Speaking of Places Veiled Sustainability: The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki
Brendon Levitt
Recent articles have applauded the consequently reduce the need for air populated valley. The two pieces of into an architecture that is also cultur- adds and subtracts such sources in an sustainability of Fumihiko Maki’s conditioning, he does not conceive monumental architecture form a poi- ally resonant and aesthetically refined. expedient fashion until he is satisfied. architecture due primarily to his use them as purely energy-saving devices. gnant dichotomy between the old and It is only when the work is done that of screens.1 Ultimately, however, such Rather, they derive from concepts that the new. Traditional Sources one can rationalize this inherently arguments represent a misreading of embody cultural, religious, social, spa- The GEC rests on a heavy, brick Maki’s intellectual flexibility irrational process. intent. In this age of “green-wash- tial, material, artistic, technological, base, up which a series of public spaces allows him to reference various Fundamental to Maki’s notion of ing,” architects often rationalize economic and humanistic ideas. step steeply and extend out to a court- sources during his process of design. space is the Japanese concept oku. screens or sunshades as evidence of To illustrate the complexity of yard. But seeming to float above, its Some concepts such as inner space, There is no completely analogous their buildings’ sustainability. But Maki’s thinking, this article refers to fourth and fifth floors are enclosed veiled space, and relational space word term in English. Oku connotes Maki’s buildings could rarely be con- a number of his designs. His use of by a delicate screen of aluminum and are uniquely Japanese, and were the a mysterious depth or symbolic, Top: View to the Gender Equality Center (GEC) sidered sustainable by such measures screens on the exterior of the Gender wood louvers. The vertical louvers conceptual starting point for Maki’s unattainable center; it refers less to a from Nihonmatsu Castle. as energy consumption, carbon emis- Equality Center (GEC) in Nihon- cloak a variety of functions, from sem- explorations with screens dating back measurable distance than to a meta- Bottom: Ukiyoe print of a village at the base of a sions, or waste reduction. matsu will serve as a particularly inar rooms and research labs to guest to the 1970s. Others, such as atmo- physical dimension, and can apply on mountain with a Shinto Shrine in the distance. Instead, Maki’s buildings embody important touchstone, however. The rooms. Apart from their material sphere, symbolism and composition many scales, from city to shrine. To a different kind of sustainability—one GEC is a multiuse community center presence and technical performance, derive from Maki’s Modernist train- describe the concept, Maki’s 1979 Opposite Left: Entrance into the brick base with the that lies not in their technical perfor- in a small town 250 km. north of the louvers reflect deeper meanings ing. For the sake of clarity—and at the book Miegakure Suru Toshi referred screen above. mance, but in the conceptual overlays Tokyo. Set on the northern slope of a rooted in traditional Japanese concep- risk of oversimplification—I will try to to the paradigmatic Japanese village Opposite Right: The GEC cascades up the hill, beck- that imbue them with meaning. While forested hill, it faces the distant ruins tions of space. They show how “sus- separate these strands. In reality, while located along a river valley at the base 2 oning the visitor ever deeper into the building. Maki’s screens do block the sun, and of a fifteenth-century castle across a tainable” elements can be integrated he is designing, Maki superimposes, of a forested mountain. For the vil-
76 Levitt / The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki Places 17.2 77 Speaking of Places Veiled Sustainability: The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki
Brendon Levitt
Recent articles have applauded the consequently reduce the need for air populated valley. The two pieces of into an architecture that is also cultur- adds and subtracts such sources in an sustainability of Fumihiko Maki’s conditioning, he does not conceive monumental architecture form a poi- ally resonant and aesthetically refined. expedient fashion until he is satisfied. architecture due primarily to his use them as purely energy-saving devices. gnant dichotomy between the old and It is only when the work is done that of screens.1 Ultimately, however, such Rather, they derive from concepts that the new. Traditional Sources one can rationalize this inherently arguments represent a misreading of embody cultural, religious, social, spa- The GEC rests on a heavy, brick Maki’s intellectual flexibility irrational process. intent. In this age of “green-wash- tial, material, artistic, technological, base, up which a series of public spaces allows him to reference various Fundamental to Maki’s notion of ing,” architects often