I decided that its time to get deeper into architecture, and learn more about it.
At the same time learning japanese takes all my free time so I decided to combine them to some extent.

So my question:

Do you know any good films, youtube subscriptions, video podcasts, books, I dont know, any materials associated with architecture, thats in japanese?

Or any creative google search ideas ?

Anything might help!

Thanks

There's a book with commentary on Ando Tadao's complete works. I highly recommend it. His architectural theory is particularly interesting.

I previously enjoyed following Pingmag.

http://pingmag.jp/J/

It's closed now, but all the articles are still up in Japanese and English. I also subscribe to Japan Architect, although it's VERY expensive if you live outside the country. Articles are in Japanese and English.

http://www.shinkenchiku.net/

Try looking up young contemporary architects working in Japan such as Atelier Bow-Wow, Klein Dytham, SANAA, Shigeru Ban, Hitoshi Abe, Ryue Nishizawa.

Established names such as Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, Kisho Kurokawa, Fumihiko Maki, Kengo Kuma, Jun Aoki, Kenzo Tange are also worth investigating

Do read up on the relationship between Tea House architecture and Zen. Fascinating subject. The Katsura Imperial villa in particular is a building which had a great influence on early Modernists. Learn about the Ise Shrine too.

Source a fantastic little book called "In praise of shadows". Required reading in many Architecture courses.

Looks like those above mentioned everything I would.... you can find quite a bit on Google with such keywords, many of those architects and designers are very popular on similarly popular types of blogs. Shigeru Ban gets mentioned a lot on Dezeen/Design Boom, and from sites like those you can find tonnes of cross-references...

Likewise you could probably find a good deal of minimal Japanese text with pretty pictures on tumblr via searching there.

Here's a subtitled video about Kisho Kurokawa (I once wrote a paper relating him to a bunch of stuff including futurist architecture in manga, I like his ideas... )

(there's also a pt. 1)

I'm still in the process of gathering nonfiction Japanese materials, but I feel certain there's probably some stuff intended for younger audiences that might be easier to parse than what I'm currently looking up.

Also, Momus is always name-dropping and reviewing Japanese architecture/design/fashion at Click Opera, or was. You could probably bug him by commenting on his last entry at imomus.livejournal.com.

I bet there's some videos on YouTube with Japanese captions, from informative documentaries or something. From NHK or whanot.

I imagine there's a few architects at that TED site's video section, which features interactive Japanese transcripts.

Floatingweed5 Wrote:Source a fantastic little book called "In praise of shadows". Required reading in many Architecture courses.

A little digging says the original title is 陰翳礼讃, and a google turned up some text. (Also available in dead tree.)

pm215 Wrote:

Floatingweed5 Wrote:Source a fantastic little book called "In praise of shadows". Required reading in many Architecture courses.

A little digging says the original title is 陰翳礼讃, and a google turned up some text. (Also available in dead tree.)

Ooh, thanks. I've read that book in English, and by the way, avoid AAAARG if you want to do the same. AAAARG of course simply being an expression of frustration from me, and nothing else. The capitalization merely emphasizes the emotion.

Floatingweed5 Wrote:I previously enjoyed following Pingmag.

http://pingmag.jp/J/

It's closed now, but all the articles are still up in Japanese and English. I also subscribe to Japan Architect, although it's VERY expensive if you live outside the country. Articles are in Japanese and English.

http://www.shinkenchiku.net/

Try looking up young contemporary architects working in Japan such as Atelier Bow-Wow, Klein Dytham, SANAA, Shigeru Ban, Hitoshi Abe, Ryue Nishizawa.

Established names such as Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, Kisho Kurokawa, Fumihiko Maki, Kengo Kuma, Jun Aoki, Kenzo Tange are also worth investigating

Do read up on the relationship between Tea House architecture and Zen. Fascinating subject. The Katsura Imperial villa in particular is a building which had a great influence on early Modernists. Learn about the Ise Shrine too.

Source a fantastic little book called "In praise of shadows". Required reading in many Architecture courses.

HHOLY MOLY... :O

pingmag seems FREAKING AWESOME!!! Thanks a LOT, I have yet to explore the other information and suggestions, but well. seems this site surpassed my expectations!

nest0r Wrote:Here's a subtitled video about Kisho Kurokawa (I once wrote a paper relating him to a bunch of stuff including futurist architecture in manga, I like his ideas... )

(there's also a pt. 1)
.

Thanks, very interesting indeed. His ideas seem to be a good aproach, I also like that he has used fractal geometry which I think is a fascinating subject.

http://www.1tabi.com/

The owner of this blog talks about his travels, many of them in Japan and there's lot's of architecture also.