Matter in the Floating World

by Brownell, Blaine Erickson

• ISBN13: 9781568989969
• ISBN10: 1568989962
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-09
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Pr

Summary

Japan has produced many internationally significant architects and designers who regularly implement radical experiments in new products and building systems that successfully address energy and resource challenges. Often, the work of Japanese designers is not fully understood by western designers because it has not been explained in its full context. Matter in the Floating World aims to correct this by presenting interviews with twenty leading Japanese architects and designers, where they explain their work, ideas, and inspirations in their own words in conversation with materials expert and architect Blaine Brownell. Thebook is organized into four sectional themes-lightness, atmosphere, flow, and emergence-that relate to ideas of materiality and ephemerality central to Japanese design. Topics covered in the book include the use of cutting-edge materials, traditional Japanese architecture, and how to best work with a structural engineer.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 6
When the World Floats: Material Buoyancy in Contemporary Design	p. 8
Substance and Transience in Japanese Architecture and Design	p. 11
Lightness	p. 19
Expanding Boundaries	p. 23
The Presence of Absence	p. 35
Weightless Surfaces	p. 45
A Small "!" Moment	p. 57
Strength in Weakness	p. 69
Atmosphere	p. 83
Information Architecture	p. 87
Invisible Architecture	p. 99
Substance and Abstraction	p. 111
A Canvas for Light	p. 121
Evoking the Primal	p. 133
Flow	p. 145
Recoding Materiality	p. 149
Pattern and Movement	p. 161
Connective Tissue	p. 173
The Fluidity of Fabric	p. 183
Liquid Architecture	p. 193
Emergence	p. 201
The Emerging Grid	p. 205
Natural Logic	p. 217
Soft Interface	p. 229
Summoning Nature	p. 239
The Sound of Material	p. 249
Image Credits	p. 256
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