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This year, 56 out of 126 entries in the Facilities
and Architecture Design Category, or 44.4%, were awarded prizes.
Beginning this year, manufactured housing and individually designed
single-family houses were included, so the Category expanded to
cover everything from architecture in general to plans for landscaping
and signage. During our evaluation, we took care to evaluate not
only the architecture and environment themselves, but also the design
in the broadest sense of creative action incorporating both tangible
and intangible aspects. As we move into a new era, we expect to
see design make good use of its power to blaze new trails for society.
If we look at the history of how architecture has been handled in
the G-Mark competition, we can see that the framework of the entries
has changed over time and that the evaluation criteria have also
been changing.
During the Product Category era, architecture appeared only as part
of manufactured housing, which was itself a part of the Housing
Equipment Category and it was praised for the quality of the products.
The Facilities Category era began centered on industrial facilities,
but with each competition, the scope expanded to include housing
facilities other than public facilities and individual housing.
That is because the facilities were evaluated in terms of their
functionality, their level of comfort, and their value to society.
Now that these trends have led to the establishment
of a framework called the Facilities and Architecture Category,
we need to reconsider the architecture and environment in terms
of the unspecified number of people who will be affected by them.
Questions arise about whether the facility performs well and whether
its architecture or environment can become part of the social capital.
It is also important to note that design that responds to social
changes opens up new possibilities for architecture and environments.
With expectations and responsibilities placed upon the power of
design, we have not evaluated architecture, but architectural design,
and not environments, but environmental design.
SENDAI MEDIATHEQUE:
INTEGRATION OF THE TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE
Sendai Mediatheque is
innovative and groundbreaking architecture. Looking at it in terms
of the tangible aspect of its architecture, we find that such conventional
structural elements as pillars and beams have disappeared to be
replaced by "tube" structures, which are both structures
and facilities spaces and "plate"-shaped floors, resulting
in the creation of an entirely new space.
In addition, we also noted that a variety of public facilities which
were formerly built and administered separately, including an art
gallery, a library, a service center for the visual and hearing
impaired, and an image media center, have been integrated into one
facility. This is a revolutionary new facility, which aims to break
through the walls imposed by more conservative systems and integrates
cultural facilities into one.
While the government has been criticized for being too focused on
tangible things, we would like to note that the designers of the
Sendai Mediatheque have paid a great deal of attention to plans
for the intangible aspects of administration. We would like to express
our admiration for the power of a design that can so skillfully
integrate the multifaceted activities undergirded by these intangible
factors and the flexible architectural space that can elicit and
encourage them.
SELECTED STATIONS ON THE OEDO SUBWAY LINE:
INTEGRATION OF AN URBAN FACILITY WITH CIVIL ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE
Selected stations of the Toei Subway Oedo
Line suggest a new form for subway stations as urban facilities.
The architects, who were selected in a competition, not only created
designs that honored the individual characteristics of the existing
neighborhoods, but also met the challenge of designing around the
requirement that each station be built on a low budget with a platform
space in a narrow tunnel deep below the ground. The result of their
efforts was a series of comfortable, pleasant stations. We gave
the designers high marks for being a fine example of producing these
stations through the integration of civil engineering and architecture,
creating an important interface with the existing neighborhood and
the passengers, and pointing out new directions for urban facilities
in the future.
SPACES FOR A NEW ERA:
DESIGN THAT POINTS TO NEW LIFESTYLES
Among this year's entries, we were able to
distinguish one group of creations that share the values of a casual,
free, new era.
Housing designed by young architects displayed new expressions of
individual life and spaces that gave us a sense of those values,
and we found it interesting that these values have extended to private
buildings and public architecture.
While the world of fashion continues to see the expanded influence
of luxury brands, generic goods and such low-price and casual items
as those sold under the UNIQLO and MUJI
brands, have grown.
In architecture and the environment, some projects are like formalwear,
giving concrete form to function in order to facilitate the systems
and working methods that have existed since the beginning of the
modern era. Others are like brand-name goods that use design to
flaunt the feeling of luxury that prevailed in the bubble period
and to tout their individuality. However, we are now clearly seeing
the emergence of projects backed by a sense of values that is different
from either of these. Architecture and environments equipped with
spaces that allow a free-and-easy atmosphere and free actions invite
people who are breathing the air of a new age to share and maintain
these feelings.
We hope that these designs will not only bring new
lifestyles to the foreground but also serve as a strong driving
force for them.
Taro Ashihara
Chief Jury of Facility and Architecture Design Category
President, TARO ASHIHARA ARCHITECTS
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