TOKYO UNIVERSIY OF THE ARTS

WHITE FOREST KAIT

TAMA ART LIBRARY
CASE STUDY BY ELISABETH KUHNLE
& VILDE ASPEN HELVIK

T
O
K
Y
O
CONTENTS

JAPANESE TEACHING METHOD page 3

TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS page 4

WHITE FOREST KAIT workshop / studio page 19

TAMA ART LIBRARY page 31

REFLECTION page 38

2
JAPANESE TEACHING METHOD
In Japan the architecture schools are usually organized in studios Auditorium
Office 1 Workshop 1
/ laboratories. The professor works like a mentor for the student, Refresh room (20 persons)
Professor Models
and the student does research for his professor. For this reason the
Japanese students often have the opportunity to get their projects
realized. The Japanese students commit to the same professor for
at least 2 years. There is a close relationship between student and
teacher. Students are being taught in small groups, and the teachers
often have their offices right next to the lab / studio.
Every professor teaches a different theme in the studio he is
responsible for.
Office 2 Workshop 2
LAB / studio 1 LAB / studio 2 Professor Models
The plan at the right shows a typical floor plan of an architecture
school in Tokyo where the two teacher offices are placed close to the
lab where they teach. Tutoring with the students is often held in their
office. The students have two model making workshops that they
share. The refresh room is a room for having a tea or reading a book. typical floorplan (Tokyo Tech)

3
TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS Tōkyo Geijutsu Daigaku
TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS

TOKYO

5
CAMPUS

FACULTY OF FINE ARTS

Department of Architecture

University Art Museum

6
Tokyo University of the Arts (Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku) or Geidai, is one of the
oldest and most prestigious art schools in Japan, and the only national university
that offers fine arts education. The university is mainly located in Ueno Park, but
also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and
Adachi (in which about 3000 students are enrolled). The university owns two
halls of residence: one (for Japanese students) in Nerima, Tokyo, and the other
(for overseas students) in Matsudo, Chiba. The exchange program is important
for the school that has agreements with 45 universities all over the world, among
these; School of the Art Institute of Chicago (USA), the Royal Academy of Music
(UK), the University of Sydney and Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
(Australia), the Korea National University of Arts, and the China Academy of
Art. The faculty of Music and the faculty of Fine Arts (with the department of
Architecture) are situated in the Ueno park campus. Students enter the Tokyo
University of the Arts by the grade system.

Established: 1949
Chancellor: Ryōhei Miyata
Vice-Chancellor Kenji Watanabe
Admin. staff: 227
Students: 3217
Undergraduates: 2045
Postgraduates: 1172
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Campus: Ueno

7
Ueno park University gate

The history of the university dates back to two specialist schools, Tokyo 1963 the university opened its graduate school. Initially offering Masters
School of Fine Arts (Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō) and Tokyo Music School (Tōkyō programs, the school expanded to cater for doctoral students in 1977,
Ongaku Gakkō), both founded in 1887. In 1949 these two school merged enhancing the level of education and research in the university as a whole.
into Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. The former of these In 1987 the university acquired a new campus in Toride City, Ibaraki
schools is the present-day Faculty of Fine Arts, the latter the Faculty of Prefecture. The facilities, which complement those at the Ueno campus,
Music. Originally only men were admitted, but in 1946 also women could include a large workshop complex, containing areas such as metal working
enter. From its beginnings, over more than a century ago, the university and lacquering. In 2004, following the corporationization of the national
has played a major role in the arts of this country, producing many fine universities, it became the National University Corporation Tokyo Geijutsu
artists and musicians. The English name of the school was changed in Daigaku. In 2005, the university established the Graduate School of Film
2008 into Tokyo University of the Arts. Since its foundation as a university, and New Media in Yokohama City, Kanagawa prefecture. In 2006, Senju
its curriculum and facilities have undergone continuous development. In campus was opened.

