory with regard to this apparent incongruity given by the small and the large.

Darko Radovic and Davisi Boontharm, <em>Small Tokyo</em>, Flick Studio & IKI-International Keio Institute for Architecture and Urbanism — Darko Radovic and Davisi Boontharm, *Small Tokyo*, Flick Studio & IKI-International Keio Institute for Architecture and Urbanism

The preface by Paul Waley and a conversation between Darko Radovic, Kengo Kuma and Hidenobu Jinnai form the cultural framework within which move a series of essay-projects written by foreigners who are long-term residents of Tokyo. The editors, in keeping with the inclusiveness that is typical of Zen Buddhism, include strikingly diverse themes, addressing issues such as the miniaturisation of intimacy owed to the post-tsunami state of crisis; the existing link between the compacting of language and Japanese space; or even the contribution made by weeds to bio-diversity. Other pieces dwell on the provocation of the senses by the micro-spaces of the red-light district; the multi-scalar characters of urban morphology; the high-resolution urbanism; and the cultural strategies of small galleries to create innovative metropolitan cultural nodes, enabling a cognitive opening in what seems a physically and conceptually labyrinthine metropolis.

Japan's immense capital seems like a random collection of microcosmic situations, swallowed up and absorbed by the city's gigantic scale. There is a feeling that one can pass beyond the concept of physical scale: Tokyo thus emerges as a holon, revealing an equally intimate structure, where it becomes of little importance whether one analyses an object or the image of the cosmos itself. The large and the small end up being relative sizes.

In definitive terms, From the Things Themselves and Small Tokyo both aim to measure the immeasurable using cognitive instruments of analysis that are yet to be tested. Precisely for this reason, both books end up being fresh and new. Salvator-John A. Liotta

Measuring the immeasurable

From the Things Themselves and Small Tokyo aim to measure the immeasurable using cognitive instruments of analysis that are yet to be tested: precisely for this reason, both end up being fresh and new.

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