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Shigeru BanPOGLED SA SOBOM

A VIEW WITH A ROOM

PICTURE WINDOW HOUSE, SHIZUOKA PREFECTURE, JAPAN, 2002.

tekst / written by Kre{imir Roginafotografija / photo by Hiroyuki Hirai

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TTaman kad sam se zapitao je li u dana{nju arhitekturu mogu}e unijeti ne{to istinski novo, pojavio se on – Shigeru Ban. Zato sam u prolje}e 1996., oti{av{i sa svojim partnerom Vinkom Penezi}em primiti priznanje na Shinkenchiku nat-je~aju Jednostavnost/Slo‘enost, bio vrlo odlu~an u nakani da upoznam pobli‘e upravo toga japanskog arhitekta, ~arobnjaka papira kako sam ga kasnije prozvao. U godi{njaku ~asopisa JA za 1995., u kojem je bio objavljen na{ rad, prezentirana su i njegova tri nevelika, ali mo}na paradigmati~na zdanja – Ku}a zidne zavjese, Ku}a od namje{taja i, naravno, Ku}a od papira. Potonja je, s ve} tada prili~no razvikanim iz-lo‘beno - veleprodajnim salonom Isseya Miyakea u koji nas je smjesta odveo budu}i da se nalazi nedaleko njegova ureda, davala do znanja

AAt the very moment when I was wondering whether contemporary architecture could produce something entirely new, he appeared – Shigeru Ban. That is why in the spring of 1996 – when my partner Vinko Penezi} and myself travelled to receive the prize for the Shinkenchiku competition Simplicity/Complexity – I firmly decided to get to know closely that Japanese architect, a magician with paper, as I named him later on. In the 1995 JA magazine year-book, where our work was presented, his three small, but paradigmatic and powerful works, were also presented –Wall curtain house, Furniture house and naturally, Paper house. The last one with, at the time the already famous Issey Miyake wholesale shop, where we were immediately taken because it is just across the road from his office. It was clear that the career of this very young architect could in Japanese

presjek / cross-section

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da bi se karijera za japanske prilike tada izuzetno mladoga arhitekta mogla kretati u jednom vrlo prepoznatljivom, posebnom, ali i neminovno ortodoksnom pravcu. No kada smo se istim povodom ponovo susreli idu}e godine, tada{nji nam je dobitnik nagrade za najboljeg mladog japanskog arhitekta pokazao svoje najnovije ostvarenje koje je odudaralo od dotada vi|enog. Radilo se o vi{estambenome zdanju koje je funkcionalno, oblikovno, ali i tehnolo{ki, u smislu gra|enja, ‘eljelo sa~uvati bas sva gusto raspore|ena postoje}a stabla na datoj parceli. Shigeru je to znao i uspio u~initi precizno i dosljedno, do zadnjega drveta, otkrivaju}i nam kako mu je in‘enjerska strana njegova, za jednoga arhitekta vi{e nego skromnoga habitusa isto

circumstances take a recognizable and special but definitely orthodox direction. But, when we met again the next year for the same reason the winner of that year for the best young Japanese architects’ prize showed us his latest construction, which was different from anything seen before. It was a high-rise apartment building, which functionally, form-wise and technologically, in building terms, wanted to preserve all the dense-ly planted existing trees at that location. Shigeru knew how to do it precisely and consequently to the very last tree. He discovered to us that this extremely modest mental attitude in an architect is as important, even more important than the form itself. The recognisability of the handwriting, so dominant in contemporary architecture, has backed away from the very precise idea of a

tlocrt prizemlja / ground floor plan tlocrt kata / floor plan

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toliko va‘na, ako ne i va‘nija, od oblikovateljskoga. Prepoznatljivost je rukopisa, toliko dominiraju}a u suvremenoj arhitekturi ustuknula pred vrlo jasnom zamisli ‘ivota oko, odnosno izme|u drve}a. Njegova najnovija realizacija-Pic-ture Window House, nastala nakon {to su papirnata zdanja presko~i-la u ve}a mjerila (zahvaljuju}i djelomi~no i Freiu Ottou s kojim je sura|ivao na projektu japansk-oga paviljona na EXPO-u 2000 u Hannoveru) i nakon {to su tempo-ralna zdanja (poput meni osobno najdra‘e crkve za Kobe) postala permanentnim i op}eprihva}enim (senti)mentalnim reperima, stoga me nije nimalo iznenadila. Vrlo jednostavna zamisao li{ena bilo kakve mistifikacije i neoptere}ena ve} vi|enim (od Miesa do Craiga Elwooda) rezultat je toga nerva, o ~emu }e Shigeru re}i: “Prvi put kada sam kro~io na lokaciju, moja je trenutna reakcija bila da uok-virim prekrasan pogled oceana koji se prostire horizontalno”. No, ne radi se ovdje o klasi~noj “sobi s pogledom”, ve} je premo{}ivanjem 20-metarskoga raspona ~eli~nom re{etkastom okvirnom konstrukcijom na gornjoj eta‘i, ~iju cjelokupnu visinu zauzima, prirodi (pogledu) ostavljena mogu}nost nesmetana prolaska kroz ku}u. S jedne strane ocean, s druge {uma na vrhu uzvisine, te okolina, za japanske prilike ~udesno i ~udnovato nekon-taminirana civilizacijskim uljezima,

life centred around, i.e. among trees. His most recent realization did not surprise me at all. It was created after his paper buildings were transformed into larger proportions (due partly to the cooperation with Otto Frei on the project for the Japanese pavilion for EXPO 2000 in Hanover) and after the temporary buildings (like the church in Kobe, the most attractive to me) be-came permanent and generally accepted (senti)mental signs. A very simple idea deprived of any mystifica-tion and unburdened with the already-seen (from Mies to Craig Elwood) is the result of that flair, as Shigeru

dale su arhitektu povoda za ekstravagantnu, ali istovremeno vrlo logi~ku i funkcionalnu zamisao. Iako Shigeru ku}u naziva Picture Window House, mi{ljenja sam da se u ovome slu~aju ne radi ni o kakvu kadriranju prirode, ve} o arhitektonskoj gesti par excellence, ustupku kojim }e majstor ustuknuti pred apsolutnom ljepotom te obitavatel-je smjestiti u njezin nesmetani protok. ^arobnjaku papira je ovdje, iz nevelike “ljuske”, uspjelo ovladati beskona~nom prostorno{}u te realizirati – pogled sa sobom.

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was to say: “My immediate reaction af-ter having visited the location for the first time was to frame the beautiful view of the ocean which spreads horizontally”. However, it is not the case of a classic “room with a view”; the nature (view) has an unobstructed passage through the building obtained by spanning 20 meters with an upper floor full-height steel truss frame. There is the ocean on one side, and a forest on the top of the hill on the other and, for the Japanese situation, an environment miraculously and strangely uncontaminated by in-truders from civilisation. The architect’s motive was to create an extravagant but at the same time logical and functional idea. Although Shigeru calls his house Picture Window House I am convinced that it is not at all the case of framing nature, rather a matter of an architectural gesture par excellence, a concession with which a master will back away from the absolute beauty and place its occupants in an undisturbed flow. The paper magician succeeded, in this case, in mastering, from a small “shell”, infinite spatiality and creating – a view with a room.