Featured in Harvard Magazine

Our founding principal, Junko Yamamoto, has been featured in the Harvard Magazine March-April 2024 edition. The article covers the stories of her art and architectural practice, including the recently completed art installation for the Nakanojo Biennale (an international contemporary art festival) in Japan, material explorations, current practice, and some of her childhood episodes. 

ハーバード・マガジンの2024年3月・4月号に、弊社代表の山本純子が特集されました。この記事では、最近完成した中之条ビエンナーレ（国際現代アートフェスティバル）のアートインスタレーションや、素材の研究、幼少期のエピソードなど、彼女のアートと建築の実践にまつわるエピソードが紹介されています。

You can find the article online (March-April 2024): 
オンライン版（英語）はこちらです。

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/junko-yamamoto-art-architecture

Colegio de Arquitectos de Guatemala-Sede San Marcos congress

Founding Principal Roberto Viola was invited to speak at the Primer Congreso Regional Infraestructura y Paisaje organized by the Colegio de Arquitectos de Guatemala, Sede San Marcos.

The event focused on outlining a possible vision for infrastructure, landscape, urban design and architecture practice in a post-pandemic world.

Along with Roberto, speakers included:

Maria Fernandez, architect from Spain working with the UN in Guatemala, who has spent several years developing a framework to build a much-needed hospital facility in the capital city.

Rodolfo Solares, architect from Guatemala and founding member of local office Seis Arquitectos who has been for years promoting and planning the re-implementation of the Parque de la Aurora in the capital city.

Monica Pallares, landscape architect in Mexico and member of IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects).  The institution has been developing practical guidelines to help implement and create awareness of the importance of nature in well-being of urban conditions.

Luis Castillo, architect from Guatemala studying matters related to sustainability and infrastructure in Guatemala in the context of Central America.

In addition, there were a series of presentations given by Edy Maldonado and Jose Roberto Orozco focusing on the vulnerability of Guatemala given its geographical condition; and the introduction of a new legal framework aimed to improve general infrastructural conditions such as access to fresh water, waste reduction and management and air pollution.

The congress aimed to create an awareness about the tools that could be implemented at different scales of the built environment in order to better work with the natural conditions and become more resilient and adaptable to sudden changes.

iVY thanks the organizers and sponsors for the opportunity to share ideas in such an interesting and fruitful event.

 

For more information:

https://colegiodearquitectos.org.gt/

https://colegiodearquitectos.org.gt/category/informacion/sedes/subsede-san-marcos/

Faculty led trip to Copenhagen_RWU School of architecture

A group from Integrated Project Design Studio at Roger Williams university travelled to Copenhagen, Helsingør and Malmö during spring break.

In addition to documenting the project sites, it was an opportunity to visit a wide range of projects from different time periods and experience the public space infrastructure that these cities have to offer.

In Copenhagen, they were received by Alexander Matthias Jacobson at BIG where they were introduced to the approach of implementing and evaluating sustainable strategies in their work.  The students had the chance to see some of the performance evaluation tools they have been developing, as well as gained a better understanding of how decisions about form and materials are applied for a more optimal and responsible environmental performance.

They also had the opportunity to experience the different neighborhoods and to see a variety of architecture in the city and its vicinity which included some of the classics such as the church in Bagsvaerd by Utzon and the Grundtvig church by Jensen-Klint, as well as some of the newer works such as Copenhill by BIG or Blox by OMA.

In Helsingør they received a wonderful tour of the Kingo Houses complex by Utzon, led by architect Hans Olesen, who has lived there for decades.  The students also had the chance to speak with architect Jørgen Jørgensen who kindly let us visit his own house in the complex, explained the ideas behind it and shared some stories about his interactions with Utzon.

In Hesingør they also visited the Maritime Museum by BIG, an incredibly interesting project which occupies the underground surrounding a former dry dock.

During the trip, they also visited Malmö where they spent some time in the Moderna Museet by architects Tham and Videgård as well as the Eastern Cemetery, a life-long project by Lewerentz.

In cemetery they were given access to all the chapels and the crematorium designed by the architect and they had the experience of walking around its magnificent landscape.