Tokyo Music School (1887) Tokyo National University Tokyo University

1949 2008
Tokyo fine Arts school (1887) of Fine Arts and Music of the Arts

8
MAP OF THE UENO CAMPUS AREA

1 Painting
2 Sculpture
3 Metal Arts
4 Factory Complex
5 Factory Complex
6 Factory Complex
7 Main Building (class rooms, administration)
8 University Library
9 Geidai Art Plaze
10 The University Art Museum (old building)
11 The University Art Museum
12 The University Art Museum
13 The University Art Museum
14 Gatehouse I
15 Gatehouse II
16 Old Brick Building I
17 Old Brick Building II
18 Building I
19 Building II
20 Building III
21 Building IV
22 Building V
23 Auditoriums
24 Sogakudo Concert Hall
25 Senior High school of Music
26 Administration / Health Care Center
27 University Hall
28 Guesthouse
29 Garage
30 Gymnasium

9
UENO PARK CAMPUS

10
UENO PARK CAMPUS

11
UENO PARK

The campus area of Tokyo University of the Arts is a part of Ueno Park where
different museums, institutions and the zoo are located. The university also has
its own museum; Tokyo University Art Museum, and it’s therefore expected that
people move freely around the campus area as they otherwise do in the Ueno
Park. The park is famous for it’s more than 1000 cherry blossom trees and the
picture below shows the park during the blossoming period. Because of the
trees, all the museums, the old temples and the zoo also a lot of tourists come to
see the park.

12
NUMBER OF TEACHERS/PROFESSORS AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS

Division Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors Attached School Teachers Office Workers Total
Faculty of Fine Arts 45 33 15 - 13 106
Graduate School of Fine Arts 5 3 1 - - 9
Faculty of Music 42 34 3 11 12 102
Graduate School of Film and New Media 14 1 1 - 8 24
University Library - - - - 9 9
University Art Museum 1 2 2 - 4 9
Performing Arts Center 1 3 1 - - 5
Art Media Center - - 1 - - 1
Administration Office - - - - 61 61
Total 217 76 24 11 107 326

TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS AND THE

PUBLIC

Tokyo University of the arts relates to the

public through its University art museum
and Concert Hall (Sogakudo). In the concert
hall the entire seating arrangement is
moveable to adjust the acoustics to the type
of performance. The hall is designed like one
giant music instrument. Tokyo University of the
Arts also collaborate with local communities
establishing events that will bring arts out to
the people and help them understand how the
arts enriches human life.
The Old Brick Building - The Faculty of Fine Arts (departmen of architecure)

SENJU CAMPUS
Senju Campus was established in 2006.
On this campus is located the department
of Musical Creativity and the Environment.
Here also are located several courses of the
Department of Musicology and Music Studies
(Graduate School of Music). The campus
has well-equipped facilities, such as a hall for
performing arts, two recording studios with a
control room for surround sound production,
a sound production studio for audio and
video recording/editing and a playroom with
an adjoining observation room for music
13
therapy research.
 DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECURE

Three unique characteristics of the The second unique characteristic

Architecture Department is that the Department’s primary focus
of architectural education is architectural
The first unique characteristic of the design. Topics of instruction focus
Department of Architecture is that Tokyo on practical issues and techniques
Geijutsu Daigaku remains, since its founding, in architectural design, imparting the
the only national educational institution in Japan comprehensive design skills needed by
whose primary purpose is to train architects architects based on a rigorous training in
faculty of fine arts within an environment in which instruction in this architectural theory and in the techniques
course of study is provided by a faculty focused specific to each domain of architecture.
on the fine arts. At educational institutions Lastly, instruction takes place in
department of in the West, architecture tends either to be small groups (enrollment is limited to 15
architecture attached to a fine-arts faculty or established undergraduate students and 16 master’s
as an independent School of Architecture, degree students). The goal of this structure
fine arts focused faculty with architectural education undertaken from is to provide guidance and education based
a comprehensive artistic perspective. In this on in-depth interactions between instructors
aspect, the department is perhaps the closest and individual students in an environment
among Japanese institutions to the Western with as few constraints as possible, thereby
model of architectural education. nurturing creativity and individual vision.
focus on
architectural
design
(technique/theory)

