Symposia
Ken Tadashi Oshima, Momoyo Kaijima, and Sunil Bald
Found in Translation
This talk examines the multiple translations of architecture, culture and living embodied in the Japanese Exhibition House displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1954-55. This spans the translation of 17th century Japanese precedents by architect Junzō Yoshimura (1908–1997) from midtown Manhattan to Philadelphia’s West Fairmont Park as a paradigm of indoor/outdoor living between house and garden. Dr. Oshima will further explore the broader domestic ideals found within a broader constellation of architects from Antonin and Noémi Raymond (1888–1976, 1889–1980) and George Nakashima (1905–1990) up to the contemporary work of Atelier Bow Wow in their residences situated in diverse settings from Karuizawa, Japan to New Hope, Pennsylvania. The talk will be followed by a discussion about further implications for future design engaging local/global landscapes with Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow Wow principal and founder, and Associate Dean Sunil Bald.
Ken Tadashi Oshima is Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he teaches trans-national architectural history, theory and design, and has been a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and UCLA. He is a Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians and served as President of the Society of Architectural Historians from 2016-18. Dr. Oshima’s publications include, International Architecture in Interwar Japan: Constructing Kokusai Kenchiku, Arata Isozaki, Kiyonori Kikutake: Between Land and Sea, and GLOBAL ENDS: towards the beginning.
Image caption: Shōfūsō, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, PA, photo by Elizabeth Felicella