Overall, the trip was an opportunity to experience urban settings, landscape and architecture from different periods and widen their horizon of knowledge.

Colloquium: Reasoned Futures, Collective Imaginaries

Junko Yamamoto and her colleagues at Rhode Island School of Design hosted a colloquium with guests, Michelle Millar Fisher and Sameep Padora.

(Photo credit: Eleanor Cody, Daniel Daou)

REASONED FUTURES, COLLECTIVE IMAGINARIES

Date: Thursday March 2nd, 2023

Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Location: Room 106, Bayard Ewing Building (BEB)
Rhode Island School of Design

Guests: Michelle Millar Fisher, Boston, US
Curator Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Curator “Designs for Different Futures”

Sameep Padora, Mumbai, India
Principal Sameep Padora & Associates
Director of sPare

The event was co-organized by RISD Thesis Faculty:
Tatjana Crossley, Armando Hashimoto, Marthe Rowen, Junko Yamamoto


Throughout history, architecture has been a representational medium that ingrains our belief systems, values, societal organization, relation to the planet and world view at any given time. In the fifties, modernist architecture synthesized new systems that aspired to be universal, addressing issues to produce a new and better life for global citizens, urban plans that would replace shacks and shanty towns with hygienic, orderly buildings, and design methodologies that integrated efficiencies and provided public shared spaces. While modernist architecture was far from successful, we have continued to learn from its failures to produce architectures that address these same social and sustainable issues in more intersectional and nuanced ways.

The worldview under which such modernist projects were designed, provoked a standardization of urban life, an undercutting of difference, a normalization of aspirations, and a top down approach that created the illusion of a right solution, deeming many others as defective and unfit to yield potential alternatives. Design became as much a tool to achieve better futures as an instrument of power and control in the dissemination of a set of values and ideas

As we face the climate emergency, as we expect to almost double the need for housing in the next 80 years, as we start to think about how to relocate complete towns or witness the foundation of others as a result of migrations; How can design become an agent for collective imagination? To what extent can we see the design of the future built environment as both forward thinking and backward-looking, both global and local?

Gallery talks: Jaron Lubin, Junko Yamamoto, Natalie Wanjek, and Annie Fisher

The BAC hosted a gallery talk with Jaron Lubin, Natalie Wanjek, and Annie Fisher from Safdie Architects, and Junko Yamamoto from iVY.

With warm introductions from President Mahesh Daas and Dean Karen Nelson, the Safdie team talked about the collection of their projects, the design process, and the archive, and Junko spoke about the exhibition design, the exhibition's central concept, and the idea behind the visual and spatial arrangement.

The exhibition has been open to the public for two months attracting a wide range of audiences. It will open until January 2nd, 2023.

RISD AIAS Office Visit

iVY welcomed a group of students from the Rhode Island School of Design on Saturday. The RISD AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students) hosts an Architecture Firm Crawl Series for students to tour the architecture workplace. These events give current architecture students an opportunity to see what an architecture career looks like and help prepare students for the professional field after graduation.

Roberto Viola Ochoa and Junko Yamamoto, the founders of the office, gave a presentation of the recent projects and discussed the past experiences and how they work, followed by Q&A. Students were engaged in the conversations and enjoyed seeing the physical models scattered around in the space.

Exhibition Opening with Moshe Safdie

An Opening Reception took place at McCormick Gallery, Boston Architectural College, on October 27th, 2022, to celebrate the new exhibit: With Intention to Build: The Unrealized Concepts, Ideas, and Dreams of Moshe Safdie. The gallery hosted a talk by Moshe Safdie, followed by a Q & A.

iVY Lectures at Cátedra Jorge Montes 2022, UNIS

Junko Yamamoto and Roberto Viola Ochoa lectured at the Cátedra Jorge Montes organized by the Universidad del Istmo in Guatemala.

The subject this year was ‘Mutations’ as a prompt to think about how architecture has to respond to the volatile conditions of today.