rationalize economic and humanistic ideas. step steeply and extend out to a court- sources during his process of design. space is the Japanese concept oku. screens or sunshades as evidence of To illustrate the complexity of yard. But seeming to float above, its Some concepts such as inner space, There is no completely analogous their buildings’ sustainability. But Maki’s thinking, this article refers to fourth and fifth floors are enclosed veiled space, and relational space word term in English. Oku connotes Maki’s buildings could rarely be con- a number of his designs. His use of by a delicate screen of aluminum and are uniquely Japanese, and were the a mysterious depth or symbolic, Top: View to the Gender Equality Center (GEC) sidered sustainable by such measures screens on the exterior of the Gender wood louvers. The vertical louvers conceptual starting point for Maki’s unattainable center; it refers less to a from Nihonmatsu Castle. as energy consumption, carbon emis- Equality Center (GEC) in Nihon- cloak a variety of functions, from sem- explorations with screens dating back measurable distance than to a meta- Bottom: Ukiyoe print of a village at the base of a sions, or waste reduction. matsu will serve as a particularly inar rooms and research labs to guest to the 1970s. Others, such as atmo- physical dimension, and can apply on mountain with a Shinto Shrine in the distance. Instead, Maki’s buildings embody important touchstone, however. The rooms. Apart from their material sphere, symbolism and composition many scales, from city to shrine. To a different kind of sustainability—one GEC is a multiuse community center presence and technical performance, derive from Maki’s Modernist train- describe the concept, Maki’s 1979 Opposite Left: Entrance into the brick base with the that lies not in their technical perfor- in a small town 250 km. north of the louvers reflect deeper meanings ing. For the sake of clarity—and at the book Miegakure Suru Toshi referred screen above. mance, but in the conceptual overlays Tokyo. Set on the northern slope of a rooted in traditional Japanese concep- risk of oversimplification—I will try to to the paradigmatic Japanese village Opposite Right: The GEC cascades up the hill, beck- that imbue them with meaning. While forested hill, it faces the distant ruins tions of space. They show how “sus- separate these strands. In reality, while located along a river valley at the base 2 oning the visitor ever deeper into the building. Maki’s screens do block the sun, and of a fifteenth-century castle across a tainable” elements can be integrated he is designing, Maki superimposes, of a forested mountain. For the vil-
76 Levitt / The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki Places 17.2 77 Speaking of Places
the interior of a store while preserv- ing the privacy of the patrons therein. Meanwhile, inside, the visitor finds refuge from the chaotic city while still being connected to it through the slits in the louvers. The GEC is designed to produce a similar effect. Especially as one walks parallel to the facade, the 24-cm. openings between louvers veil the private, interior realm. Maki’s design for the foyer of TEPIA, an exhibition pavilion for new technology, also explores this traditional Japanese notion of veiled space. Here, finely perforated metal panels are suspended from stainless steel cables to form an updated kind of shoji screen that filters views to the city from the interior, and views to the foyer from the exterior. lating its parts.”4 For Maki, the key A third Japanese concept that has to a humane urban environment is influenced Maki’s architecture is ma. not just the quality of the individual This is best understood as relational buildings, but the quality of the spaces space, or the space between things. between. A The New York Times article once Such concern permeates Maki’s reported that when researchers asked architecture at all scales. For example, schoolchildren from America and in his competition entry for the Sal- Japan to describe the contents of a fish zburg Congress Hall, he used mesh tank, the American children described screens to enclose discrete elements, the individual fish, whereas the Japa- but the elements were amalgamated nese children described the relation- to produce coherently figural intersti- lagers, the mountain is imbued with a no-Oka Crematorium guides visi- Japanese expression, miegakure. ships between them.3 This propensity tial spaces. These transitional spaces overall L-shaped design—its admin- spiritual life, but it is not a place or a tors along a prescribed route where Literally “to glimpse something is the basis of ma. extended the public network of streets istrative and residential wings—while spirit that can be known. The moun- screens deny direct access and view that is hidden,” such as the moon In a 1964 pamphlet, Investigations in into the building both visually and relating them through a common tain is a mysterious part of the collec- but provide hints of an inner sanctum. passing behind clouds, it