closer to the
western model
of architectural
education

interaction
between
instructor and
individual

14
 15
STUDIO / WORKSHOP CONDITIONS AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS
STUDENT PROJECT 2009

16
THE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM

Kijo Rokkaku In 1999 The University Art Museum was opened due to aged
facilities and needs of storages and exhibitions space according to
Personal History the scale of the collection. Today this collection is one of Japan’s
1965 B.A. in Architecture, largest with about 28 000 pieces based on Japanese modern art
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music,
Staff Architect of Arata Isozaki & Associates (’69) including art works of former teachers and students.
1969 Established Kijo Rokkaku Architect & Associates
1991 Professor, Department of Architecture, Tokyo National The main building of The University Art Museum consists of three
University of Fine Arts and Music, primary sections for storage, exhibitions, and administration and
2000 Guest Professor at Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua research, and also has a student cafeteria, a museum shop and an
University China
2004 Dean of Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of art supply shop.
Fine Arts and Music
Exhibition rooms are separated on two floors. On the second
Kijo Rokkaku is a Japanese architect born in Tokyo, on June 22nd 1941. He basement there are two exhibition rooms. One room is furnished
graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music in 1965 and in with large glass cases to display the collection. The other simple
that year entered the office of Arata Isozaki. In 1969 he left the office to open room excludes details as much as possible like a white box to allow
his own office in Tokyo. Rokkaku was critical of modernist architecture, and various ways of displays flexibly. The exhibition space on the third
therefore took a more intuitive approach to design, drawing inspiration from
pre-modern rituals such as geomancy. The Zasso Forest Kindergarten (1977) floor is furnished with a new top light system which controls the
in Kyoto Prefecture incorporated wind-driven sculpture by Susumu Shingu on opening and closing of the ceiling windows for natural light.
top of each tower, creating what Rokkaku called “wind-games architecture”.
This reflected his desire to use playfulness and other forms of self-expression The museum has four floors plus three basement levels and a total
in architecture. Other works include the Konkokyo Hall of Worship (1980) area of 1.699,97 square meters. Final completion of the project was
in Fukuoka City, a cannon-shaped building for a popular religion that
incorporates the symbolic geometry of the circle, and the large, ambitious in April, 1999. Architect and dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts Kijo
Metropolitan Martial Arts Hall in Tokyo (1989). Rokkaku was the planner and supervisor of the museum project.

17
18
WHITE FOREST KAIT KOBO
20
KANAGAWA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
CAMPUS

KANAGAWA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

White Forest Kite Kobo

21
JUNYA ISHIGAMI White Forest KAIT kobo, studio/workshop
“I wanted to make a space with very ambiguous borderlines, which has a fluctuation between
local spaces and the overall space, rather than a universal space like that of Mies. This allows a
new flexibility to emerge, revealing reality rather than shaping it.”

Junya Ishigami is a Japanese architect

born in Kanagawa prefecture in 1974.
He acquired a master’s degree in
architecture and planning at Tokyo
National University of Fine Arts and
Music in 2000. He worked in with Kazuyo
Sejima and Associates from 2000 to
2004 at SANAA. In 2004 he established
his own firm: junya.ishigami+associates.

WORKS

- Table exhibit at the Art Basel

exhibition, 2006
- Balloon exhibit at the “Space for your
Future” Exhibition, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2007
- Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale
of Architecture, 2008
- The Yohji Yamamoto fashion store, New
York, 2008
- KAIT Studio for the Kanagawa Institute
of Technology in Atsugi, Kanagawa
Prefecture, Japan, 2008

22
“Constellations and Ambiguity. We think of a
constellaion as a geometrical formation of lines
connecting a group of particularly bright stars.
When constellations were first named ages ago,
people looking up at the stars of varying intensity
and density must have seen in certain vague
clusters a likeness of a godess here or a hunter
there that they identified as shared referencecs. I
see promise in this, in something as indefinite and
ambiguous as a cluster of stars becoming oriented
into a very particular and enduring image or state. I
see in this a kind of accessible abstractness.”