A number of offices from all around the world participated both in person and online. All the offices offered different design methodologies and views of architecture's role and will play in the future.

iVY approached the lecture as an intimate look into the challenges and successes the studio has had in its relatively short life; and how it is navigating in a context more and more dominated by legacy firms which often prevent a view from a different perspective in the way in which we deal with the built environment.

In addition to the lecture, iVY conducted a two-day design charrette titled ‘A is for apple’, in which the students were challenged to think about the simpler, often forgotten, ideas about space. The students reconnected with basic concepts such as spatial definition, hierarchy, scale, sequence, materiality, light, and shadow.

Installation at Nakanojo Biennale 2021, Japan

Junko Yamamoto spoke at Artist Talk hosted by Nakanojo Biennale, International Contemporary Art Exhibition 2021 in Nakanojo, Gunma, Japan.

The talk is available on YouTube (in Japanese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOabusudcR4

The installation is on the Artist Page: https://nakanojo-biennale.com/2021/artist_channel/junko-yamamoto/?t=en

ベネチアビエンナーレ建築展サマーオープニング

ヨーロッパ文化センター(ECC) 主催のベネチアビエンナーレ建築展はサマーオープニングを開催中です。アイビーはパラッツォ・ベンボにて４つのプロジェクトを展示しています。

プロジェクトは群馬県の住宅「HouseK」、ラトビアのスパ「A Whisper in the Forest 」、ガーナでの公共アート「アシャンティ・ドミノ」、アメリカの「SL House」です。それぞれ抽象化されたオブジェクトで表現しており、プロジェクトの内容はデザイン小冊子で紹介しています。詳しい内容はまた後日紹介させていただきたいと思います。

本日はECCとJINOWA Consortium 共催のJapan Forum があり、残念ながら参加できませんでしたが、ゲストとして第17回ヴェネチア・ビエンナーレ国際建築展の日本館のキュレーターである門脇耕三さんや展覧会に参加されている岩瀬諒子さんのお話もあり、後日オンライン配信されるそうです。

http://timespaceexistence.com/2021/08/20/japan-forum/

展示会は11月まで無料で一般公開されていますので、機会がありましたら是非行ってみてください。

iVY at ECC Biennale in Venice

iVY is participating in the ECC biennale under the title Time Space Existence in Venice, Italy.

The projects exhibited share some common themes. House K and the Whisper in the Forest are informed by the simple figure of the section as a device to create intimate conditions. The intricate sectional compositions interact with light and views. Both projects remain silent and merge with the context, giving little explanation of the secrets they hold within. It requires a visitor to engage, to dare to enter, in order to discover their mysteries.

Ashanti Domino Installation and S+L House become inhabited settings to the landscape. Both play mischievous games that challenge one's perception. In the former, shifting the views between three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional images alters the experience of the site, as the seemingly random shapes and colors merge into the silhouette of Le Corbusier's Mason Dom-Ino. In the latter, the ideas of the original house are recaptured, connecting to its beautiful landscape through a series of artful reflections. The reflected views scatter into the abstracted segments, altering the depth of space and stimulating playful interactions.

Each project is explained through a carved model that synthesizes its essence and a brief booklet for the visitors to take.

The work is currently being exhibited in Palazzo Bembo and will be up until December 2021.

For general information on the exhibit follow this link:

http://timespaceexistence.com/

Socially Engaged Artistic Practice Panels - The Professional Arts Consortium

Junko Yamamoto was invited as a panel speaker at the Socially Engaged Artistic Practice Forum hosted by Professional Arts Consortium on October 7, 2020. The discussion on the topic of “Community Engagement through Design” was moderated by Yoonjee Koh, Director of Intermediate Architecture Studios & Faculty at Boston Architectural College.

ProArts: http://www.proarts.org/
Socially Engaged Artistic Practice Forum: http://www.proarts.org/socially-engaged-artistic-practice-series

A Conversation with Atelier Bow-Wow & EVA Studio

Junko Yamamoto and Yuan Zhang are hosting the next Global Practice Network virtual discussion with EVA Studio (UK) and Atelier Bow-Wow (Japan) on June 5th, 2020.