is concept Collective Form, Maki offered a version physically. The differing degrees of design. And at the scale of the individ- tive unconscious, evoking a mystery At the GEC, light emanating from that embodies both the ephemeral of this concept for modern times. In public exposure could also be “read” ual rooms, the louvers negotiate the that is neither sinister nor benign. It behind the louvers hints at something and ambiguous. Maki explains it particular, he proposed a humanistic from the exterior, as successive layers transition between primary space and only lurks, and its presence constantly within, but the screen does not allow as the abstraction of an experience urbanism that advocated incremental, of screens overlap to produce increas- the outdoors in diverse ways depend- reminds the villagers that something direct visual access. Thus, as he or she completed only in our minds. For informal, open-ended urban growth ingly veiled space. And at the core of ing on scale and the desired level of unknowable lies beyond. mounts a series of ramps and stairs, a instance, it is the white undergarment as opposed to the megastructures that the building, this opacity was consoli- Many of Maki’s designs incorpo- visitor catches glimpses of the spaces; beneath the collar of a kimono that dominated architectural discourse dated figurally as the building’s raison rate the idea of oku, and screens are but it is only after ascending all four seduces the viewer into imagining at the time. The key, he wrote, was d’etre: the Congress Hall. Opposite: A perforated metal screen filters views in often used to choreograph the expe- stories that is it possible to occupy what lies beneath—or, as Maki frames to emphasize transport nodes and The GEC accomplishes similar and out of Tepia. rience. For example, unlike typical these mysterious spaces. By then, the it for a Western audience, the lace public corridors. “Urban design is goals through subtler means at a Top: The MIT Media Lab’s facade is composed of architectural promenades that end in inner experience has shifted, however, negligee that hints at the shape of a ever concerned with the question of variety of scales. At a macro scale, a transparent glass atrium flanked by the private, a climactic space, Maki’s promenades and it is the city (to the north) and naked body, without revealing it. making comprehensible links between the screens articulate a thickened screened space of the laboratories. often hint at something beyond with- the mountain (to the south) that lurk Maki also describes the elements discrete things. As a corollary, it is threshold between city and nature. At Bottom: Screens in the Salzburg Congress Hall Proj- out allowing the visitor direct contact. behind the louvers. of Japanese cities as veiled. Thus, concerned with making an extremely the building scale, the louvers define ect were planned to define discrete forms as well as the Thus, Maki’s design for the Kaze- Closely related to oku is another screens may allow cursory glances to large entity comprehensible by articu- two primary program areas within its spaces between.
78 Levitt / The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki Places 17.2 79 Speaking of Places
the interior of a store while preserv- ing the privacy of the patrons therein. Meanwhile, inside, the visitor finds refuge from the chaotic city while still being connected to it through the slits in the louvers. The GEC is designed to produce a similar effect. Especially as one walks parallel to the facade, the 24-cm. openings between louvers veil the private, interior realm. Maki’s design for the foyer of TEPIA, an exhibition pavilion for new technology, also explores this traditional Japanese notion of veiled space. Here, finely perforated metal panels are suspended from stainless steel cables to form an updated kind of shoji screen that filters views to the city from the interior, and views to the foyer from the exterior. lating its parts.”4 For Maki, the key A third Japanese concept that has to a humane urban environment is influenced Maki’s architecture is ma. not just the quality of the individual This is best understood as relational buildings, but the quality of the spaces space, or the space between things. between. A The New York Times article once Such concern permeates Maki’s reported that when researchers asked architecture at all scales. For example, schoolchildren from America and in his competition entry for the Sal- Japan to describe the contents of a fish zburg Congress Hall, he used mesh tank, the American children described screens to enclose discrete elements, the individual fish, whereas the Japa- but the elements were amalgamated nese children described the relation- to produce coherently figural intersti- lagers, the mountain is imbued with a no-Oka Crematorium guides visi- Japanese expression, miegakure. ships between them.3 This propensity tial spaces. These transitional spaces overall L-shaped design—its admin- spiritual life, but it is not a place or a tors along a