Small Images (2008), Junya Ishigami

Plan, White Forest Kait

23
 A WHITE FOREST IN A GREY FIELD

Junya Ishigami’s university project space in the foothills west of

Tokyo is a building designed to almost disappear.

The project is a studio / workshop for the students at Kanagawa

Institute of Technology. The university wanted
this structure to be a place where students could work on different
self-initiated projects
to make things. They wanted the building to have a high public
capacity, as it would be open for use by
local children.

The structure presents another round in the architect’s ongoing

contest with gravity. The forest comprises 305 slender steel 5m-high
columns, irregularly orientated and distributed throughout the
space, while the field from which they rise is a distorted square bed
of concrete, 47m by 46m, slightly raised above the surrounding
bitumen. A flat roof caps the space with linear roof lights, and a
frameless glass perimeter seals it. The architecture ends there; its
animation then takes over with furniture, pot plants and people.

Ishigami explains the evolution of the design as a painstaking

investigation of the relationships between the columns – a task for
which he developed custom-made software.

24
After extensive research and calculation the architects decided for
a structure of 305 pillars with almost the same amount of different
sections and angles, that provided the earthquake proof walls
Ishigami wanted. Sections of the columns 25
Structural section 26
27
28
 MOVEMENT

With the 305 columns placed metaphorically

like the stars in the sky to create different
spaces within the studio a different pattern
of movement appears. In an online video the
architects have filmed how people move in
the building, choosing different routes to get
from A to B in the workshop. This creates
a different social situation compared to the
one where you move from room to room in a
closed hallway.

Workshop interiors
29
REFLECTING THE SURROUNDINGS

30
TAMA ART LIBRARY
32
TAMA ART UNIVERITY CAMPUS

Main Building A Ceramic, Glass and Metal Works Building H

Lecture Hall B • Gallery
East Painting Building C • Studios for ceramics, glass, and metal
• Gallery Textile Building I
• Oil painting studios • Gallery
• Dining Hall • Textile Design Course studios
North Painting Building D Information Design Building and Art Science Building J
• Gallery • Studios and lecture rooms of the Department of Information
• Studios for Japanese painting, oil painting, and printmaking • Design (Art and Media Course and Interaction Design
• Printmaking chemicals room Course) and Department of Art Science
Sculpture Buildings E General Education Center K
• Gallery • Lecture rooms for general education
• Studios for clay, casting, stone, metal, wood carving, and Media Center L
mixed media Library M
Design Building F Green Hall N
• Gallery • Dining Hall and shop
• Studios and lecture rooms of the Departments of Graphic Gymnasium O
Design, Product Design (Product Design Course), and TAU Hall P
Environmental Design Student Club House Q
Center for Machine Tools G Center for Machine Tools No. 2 R

33
TOYO ITO

Honorary Fellowship of AIA

Honorary Fellowship of RIBA
Commissioner of Kumamoto Artpolis

Biography
1941 Born in Seoul Metropolitan City
1965-69 Graduated from The University of Tokyo, Department of Architecture
Worked at Kiyonori Kikutake Architects and Associates
1971 Started his own studio, Urban Robot (URBOT) in Tokyo
1979 Changed its name to Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects

Awards and Prizes

1986 Architecture Institute of Japan awards for “Silver Hut”
1992 33rd Mainich Art Award for Yatsushiro Municipal Museum
1998 Ministry of Education Award for the Encouragement of Arts for “Dome in Odate”
1999 Japan Art Academy Prize for “Dome in Odate”
2000 Accorded the Title “Academician” from The International Academy of Architecture
2000 The Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from American Academy of Arts and Letters
2001 Grand Prize of Good Design Award 2001 from Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO) for
“Sendai Mediatheque”
2002 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 8th International Architecture Exhibition NEXT at the Venice Biennale
2003 Architectural Institute of Japan Prize for “Sendai Mediatheque”
2004 XX ADI Compasso d’Oro Award for “Ripples” (furniture design)
2006 Royal Gold Medal from The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
Public Building Award for “Sendai Mediatheque”
2008 ADI Compasso d’Oro Award for the Stand Horm 2005
6th Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts
2009 Medalla de Oro from Circulo de Bellas Artes de Madrid
2010 2009 The Asahi Prize
The 22nd Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu

34
 Tama Art Library is a library for an art the arches were kept extremely slender at the
university located in the suburbs of Tokyo. bottom, and still supports the heavy live loads of
Passing through the main entrance gate, the site the floor above. The spans of the arches vary from
lies behind a front garden with small and large 1.8 to 16 metres, but the width is kept uniformly at
trees, and stretches up a gentle slope. 200mm.
The only common place shared by both
students and teachers across all disciplines
was the existing cafeteria, so the first task in
the design assignment was to question how
an institution as specialised as a library could
provide an open commonality for all.
The idea was an open gallery on the
ground level that would serve as an active
thoroughfare for people crossing the campus,
even without the purpose of going to the library.
The structure of randomly placed arches was
meant to let the flows of people freely penetrate
the building and at the same time create the
sensation as if the sloping floor and the front
garden’s scenery were continuing within the
building.
The characteristic arches are made out of
steel plates covered with concrete. In plan these
arches are arranged along curved lines which
cross at several points. With these intersections

35
site plan

36
diagram of column and arch strucure
Models / Sketches

37
Basementplan with belonging sections
REFLECTION
Therefore we should keep in mind how the 1st floor / roof extension with the outdoor area underneath
CASE STUDIES VERSUS KAM
in Tama Art Library helps attract people into the building.
The two buildings are interesting in relation to our KAM-project in several ways. First of all they
both have an “open” plan that raises the question: Could we think in a different way for the logistic
parts of the project we are doing? Maybe we don’t need closed hallways with a regular pattern,
and maybe some irregularities can cause spaces for random social meetings. There are also some upper library
concerns regarding the efficiency of such an open plan solution. And, is this really the best way to floor
work? In a faculty like ours perhaps this idea of irregular logistics suits better for an entrance floor or
library situation and not necessarily for the studios and workshops.

KAIT WORKSHOP TAMA ART LIBRARY

outside inside
see through
facade

A certain kind of “see through” effect could be something to work with when it comes to the exhibition
spaces of KAM. Maybe should some of the spaces be visible and reachable from the street so that
randomly passing people could “drop-in” to see what’s happening.

From Tokyo University of the Arts we understand that there might be an interest for the the different
disciplines to have interaction, for example a space where they could do projects together. We also
should consider the teacher/student situation, and reflect on what kind of spaces are needed for
studios, tutoring and offices. Maybe the Japanes model is better than the one of NTNU today with the
teachers located miles apart from the students?

Both the buildings also stress the relationship with the outdoor surroundings; they try to bring the
nature inside of the building, both literally and metaphorically. As a part of our site is the university
park with a high value in the campus area, and one could imagine pavilions with a concept like
that of Kait’s or Tama’s placed out in the park - bringing the inside out and the outside in, creating
a close relationship to the green area. In the Tama-project the goal was to make the library a
meeting place across disciplines and status (student/teacher), and let the people flow through the
ground floor of the building. They wanted to bring people in even though they didn’t intend to go to
the library. This is something important also to the KAM project, where the new faculty building(s)
will become the link between the city and NTNU. All the faculties/departments situated in the new
campus area will have things to show that are interesting to the public also outside the university.

Could this maybe be a pavillion in the park area within the site? The building mirroring the nature outside, Irregular logistics versus regular. Could irregularity be an idea for a foyer
38
creating a relationship to the outdoor surroundings area of the KAM project?
WHITE FOREST KAIT PLACED ON OUR SITE IN TRONDHEIM

39
TAMA ART LIBRARY PLACED ON OUR SITE IN TRONDHEIM

40