Public Space as Social Infrastructure  — A Conversation with EVA Studio and Atelier BowWow

Program Intro:

Is quarantine the time to design the way we imagine space? 

Crises are opportunities to reevaluate our current systems and reimagine our future. During this pandemic, healthcare professionals have demonstrated their expertise to respond to immediate needs. Non-healthcare designers have also proposed ideas for personal protective devices or spaces that allow our daily needs to be met without contacting another person, like supermarket layouts. These visible demands are straightforward and may often be temporary, but how about those that are invisible, such as the need for social connection while physically distancing? 

EVA studio, in their latest article, discussed adjusted ways of using public spaces, including balconies, corridors, rooftops, and community gardens, which reinforce the social connections during the quarantine. This newly observed behaviors during the lockdown may be an opportunity to reimagine the role of such social infrastructure. How can they be utilized as a resource to inform site-specific spatial solutions? What are the implications for how we approach design in the future? 

Eva Studio will share their projects and thoughts on public spaces. Atelier BowWow will share their on-going research at ETH that questions the relationship between the physical space and the users, especially in the learning environment. We will further discuss the topic of public space as social infrastructure with the audience.  

https://www.architects.org/events/194868/2020/06/05/virtual-global-practice-public-space-as-social-infrastructure-a-conversation-with-eva-studio-and-atelier-bow-wow

June-2020-GPN.jpg

Global Design Review- Roger Williams University SAAHP

COVID-19 has forced many of us to adapt to new ways of teaching perhaps more akin to those used in practices with a more global reach.

The terrible virus has closed some doors but has also opened others that perhaps we did not notice as possible before. One such door is being able to reach out to those professionals doing superlative work beyond our typical boundaries and add them to those who have been kind enough to collaborate with us over the years.

On Saturday, May 9th, 63 architects from all over the world and the nation connected via Zoom to meet with 24 students from Roger Williams SAAHP and discuss their projects in the intimate setting of the breakout rooms.

The students are currently working on projects in Lausanne, Switzerland and Fall River, Massachusetts, part of Integrated Project Design Studio, and the review offered them the opportunity to gain new perspectives on their work.

Each panel, composed of two to three critics with different backgrounds, offered advice to a single student at a time in 45-minute sessions. In the end, each student had 90 minutes of devoted attention from 4 to 6 critics.

Our students and the instructors leading them, came out of the review inspired and aware of having been part of something amazing.

As a personal note, this was a chance to begin new friendships and to reconnect with many people with whom I have shared important experiences in my life.

We do not know what the future holds, but this experiment could be the beginning of new, boundless, collaborations and opportunities for teaching and practicing.

Thank you for devoting precious time of your weekend to inspire our students.

Roberto

New program at Global Practice Network | Boston Society for Architecture (BSA)

As new co-chairs of the Global Practice Network at Boston Society for Architecture, Junko Yamamoto and Yuan Zhang are starting a new virtual program this Thursday (April 23rd, 2020). Their first kick-off event is on the topic of the pandemic, inviting a diverse group of practitioners from US, Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Iran, Ghana, Algeria, Italy, Spain, and Brazil. The guest speaker is Professor Elvis Garcia, who is teaching the timely subject of epidemic and public health at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Andrea Panizzo, Co-Founder of EVA Studio based in UK, will introduce his research on Social-Bridging, which will be presented in more detail in the next event.

(post by Junko Yamamoto) The situations at hospitals are heartbreaking. Many healthcare design experts in Boston have actively been meeting and discussing the ways of converting healthcare and non-healthcare buildings and providing temporary facilities to treat infected patients. But for most of us, the best thing we can do is to stay put - stay home and work from home, running the daily lives as normally as we could.
The question is, what are we learning? What can we do as architects, meaning those who are not healthcare-design experts? How might this influence the discourse around architecture and urban planning in the future? Is this another one of the environmental crises that architects should address, like Climate Change? I believe that every crisis is an opportunity to learn, whatever the scale it may be, and this should also be one.
Since our WFH started, I feel that we are ever more connected in a strange way. As we can still use our brain, computer, and the internet during the quarantine, I think that the virtual program is a good way to kick off the Global Practice Network meeting. To me, discussing is better than not discussing, and I hope our conversations would help us make productive and well-informed contributions in whatever forms in each one's expertise in the future.