prescribed route where Literally “to glimpse something is the basis of ma. extended the public network of streets istrative and residential wings—while spirit that can be known. The moun- screens deny direct access and view that is hidden,” such as the moon In a 1964 pamphlet, Investigations in into the building both visually and relating them through a common tain is a mysterious part of the collec- but provide hints of an inner sanctum. passing behind clouds, it is concept Collective Form, Maki offered a version physically. The differing degrees of design. And at the scale of the individ- tive unconscious, evoking a mystery At the GEC, light emanating from that embodies both the ephemeral of this concept for modern times. In public exposure could also be “read” ual rooms, the louvers negotiate the that is neither sinister nor benign. It behind the louvers hints at something and ambiguous. Maki explains it particular, he proposed a humanistic from the exterior, as successive layers transition between primary space and only lurks, and its presence constantly within, but the screen does not allow as the abstraction of an experience urbanism that advocated incremental, of screens overlap to produce increas- the outdoors in diverse ways depend- reminds the villagers that something direct visual access. Thus, as he or she completed only in our minds. For informal, open-ended urban growth ingly veiled space. And at the core of ing on scale and the desired level of unknowable lies beyond. mounts a series of ramps and stairs, a instance, it is the white undergarment as opposed to the megastructures that the building, this opacity was consoli- Many of Maki’s designs incorpo- visitor catches glimpses of the spaces; beneath the collar of a kimono that dominated architectural discourse dated figurally as the building’s raison rate the idea of oku, and screens are but it is only after ascending all four seduces the viewer into imagining at the time. The key, he wrote, was d’etre: the Congress Hall. Opposite: A perforated metal screen filters views in often used to choreograph the expe- stories that is it possible to occupy what lies beneath—or, as Maki frames to emphasize transport nodes and The GEC accomplishes similar and out of Tepia. rience. For example, unlike typical these mysterious spaces. By then, the it for a Western audience, the lace public corridors. “Urban design is goals through subtler means at a Top: The MIT Media Lab’s facade is composed of architectural promenades that end in inner experience has shifted, however, negligee that hints at the shape of a ever concerned with the question of variety of scales. At a macro scale, a transparent glass atrium flanked by the private, a climactic space, Maki’s promenades and it is the city (to the north) and naked body, without revealing it. making comprehensible links between the screens articulate a thickened screened space of the laboratories. often hint at something beyond with- the mountain (to the south) that lurk Maki also describes the elements discrete things. As a corollary, it is threshold between city and nature. At Bottom: Screens in the Salzburg Congress Hall Proj- out allowing the visitor direct contact. behind the louvers. of Japanese cities as veiled. Thus, concerned with making an extremely the building scale, the louvers define ect were planned to define discrete forms as well as the Thus, Maki’s design for the Kaze- Closely related to oku is another screens may allow cursory glances to large entity comprehensible by articu- two primary program areas within its spaces between.
78 Levitt / The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki Places 17.2 79 Speaking of Places
ment of space that is more important at Keio University uses a perforated would be uninhabitable if left unpro- rich overlays of meanings in Maki’s than selling an image.”6 He candidly metal screen to similar effect. During tected from the sun. The screens, designs are key to his buildings’ long- admits that many of these decisions the day, the stainless steel glitters in therefore, are less a gesture toward term appeal. are based merely on the client’s, or his the sun and stands in stark contrast energy conservation than a response Maki sees the complex technical own, personal preferences. to the surrounding concrete campus. to the pleas of mechanical engineers challenges faced on most projects as In this sense, the exterior screen At night, Maki intended the building for help. opportunities for his architecture to on the GEC has various spatial func- to glow with a cool, green light that The Tokyo Church of Christ is a reflect society. The GEC’s louvers tions, but it also plays an important would symbolize the 24-hour occu- case in point. Here Maki designed a embody the Japanese cultural con- atmospheric role. The louvers are pancy engendered by its international light-filled sanctuary that faced west structs of inner space, veiled space, designed as pinwheels of aluminum research agenda. onto a noisy boulevard. This created and relational