TAEG NISHIMOTO
+ ALLIED ARCHITECTS

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(USA)

Taeg Nishimoto (*1955)

 

 

 
Presentation
       
 
     
After studying architecture in Japan (Waseda University, Tokyo) and in the United States (Cornell University and Columbia University, New-York), Nishimoto founded Taeg Nishimoto + Allied Architects in 1989, in New-York. The projects and installations designed by Nishimoto create a tension among the materials, provoking a conflict between forms, and disorienting space by multiplying asymmetric planes. In the RE-f®action installation series, he uses curved wood structures to exalt and enliven an empty space -- the area then perceived becomes the field of action. Nishimoto's architecture is a relational architecture arising from research about a building's physical and phenomenal characteristics and its temporal dimension. Typical of this research, the Plot House projects weaves a complex set of relationships. The structure produces its own spatial configuration and, through the use of electronic graphics relayed through video cameras, he organises a confrontation among the various spaces. Nishimoto transforms the spatial junction of the living area to a temporal one.
   
       
       
       
     
         
 
       
 
Exhibition
       
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Architecture, for me, is a way to redefine reality. Within the limitations of each situation, critical as well as creative concerns are always about the ability to propose a set of conditions which are able to redefine our perceptions of reality.
However, a statement such as this contains a fundamental problem in the very definition of the word "reality" itself. Similar to the problems and the difficulties of using certain words, such as "public", "program", or "composition", it seems that the complex word-definition connected to the question "what" only results into a chain-link reaction into another definition game.
The American philosopher, Nelson Goodman, in his book "Ways of Worldmaking", points out the problem of posing the question "what is art ?".(...) In crucial cases, the real question is not "What objects are (permanently) works of art ?" but "When is an object a work of art ? - or more briefly, "When is art ?".
I would like to propose to paraphrase this question with "When is architecture ?" In other words, "what one exactly, or specifically does (in one's office or at his/her desk) for how long" determines the purpose of operation for the development of each project. The given conditions or situations are, by definition, idiosyncratic in each case, and those idiosyncrasies, in general, can be articulated into three categories ; i.e. space, material, and program. What is interesting to me in this articulation is the idea that they are really three different conditions that require independent operational modes.
The more precise one becomes aware of the sense of purpose in each situation, the clearer the strategic or intuitive response that determines itself as a condition-specific operation. In my work, these are done through, essentially, abstract line drawing for spatial concerns, writing the descriptive text for programmatic concerns. The operation of the materiality is a kind of mediator between these two in an effort to find the appropriate association with the physicality of the place. These operational modes seem to be neither interchangeable nor necessarily overlapping. What seems to be crucial in that process, is the clarity in each operational mode. On the other hand, the form is rarely the initial or final concern for me. If the form still remains the viable way we understand and associate architecture with reality, perhaps the very difficulty of defining reality itself relates to the sense of suspicion to rely on the form as an embodiment of ideas.
At the same time, the effort to redefine reality does not include the definition of what that redefined reality is. It probably defies the desire to explain, but rather evokes a certain description of that reality. What seems to me more viable in that context is to reveal the strategic structure in which reality would unfold itself (...). Finding the precise and effective way to make the proposal relevant in this situation is what interests me most.

Taeg Nishimoto

   
       
     
     
     
           
     
Super-Pier -1+2 - New-York, U.S.A, 1990
   
           
     

This project, commissioned by Toppan Co., Ltd., consisted of a conceptual planning/development and a design proposal for an abandonned pier on the edges of Manhattan.
The program Super-Piers called for images of a new structure that would transform the site, an urban waterfront with derelict piers. The Nishimoto's proposal uses outdoor sports courts as the connecting element of the whole building. The ground level is for tennis, basketball, and volleyball, the upper level for café, gym, and other facilities. This project received the New-York Chapter/AIA's Design Award in 1991.

   
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Re-F(r)action - New York, U.S.A., 1993
   
           
     

"Re-f(r)action" consisted in a site specific installation commissioned by the Rotunda Gallery, set up in New York by the architects Henri Smith-Miller and Laurie Hawkinson. For the space of the gallery, Nishimoto designed five minimal structures made with curved wood coils that completely transformed the milieu's qualities. The operation of the abstract lines in the drawings generated the spatial as well as tectonic relationships between the objects and the surrounding space. Bent-wood arcs, tensioned by wire, span through the articulated spaces of the gallery, and directly relate the spatial perception and the material conditioning of the space. It is a dialogue between the rational and intuitive, prepared and accidental, abstraction and perception. "Re-f(r)action 2", a development of the former, but with special attention to perspective aspect, took place, in 1995, at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

   
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Koma House - Koma, Japon, 1990
   
           
     

Nishimoto has interpretated the site of the Koma House as a complex network of abstract lines. The complexity of its configuration generated this operation of the lines to articulate the spaces inside as well as outside of the house. This, in turn, was related to the material relationships among the components, i.e. cast concrete, concrete block, metal, and the applied color of the concrete surfaces and the floor. The Koma House reveals an ambiguity between sculpture and architecture ; it imposes itself upon its environment as "foreign body," screaming to be noticed. Nishimoto has not attempted to blend in with the surrounding by bringing together old and new. On the contrary, he has worked on differences and disruptive asymetries in an attempt to "invent" an alternative location, a sort of organised space whose presence was already felt even before it actually existed.