At the Global Practice Network, we want to invite a variety of practitioners across disciplines and geographies to share knowledge, exchange thoughts, ideas, and experiences, and showcase various projects. We want the exposure to broader perspective and diverse voices, not only from the communities of the Greater Boston area but also from other parts of the world. But first, please join us on Thursday.

LET’S TALK! -- Design Meets Diseases across Geographies
A virtual discussion hosted by the BSA Global Practice Network
April 23rd, Thursday, 12:00pm - 13:30pm EST.

PROGRAM (4/23 Thursday, 12:00 - 13:30 EST)
1. Talk - Could design be the missing link to deal with epidemics?
By Elvis Garcia, DrPH, MEng, March. Lecturer at GSD

2. Voice Exchange - Design Solutions and Challenges
A panel of designers with different cultural backgrounds will share their thoughts and observations, as well as initiatives in which they are involved.

Panelists: Elvis Garcia, Andrea Panizzo, Marysol Rivas Brito, Naureen Mazumdar, Nawal Benneouala, Mac Sarbah, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Sae Kim, Tina Binazir, Takafumi Inoue (participants are originally from US, Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Iran, Ghana, Algeria, Italy, Spain, and Brazil) 

3. Wrap-up Discussion

4. Intro to Next Event
Andrea Panizzo, ARB, RIBA, Co-Founder of EVA Studio
Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier BowWow(tentatively in May 2020)  

Registration required — RSVP: https://www.architects.org/…/virtual-global-practice-networ…

Lecture by Junko Yamamoto at BJRF | MIT

Junko Yamamoto was invited to gave a lecture at the Boston Japanese Researchers Forum at MIT. Through her projects, she shared her thoughts and ideas on Art and Architecture. The lecture, titled “Something Extra,” relates to the idea that seemingly unnecessary aspects of the design (not necessarily functional nor useful) may generate new value. Great opportunity to be able to share some thoughts and ideas from the perspective of an architect, with people from a variety of (mostly-non-architecture) fields.

“The discourse around the topic of community engagement in the field of architecture indeed reveals the fact that defining what the discipline of architecture is in a single term is almost impossible. Our built environment is a product of many hands and diverse ideas, which inevitably affect matters surrounding its context. Architects are no longer singularly architects, nor should merely be coordinators of all the stakeholders. In such ever-more communal practice in the field of design, where and how do designers intervene as designers?

Something Extra — As politicians attempt to make a better society by altering rules and regulations, architects perform in hopes of enriching our lives by altering and transforming our physical world. The notion of Something Extra operates against the current in the era of instantaneous communications, high-speed productions, and streamlined efficiency that seem to appear blindly worshiped. Something Extra may imply additional time and process while it may also connote something unnecessary, which in this case proposed in a positive sense. Why do designers want to play a part in community development? Where does this Something Extra find its value in such undertakings? With examples of community-based design projects, the presentation facilitates the discussion that addresses these questions.”
(written by Junko Yamamoto)