space. They are com- and wood so that the feel of the build- Contemporary architects also tend difficult problems of heat gain and ments on the natural and artificial, the ing changes as it is experienced from to scoff at the role that traditional aes- sound insulation that needed to be forest and the city. They produce an different places. Maki felt that an all- thetics play in their design processes. addressed head-on. Maki’s solution atmosphere of welcoming warmth, metal screen would have created too Maki, however, will readily rationalize was an innovative trombe wall using and high-tech, cool precision. They imposing an edifice, while an all-wood formal decisions based on “composition.” fiberglass mesh and fritted glass to are a symbol for a modern, public screen would have been a fire hazard. The design of screens is no exception. filter excessive sound, heat and light. institution. They compose the build- Therefore, he developed a hybrid With the GEC, Maki strove to The resulting composition glows at ing’s facades from without, and frame solution that combined the strength construct a base that was “of the twilight, giving life to the setting sun views from within. They also protect of metal with the warmth of wood. earth,” and a top that was “of the sky.” instead of spurning it. the building from the sun. The use of wood also echoes the forest The bottom two stories are clad in To say that these louvers are backdrop, so that the screen concep- brick, the third story is recessed, and Subhead merely sunshades is to misunderstand tually bridges between the urban and the screen facilitates the apparent dis- Maki recognizes that sustainability the architecture. Maki is a world-class the natural. solution of the fourth and fifth levels is one of the major issues in contempo- designer, not an environmentalist, The wood lattice in the Toyama into the air. Meanwhile, a vertical rary design. But, he adds, “while some and his conceptual approach opposes International Conference Center void cuts through the middle of the people say it is the most important the tendency to design architectural accomplishes similar objectives. Here, building, signaling the public space thing, I think it is just as important as elements as single-functioning acces- the wood glows as it modulates the that climbs up through it. This design other issues.”7 In fact, Maki tends to sories. His screens are part of an inte- sunlight entering the foyer. As seen approach of a fully-glazed, central consider sustainable design a techni- grated architecture that embraces the from the outside, however, the lattice atrium flanked by screened “pro- cal issue requested by enlightened complexities, ambiguities and mul- also mediates the high-tech appear- grammed” areas is a common strategy clients; absent such a requirement his tiplicities of modern life in order to privacy. Thus, the vertical louvers architectural discourse. When exam- ance of the metal-and-glass building, for Maki. One can also see it in his buildings rarely achieve significant generate unique and enriching places. accentuate the grand, double-height ining his design approach, it is not by producing a secondary reading of design for the as-yet unbuilt Media reductions in energy use, waste pro- volume of the guest room foyer, but easy to isolate the various sources; the facade, and providing human scale Lab at MIT. duction, or carbon dioxide emissions. Notes they also relate more intimately to the references to Bachelard are as likely as for a monumental edifice. Maki’s approach to screen design, Furthermore, the mostly glass facades 1. For example, “Control of Vision and the Environ- 5 smaller scale of the guest rooms by those to Basho. Maki’s treatment of Maki sometimes refers to his like the overall design of his build- typically lead to high energy use, and ment,” Techne 1 (February 2004), pp. 11-17. enclosing a narrow, outdoor terrace. screens is likewise subject to influences screens as “signs”—billboard-like ele- ings, places emphasis on technical his favored materials such as stainless 2. Fumihiko Maki, Miegakure Suru Toshi [in Japanese] beyond the uniquely Japanese. ments. Most contemporary modern- performance. The GEC’s louvers steel and anodized aluminum are envi- (Tokyo: Kajima Publishing Co., 1986). Other Sources One of the primary determinants of ists would downplay the influence of were necessary, for instance, to shield ronmental liabilities. 