now it's time to get religious again ;)



recent work include:
2000 - day care center, kanagawa, japan
2001- prada beauty, hong kong, china
2003 - christian dior building, tokyo, japan
2004 - 21st century museum of contemporary art, kanazawa.
current projects include:
2003 - ... - zollverein school, essen, germany.
2003 - ... - new museum of contemporary art, new york, usa
sejima and nishizawa have been awarded
many prizes such as the ‘gold lion’ at venice biennale (2004)
and the ‘arnold brunner memorial’ medal of the
american academy of arts and letters (2002).
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we met SANAA at their exhibition in the basilica palladiana,
vicenza, on the october 29th, 2005.
what is the best moment of the day?
s: just before I go to sleep, everything is finished then!
what kind of music do you listen to at the moment?
s: classical.
do you listen to the radio?
s: no.
what books do you have on your bedside table?
s: no books, just the magazines.
do you have any preference in fashion?
s: I often wear 'commes des garcons'.
what kind of clothes do you avoid wearing?
s: nothing in particular; what I want to wear, I wear.
do you have any pets?
n: no, we have no pets.
when you were a child, did you want to become
an architect?
n: I would never have imagined myself being architect.
s: me too.
n: she wanted to be a grandmother! kind of funny!
grandmothers always look like...
s: they are relaxed.
n: happy and relaxed.
s: yes when I was a child I really wanted to be a
grandmother.
n: to sit on the terrace and enjoy the sunlight.
where do you work on your designs and projects?
s: basically in the office.
which project has given you the most satisfaction?
n: every project has its own satisfaction, and reflection.
and we need both to move to the next step.
who would you most like to design a building for?
s: a school, but I have no experience yet,
n: yes, she wants to build a public building for kids.
s: he wants to make a church.
do you discuss your work with other architects?
n: yes, in japanese society, we often do organized
discussions, ‘officially’ with other architects, and we try
to critic each other ...
s: it is useful to have some comment.
n: yes, at architectural meetings, or at a symposium.
but also we do it sometimes at the bar...
to compliment each other (laughs).
describe your style, like a good friend of yours
would describe it...
n: coherant, consistant, always doing the same thing.
one of our contants big concerns is how to create a
relation between the inside and outside, this is very
important for us to think about.
s: and also proportion. I mean not ‘good proportion’ but
the size and if it fits into that area.
when we use glass or a screen or a concrete wall,
this depends mostly on the area.
can you describe an evolution in your work from
you first project to the present day?
n: I dont know where to start from, we founded the
SANAA office in 1995 and ten years has past since.
before most of our projects were driven by planning,
through dimensional organisation.
s: probably our interest now is more how to organise
‘a program’ within a building - the layout of rooms and how
people move inside. but also how to keep a relationship
between the ‘program’ and the outside and then how the
outside fits to the surroundings. in each project we have
different requirments and the site is different, we try to
find our way.
n: recently I feel something is getting different,
for example we are now working on the learning centre
project for the polytechnic university of lausanne in
swizterland...
and here we have more three dimensional changes,
located outside of the two dimensional wall.
this is what we feel recently as an evolution from
the beginning period.
is there any architects and/or designer from the
past you appreciate a lot?
s: a lot.
n: le corbusier, mies van der rohe, oscar niemeyer
these are an unforgetable ‘trio’ for me.
and those still working?
n: frank gehry, rem koolhaas, alvaro siza...
s: it is difficult to rest within a few, there are so many we like.
do you have any advice for the young?
n: practice,
n+s: continue!
Der Segen der modernen Wissenschaft ist unbestreitbar, ihr Nutzen tritt überall auf das Herrlichste zutage. Allerdings bleiben immer noch ein paar Fragen. Zum Beispiel diese: Wie geht's der Verdauung?
Keine Sorge, es geht hier nicht um unschöne Details des Stoffwechsels, sondern um einen Zusammenhang, den die Wissenschaft als solche bis heute kaum unter die Lupe genommen hat: den zwischen Wohlstand und Verdauung.
Aha, endlich, wunderbar - rufen jetzt Pharmazeuten, Gesundheitspolitiker und Mediziner im Chor. Ein herrliches Thema! Denn die Leute sind zu dick, sie müssen viel dünner werden! Da haben wir sehr schöne Pillen und Behandlungen im Angebot!
Ja, schade, liebe Menschenfreunde im Arzt-und Apothekerkittel, da wird jetzt nichts draus. Zu früh gefreut. Wohlstand und Verdauung, das hat auch nichts mit einer Portion Pommes zu tun, nach der man Krebs kriegt, und auch nichts mit Genmais, der angeblich bei Nachbars Kindern für drei Ohren sorgt.
Das Stoffwechselproblem mit Wohlstand und Verdauung liegt ganz woanders. Je besser es uns geht, desto öfter reden wir über den Untergang. Je mehr wir haben, desto mehr pflegen wir die Panik. Es macht den Eindruck, als ob der Wohlstand der westlichen Nationen, die unübersehbare Tatsache, dass es noch nie so vielen so gut ging wie heute, vor allem einen Zins abwirft:
Angst. Angst, was da noch kommen könnte. Morgen ist immer Migräne. Seltsam. Da haben sich unzählige Generationen abgemüht, endlich mehr vom Leben abzukriegen als bloß das Allernotwendigste. Doch nur einige Jahre im Wohlstand und Überfluss genügen völlig, um darin nicht etwa ein Glück zu sehen, das man noch steigern könnte, sondern das Gegenteil davon. Egal, was anliegt, man hört immer nur ein raunziges "Was kann das schon werden?". So gefragt: nichts natürlich.
Kann man das auch anders sehen? Beispielsweise so, dass es doch möglich sein könnte, den erworbenen Wohlstand als Kapital für Besseres zu begreifen, statt sich ständig über dessen möglichen Verlust den Kopf zu zerbrechen? Einfach aus dem etwas machen, das man hat?