(山本純子 記) ボストン日本人研究者交流会にて、講演をさせていただきました。今回は建築業界外の人たちへの講演ということで、いろいろ考えましたが、「余計なもの」をテーマにお話しさせていただきました。これは昨今の技術革新がもたらすデザインの効率化や生産性が重視される中で、余計なものと”思われがちな”ものや行動に対する問いかけでもあります。時にそれは感覚的なものであったり言語化するのが難しい領域であったりもするのですが、私が思う、必要ではないけれど、それがあることで新たな価値が生まれる、という考えを少しでも共有できたらとても嬉しく思います。
今回は建築とアートの間に存在するコミュニティーのためのプロジェクトをいくつか紹介しましたが、それらを例に、わたしが思うデザインの力と、社会に貢献できるデザインの可能性をお伝えできたらいいなと思いました。わたしはあくまで建築が本業ですが、長年建築とアートを並行してきて、アートというのは人と芸術、そして人と人をつなげる力があると信じています。それは建築にも通じていて、建築でいうアート的な力というのは、その空間、建物、作り上げた環境が人の心を動かしたり、人の心を豊かにしたり、そのデザインによって新たな気づきを生むきっかけになったり、建築にはそういった力が備わっています。しかし建築はアートといろんな意味で異なっていて、建築をデザインするときには、クライアントや環境に対する義務だとか、要求される機能や規制を満たす責任があります。それらの条件を満たした上で、その上を行くというのがデザインをすることの面白いところであります。
建築業界外の人たちから空間に関するコメントをいただくのはとても新鮮で、よい勉強になりました。そして懇親会で交わした皆さんとの会話もとてもよい刺激になりました。ボストン日本人研究者交流会のみなさん、それからご参加いただいたみなさん、どうもありがとうございました。もっと多くの方と会話できればよかったのですが、今後もまたお会いできるのを楽しみにしています。

Ashanti Domino booklet published

The public art installation that took place in a remote village in Ghana is summarized in this little booklet. The project began as a competition proposal that was put together by Junko Yamamoto and two of her classmates at Harvard Graduate School of Design. The winning proposal was later executed with a group of students at Boston Architectural College.

Design Symposium in Quito

Junko Yamamoto will talk about Community Engagement through design projects at Design Symposium and International Practice Forum on October 4th and 5th, 2019. The events will take place at UDLA (Universidad de las Americas) and CAC (Contemporary Art Center) in Quito, Ecuador.
The Design Symposium is organized by efimero (Ernesto Carvajal & Nicola Kyveriniti) in collaboration with Centro de Arte Contemporáneo / Fundación Museos de la Ciudad, Organización Nacional de Estudiantes de Arquitectura (ONEA) and Universidad de las Américas (UDLA): https://www.efimero-ephemeral.com/

“Something Extra” — Junko Yamamoto
Abstract: The discourse around the topic of community engagement in the field of architecture indeed reveals the fact that defining what the discipline of architecture is in a single term is almost impossible. Our built environment is a product of many hands and diverse ideas, which inevitably affect matters surrounding its context. The contemporary inclusive mentality of its profession seems to dilute the discipline of architecture. Architects are no longer singularly architects, nor should merely be coordinators of all the stakeholders. In such ever-more communal practice in the field of design, where and how do designers intervene as designers?

Something Extra — As politicians attempt to make a better society by altering rules and regulations, architects perform in hopes of enriching our lives by altering and transforming our physical world. The notion of Something Extra operates against the current in the era of instantaneous communications, high-speed productions, and streamlined efficiency that seem to appear blindly worshiped. Something Extra may imply additional time and process while it may also connote something unnecessary, which in this case proposed in a positive sense. Why do designers want to play a part in community development? Where does this Something Extra find its value in such undertakings? With examples of community-based design projects, the presentation facilitates the discussion that addresses these questions.

Cátedra Jorge Montes 2019-UNIS Guatemala

Roberto Viola Ochoa participated in the Cátedra Jorge Montes 2019 along with Paola Scaramuzza and Cyril Zozor from Le Corbusier Foundation, architects Drago Vodanovic, Albert Tidy from Chile and architect Jorge Rigau from Puerto Rico.

The event, organized by 5th year students, consisted on a series of lectures and design workshops focusing on ways of thinking about architectural design.

Given the participation and sponsorship of Le Corbusier Foundation, the exercise proposed by Roberto Viola from iVY focused on the Heidi Weber Foundation in Zürich, perhaps one of the most relevant projects designed by the Swiss architect.

The pavilion represents a synthesis of all the ideas Le Corbusier had been studying over his decades of artistic production, and it is a true representation of the merging of industrial and artistic processes.

The charrette asked the students to imagine a hypothetical expansion of the pavilion to double in size with the only condition that the addition had to be accessed from the existing building.

There were four proposals with different approaches and responses to the question. At the end, the scheme named Le Shutè, won the mini competition with its original way of ‘snooping’ (therefore the name shute…..) at the pavilion.

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