Ushida + Findlay


PARALLEL LANDSCAPES


'96May 17-Jun.22

Usually when we walk around the city we hold a map of it in our minds framed by the memory of our own space. Each person has their individual image of the city based on that person's psychological or physical experiences, consequently we walk around that city as if referring to some sort of personal navigational chart. Till recently we dealt with architectural space as a psychological or physical landscape, but now on a larger scale we would also like to reveal the presence of a buried (by modern man) topography in urban Japan. When people gather, and when they function in groups, each person's psychological geography is superimposed on another to form an incrementally enormous power, which is the source motivation in the shaping of the city. In order to explore this idea further we took as a sample strip, a train terminal and its surrounding area in Tokyo and proposed an alternative plan to the present overutilized station. We called thisthe S project. After mirror-imaging the site plan we redesigned the area as a new topography, envisioning the edges of each building slab as artificial contours lines stacked one on top of the other. The valley was also inverted into a landscaped mound and so hills and valleys re-emerged. Into this matrix, functions, new and old can implant and assert themselves. This proposal is a principle which enables the hidden aspirations of people in the modern city to become fulfilled. From this we may be able to see other potential vistas-parallel realities.
Eisaku USHIDA and Kathryn FINDLAY

exhibition scene

exhibition scene
Photo by Nacása and Partners


Lecture
Tokyo : May 17
Osaka : May 30


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