3. Erica Goode, “How Culture Molds Habits of Maki’s insatiable curiosity, coupled Maki’s design decisions is the kind of 1980s postmodern theory; however, the glazed facades from excessive solar While Maki’s architecture might Thought,” The New York Times, August 8, 2000. with his prestigious and international architectural quality or atmosphere he Maki readily acknowledges the sym- heat gain. The louvers are especially not conform to the standard conven- 4. Fumihiko Maki, “Investigations in Collective background, has led him down vari- is trying to produce. He describes this bolic function of architecture. For effective in conserving energy in the tions of sustainable design, however, Form,” The Japan Architect 16 (Winter, 1994), pp. ous avenues of thought. In addition to in terms of a palette of options: cool/ example, the GEC’s unique hybrid southwest-facing research labora- there may be more important consid- 265-67. Japanese influences, Maki has always warm, high-tech/homey, slick/earthy, louvers are an easily recognizable fea- tories. However, the heat gains and erations. Given the resources that go 5. Gaston Bachelard was a twentieth-century French been a participant in contemporary abstract/articulated, light/massive, ture of this important public building. losses allowed by the expanses of glass into constructing, demolishing and poet, philosopher and scientist. Matsuo Basho was a shiny/textured, etc. Maki is not dog- At night, in particular, they allow it to would seem as much a concern as the replacing a building, its longevity is a seventeenth-century Japanese poet. matic about these choices: “Which glow at the base of the dark, wooded solar radiation shielded by the louvers. key element of its sustainability. One 6. Fumihiko Maki, interview with author, October 23, “In architecture you can start with anything; in the option to choose for a given project hill—and provide symbolic reference This is a common theme in Maki’s may even argue that sustainable archi- 2004. end, it must be a piece of architecture as you’d like to depends on the client, the site, the of the institution’s modernity. use of screens. Because many of his tecture is that which endures because 7. Ibid. see it.” - F. Maki budget…. In the end, it is the enrich- The Graduate Research Center buildings have glass facades, they it is valued. And in this regard, the
80 Levitt / The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki Places 17.2 81 Speaking of Places
ment of space that is more important at Keio University uses a perforated would be uninhabitable if left unpro- rich overlays of meanings in Maki’s than selling an image.”6 He candidly metal screen to similar effect. During tected from the sun. The screens, designs are key to his buildings’ long- admits that many of these decisions the day, the stainless steel glitters in therefore, are less a gesture toward term appeal. are based merely on the client’s, or his the sun and stands in stark contrast energy conservation than a response Maki sees the complex technical own, personal preferences. to the surrounding concrete campus. to the pleas of mechanical engineers challenges faced on most projects as In this sense, the exterior screen At night, Maki intended the building for help. opportunities for his architecture to on the GEC has various spatial func- to glow with a cool, green light that The Tokyo Church of Christ is a reflect society. The GEC’s louvers tions, but it also plays an important would symbolize the 24-hour occu- case in point. Here Maki designed a embody the Japanese cultural con- atmospheric role. The louvers are pancy engendered by its international light-filled sanctuary that faced west structs of inner space, veiled space, designed as pinwheels of aluminum research agenda. onto a noisy boulevard. This created and relational space. They are com- and wood so that the feel of the build- Contemporary architects also tend difficult problems of heat gain and ments on the natural and artificial, the ing changes as it is experienced from to scoff at the role that traditional aes- sound insulation that needed to be forest and the city. They produce an different places. Maki felt that an all- thetics play in their design processes. addressed head-on. Maki’s solution atmosphere of welcoming warmth, metal screen would have created too Maki, however, will readily rationalize was an innovative trombe wall using and high-tech, cool precision. They imposing an edifice, while an all-wood formal decisions based on “composition.” fiberglass mesh and fritted glass to are a symbol for a modern, public screen would have been a fire hazard. The design of screens is no exception. filter excessive sound, heat and light. institution. They compose the build- Therefore, he developed a hybrid With the GEC, Maki strove to The resulting composition glows at ing’s facades from without, and frame solution that combined the strength construct a base that was “of the twilight, giving life to the setting sun views from within. They also protect of metal with the warmth of wood. earth,” and a top that was “of the sky.” instead of spurning it. the building from the sun. The use of wood also echoes the forest The bottom two stories are clad in To say that these louvers are backdrop, so that the screen concep- brick, the third story is recessed, and Subhead merely sunshades is to misunderstand tually bridges between the urban and the screen facilitates the apparent dis- Maki recognizes that sustainability the architecture. Maki is a world-class the natural. solution of the fourth and fifth levels is one of the major issues in contempo- designer, not an environmentalist, The