[Title] Like Buildings, Like Living Creatures
[Artist] onishimaki + hyakudayuki architects / o+h
[Date] November 18, 2015 to January 19, 2016
The flâneur of Paris drew deep inspiration from the details they encountered on their leisurely strolls about the city, prompting them to transform those images into poetry, photography, literature and other forms of art. From the proverbial bird’s-eye view, the distinctive characteristics of the myriad architecture filling the storied French capital may very much be said to have fueled the muses of these wanderers.
It is the shared belief of Maki Onishi and Yuki Hyakuda, the two young architects behind the office undertaking this latest window display, that structures teeming with unique personality traits remain deeply entrenched in people’s minds and memories. In France, one major example of this pattern is the Unité d’Habitation, a massive apartment house designed for the city of Marseille by the late celebrated French architect Le Corbusier. To Onishi and Hyakuda, rather than a building as such, this structure is viewed more closely in terms of a presence imbued with vitality – much like the image of a voluptuous woman ready to take off running at any given moment.
We normally perceive buildings as fixed structures certain never to budge. Yet, if we forget our preconceptions and let our imagination run wild for a minute, we can consider architecture as living creatures that roam about in cities, which leads to unthinkable visions. Buildings, for example, out roaming city streets in the dead of night. Soft and fluffy roofs, buoyant like clouds in the skies overhead. In Japan, portable shrines paraded around the streets of traditional downtown quarters during festivals are, by their very definition, abodes of the deities. In this formula, having such homes move about the streets is far than enough to spawn an intriguing sense of jovial celebration throughout entire neighborhood realms.
This latest Maison Hermès Window display overflows with such inspired and free-roaming power. Objects portrayed in the image of buildings, while also appearing like living creatures of this or that species. Shapes cut in the likeness of a landscape cascading over a woman’s shoulders emerge as heartwarming roofs encompassing spatial domains where children can frolic. There must certainly be small structures lurking in all corners of the district, poised to meander aimlessly between the tall buildings of Ginza after dark, in totally free and unfettered fashion. Isn’t it about time for all of us to set out on leisurely rambles of our own about town, in the hunt for calibers of architectural delights brimming with vitality and life?
onishimaki + hyakudayuki architects / o+h
An architectural office launched in 2008 by Maki Onishi (born in 1983) and Yuki Hyakuda (1982). This young architect duo has captured major attention for the “Sengataki Villa” (recipient of the SD Review magazine 2007 Kashima Prize), “Double Helix House” (Shinkenchiku Award of 2012), the Prize for Excellence in having their design proposal selected for used in the project to build the Fukuchi Town Municipal Library and Historical Archive (Fukuoka Prefecture) in 2015 and other prestigious honors. This Maison Hermès Window display was coordinated by o+h Chief Designer Shiho Eika. Among the office’s published writings are Collected Architectural Works of onishimaki + hyakudayuki architects / o+h (published by Garden City Publishers of Taiwan in 2012), 8 Stories (LIXIL Publishing, 2014) and other works.