| Career Summary |
1972 Bachelor of Architecture, University of Tokyo
1975 Master of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo
1976-1983 Architect, Maki and Associates, Tokyo
1983-1988 Assistant to Professor Fumihiko Maki, Department of Architecture, University of Tokyo
1988-1999 Associate Professor (Architectural Design and Urban design), University of Tokyo.
1997 Doctor (Engineering)
1998 Research Fellow, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands
1999 Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Also Professor, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
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| Educational Activities |
Graduate School (Division of Environmental Studies): Lecture/Design Theory of Environment, Design Studio/Integrated Environmental Design Program
Undergraduate School (Department of Architecture) Design Studio/Architecture Design Studio 1, 2, 3, 4, Diploma Thesis Design, Diploma Thesis Research |
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| Research Activities |
My main field is design theory of architecture and cities. Our activities extend from creative ones that are mainly concerned with architectural design to theoretical research.
Our research interests are the form of the living environment and its meaning. Specifically, our research topics are as follows.
1) Research into the formal structures of architecture: With suggestions from semiotics, our method is firstly to extract two contrasting factors from the formal attributes which are supposed to be related with its meaning, and then secondly to discover their relationships. The representative thesis on this topic is “Formal structure and its semantic relationships in the Yoshijima’s House” (1979), which is an investigation on a town house located in the city of Takayama, Japan.
2) Research into the leading edge of architecture or ‘hyousou’: Research is first conducted by analyzing the meaning of the interface between architecture and a city (we term this the ‘frontal edge of architecture’ or ‘hyousou’ in Japanese from a spatial point of view); this is done by using the morphological method. Secondly, we clarify the social meaning and the aesthetic meaning. This research involves combining architecture and urban design. A book jointly written with Professor Fumihiko Maki, called “Miegakuresuru Toshi”(Kajima Publishing Co. 1980, Japanese), was one of the vanguard studies which lead to the Edo and Tokyo boom in the 1980s; the concept of hyousou was presented in this book. In my dissertation “Typological Study of Hyousou in Tokyo” (1997) I collected 4300 samples of hyousou and more from contemporary Tokyo and clarified their features using a statistical method. Moreover, a lot of students who are members of our laboratory are devoting themselves to investigating hyousou from a variety of approaches in their studies for their undergraduate theses and their Master’s theses.
3) Research on the contemporary cities: In order to build up an alternative model to modern city planning, we investigated various aspects of the contemporary cities in a qualitative way. In our survey and research of the city of Hong Kong (1992), we tried to understand the significance of compactness in Hong Kong and to universalize it. Later, we start research on the future image of Tokyo around 2000 and eventually we published our proposal under the title of ‘Fiber city/Tokyo 2050’ last year which was received with great interest. ‘Fibercity/Tokyo 2050’; he Japan Architect Autumn 63. We are looking to further develop this proposal.
4) Creation is another side of my activity and the object of my creation are the designs of all “things” and “events” which are related to the living environment such as cities, regions, landscapes, lighting and furniture, as well as architecture, which is my main interest. Representative architectural works include NBK headquarters and Auditorium (awarded the Japan Institute of Architects Prize for the Young Architect of the Year), Nikkei New Office Prize, Ibaraki Municipal Housing Matusiro Apartment (awarded the Annual Architectural Design Commendation of the Architectural Institute of Japan), YKK Namerikawa Dormitory (awarded the Annual Architectural Design Commendation of the Architectural Institute of Japan), Renovation of the ex-Shimonoseki Custom House (awarded the BELCA Prize), and Freude Hikoshima (awarded the BCS Prize). My work on city design includes the entry project for International Design Competition for the development of the Ul Beg center, Samarkand, (1990), which was awarded the first prize
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[refernce]
http://kingo.arch.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ohno/po/ohno.html
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| Other Activities |
| I am a member of two academic societies, namely, the Architectural Institute of Japan and the City Planning Institute of Japan, and I am a member of a professional association of architects, the Japanese Institute of Architect. Besides them, I am a board member of national and municipal governments for architecture or city planning issues. I am a judge for various design competitions as public contributions |
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| Future Plan |
| I think that the 21st century will be an age of shrinkage. I also believe that only those who can successfully control shrinkage will gain respect in this century. It is “Fibercity/Tokyo 2050” that challenged the shrinkage for the opportunity for reforming the megalopolis as an example of city planning. I want to develop it on an architectural scale, and to attempt to integrate architectures and cities on a higher level. |
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| Messages to Students |
The goal of establishing a Department of Environmental Study in the University of Tokyo is to establish “Environment” as a new paradigm that will get over an existing study field. The main focus of “Engineering” that led the 20th century seems to regard objects as “tools”. While a “tool” is external to us and is characterized as being selectable, the concept of “Environment” is characterized as containing us and we are so much involved we cannot choose any other possibilities. The same object must be different in its approach and the technology that will be employed depends on whether one regards it as a tool or as an environment. Architectural planning theory and the study of the city planning have developed the perspective of “tools” in the 20th century. Recently, the “environmental” view has started to appear in this field. I predict that a big challenge in architecture and city planning is to promote development in such a direction and ?
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