   
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Kim-Ryder House - Byebrook, U.S.A, 1996
   
           
     

The site of this house is located on a gently sloping hill with a river along its western edge. The basic configuration of the house stretches along the river. It is essentially a single volume enveloped by horizontally banded transparent/translucent glazing with programmed spaces (kitchen, bedrooms, fireplace, library) given the articulated volumes. Also, a cylindrical volume, made of vertical translucent glass, contains the bathroom and closet. The horizontally patterned glass walls of the exterior envelope contain jalousie louvers, made of various colored-glass, for ventilation. This combination of elements makes the constantly changing light effect inside of the house as well as the view towards outside, an inherent condition. This project seeks to create a specific relationship between the figurative quality of circulating through the house and the space-defining volume of the glass wall ie between the phenomenal aspect of the building and the temporal dimension of living/experience inside.

   
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Resources
       
 
 
Biography
       
     

Taeg Y. Nishimoto + Allied Architects
Taeg Y. Nishimoto (1955)
1978 - Diplôme d'Architecture, Waseda University, School of Architecture.
1981 - Licence architecturale au Japon.
1983 - Graduate School of Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

1989 - Fonde Taeg Y. Nishimoto + Allied Architects à New-York.
1991 - "New-York Chapter AIA's Design Award" pour "Super Pier - 1+2"

Enseignement :
1999 / 1985 - Columbia University, New York.
1999 / 1989 - Pratt Institute, New York.

Principaux projets et réalisations :
1997 - "Weidler-Ahrenbach Residence" Zurich, Suisse (projet).
1996 - "Kim-Ryder House" (projet) ; "Greenport Waterfront" Long Island (concours) ; "UCC Coffee Museum" Kobe (projet) ; "Glass Pavilion" (projet).
1995 - "Re-F(r)action 2" (installation) ; PLOT(ted) House (projet) ; "Connors Residence" Jefferson County, Pennsylvania (Projet).
1994 - "1 to (3 for) 5" Katonah, New York (réal.) ; "Sim-House" (projet) ; "Harlan Residence" Salt Lake City (projet) ; "Stadium Parking Lot" Atlanta (concours) ; "Mitsui Toshiba Pavilion" Tokyo (concours).
1993 - "PLOT House(s)" (projet) ; "Re-F(r)action" (installation), Rotunda Gallery, New York ; "Tokyo Frontier - Coca Pavilion" Tokyo (concours) ; "Penelope House" Muskoka, Canada (projet).
1992 - "PLOT House" (projet) ; "Rural Kiosk" Kumamoto Artpolis, Japon (concours - 1er Prix) ; "City Tempometer, New-York Pavilion #2" (projet) ; "Lahaska House" Pennsylvania (projet).
1990 - "Super Pier - 1+2" (projet) ; "Glass-Kline Residence" (projet).
1988 - "House at Koma" Saitama Pref. Japon (réal. en 1990).
1982 - "House at Tumagoi" Gumma Pref. Japon (réal.)

Expositions récentes :
1996 - "British Culture" Tokyo Forum Exhibition Space, Tokyo, Japon.

   
           
 
Bibliography
       
     
Bibliographie sélective :
1996 - GA Houses n°48, Kim Rider House (projet) ; L'Arca (avril), RE-F(R)ACTION / RE-F(R)ACTION 2 et 1 to (3 for) 5 (Abri de jeux pour enfants).
1995 - GA Houses n°45, Connors Residence (projet) ; PLOT House(s) (Projet).
1994 - GA Houses n°41, Harlan Residence (projet) ; " Shelter and Dreams " catalogue de l'exposition au Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New york.
1993 - GA Houses n°37, Penelope House (projet) ; PLOT House(s) (Projet).
1992 - Compe & Contest n°9301 ; GA Houses n°34, Lahaska House (projet) ; " New York Nomadism Design " Edit. GG, House at Koma / Lahaska House ; " 40 under 40 " Vitae, Super Pier 1 et 2 (projet) / Lahaska House (projet) / House at Koma ; " Independent Projects " Lumen (Myth Recycler, New York Pavilion #1 / City Tempometer, New York Pavilion #2).
1990 - GA Houses n°31, Glass-Kline Residence (projet) ; New York Architecture vol.4 ; SITES n°24 ; Interiors (sept./oct.) : Super Pier 1 et 2 ; JA House (oct.) House at Koma.
1989 - Shinkenchiku (oct.) Design Expo - Mitsui Toshiba Pavilion.
1988 - GA House n°30, House at Koma.
1987 - Urban Design international, vol.10, West Hollywood Civic Center (concours) ; " Bearings " Princeton Architectural Press, Three Pavilions (projet). A+U (fev.).