wood lattice in the Toyama into the air. Meanwhile, a vertical rary design. But, he adds, “while some and his conceptual approach opposes International Conference Center void cuts through the middle of the people say it is the most important the tendency to design architectural accomplishes similar objectives. Here, building, signaling the public space thing, I think it is just as important as elements as single-functioning acces- the wood glows as it modulates the that climbs up through it. This design other issues.”7 In fact, Maki tends to sories. His screens are part of an inte- sunlight entering the foyer. As seen approach of a fully-glazed, central consider sustainable design a techni- grated architecture that embraces the from the outside, however, the lattice atrium flanked by screened “pro- cal issue requested by enlightened complexities, ambiguities and mul- also mediates the high-tech appear- grammed” areas is a common strategy clients; absent such a requirement his tiplicities of modern life in order to privacy. Thus, the vertical louvers architectural discourse. When exam- ance of the metal-and-glass building, for Maki. One can also see it in his buildings rarely achieve significant generate unique and enriching places. accentuate the grand, double-height ining his design approach, it is not by producing a secondary reading of design for the as-yet unbuilt Media reductions in energy use, waste pro- volume of the guest room foyer, but easy to isolate the various sources; the facade, and providing human scale Lab at MIT. duction, or carbon dioxide emissions. Notes they also relate more intimately to the references to Bachelard are as likely as for a monumental edifice. Maki’s approach to screen design, Furthermore, the mostly glass facades 1. For example, “Control of Vision and the Environ- 5 smaller scale of the guest rooms by those to Basho. Maki’s treatment of Maki sometimes refers to his like the overall design of his build- typically lead to high energy use, and ment,” Techne 1 (February 2004), pp. 11-17. enclosing a narrow, outdoor terrace. screens is likewise subject to influences screens as “signs”—billboard-like ele- ings, places emphasis on technical his favored materials such as stainless 2. Fumihiko Maki, Miegakure Suru Toshi [in Japanese] beyond the uniquely Japanese. ments. Most contemporary modern- performance. The GEC’s louvers steel and anodized aluminum are envi- (Tokyo: Kajima Publishing Co., 1986). Other Sources One of the primary determinants of ists would downplay the influence of were necessary, for instance, to shield ronmental liabilities. 3. Erica Goode, “How Culture Molds Habits of Maki’s insatiable curiosity, coupled Maki’s design decisions is the kind of 1980s postmodern theory; however, the glazed facades from excessive solar While Maki’s architecture might Thought,” The New York Times, August 8, 2000. with his prestigious and international architectural quality or atmosphere he Maki readily acknowledges the sym- heat gain. The louvers are especially not conform to the standard conven- 4. Fumihiko Maki, “Investigations in Collective background, has led him down vari- is trying to produce. He describes this bolic function of architecture. For effective in conserving energy in the tions of sustainable design, however, Form,” The Japan Architect 16 (Winter, 1994), pp. ous avenues of thought. In addition to in terms of a palette of options: cool/ example, the GEC’s unique hybrid southwest-facing research labora- there may be more important consid- 265-67. Japanese influences, Maki has always warm, high-tech/homey, slick/earthy, louvers are an easily recognizable fea- tories. However, the heat gains and erations. Given the resources that go 5. Gaston Bachelard was a twentieth-century French been a participant in contemporary abstract/articulated, light/massive, ture of this important public building. losses allowed by the expanses of glass into constructing, demolishing and poet, philosopher and scientist. Matsuo Basho was a shiny/textured, etc. Maki is not dog- At night, in particular, they allow it to would seem as much a concern as the replacing a building, its longevity is a seventeenth-century Japanese poet. matic about these choices: “Which glow at the base of the dark, wooded solar radiation shielded by the louvers. key element of its sustainability. One 6. Fumihiko Maki, interview with author, October 23, “In architecture you can start with anything; in the option to choose for a given project hill—and provide symbolic reference This is a common theme in Maki’s may even argue that sustainable archi- 2004. end, it must be a piece of architecture as you’d like to depends on the client, the site, the of the institution’s modernity. use of screens. Because many of his tecture is that which endures because 7. Ibid. see it.” - F. Maki budget…. In the end, it is the enrich- The Graduate Research Center buildings have glass facades, they it is valued. And in this regard, the
80 Levitt / The Screen in the Work of Fumihiko Maki Places 17.2 81