The renowned Pritzker Prize winning Japanese architect Toyo Ito lectured in Singapore on Saturday (27 June). The lecture was held as part of the Singapore International Festival of Arts at the School of the Arts Drama Theatre designed by WOHA.
Ito-san’s lecture entitled “Role of Tomorrow’s Architect” touched on a few of his projects (focusing on his Singapore projects) with an overarching theme that I have been interested in for a while, an architecture beyond modernism. Ito said that “before modernism, people thought that humans are part of nature”. Now, he speculates that people are housed within boring grids which have very little connectivity to the outside, or to civic spaces where people can interact.
Using key examples of his Singapore projects and his community project called “Home-for-All” (a series of temporary housing projects for populations displaced by the Sendai Earthquake), Ito used this as a starting point to discuss the failures of modernism to connect people to nature and each other.
Toyo Ito has played a major part in shaping the built environment of Singapore, with 4 built projects (Vivocity, Belle Vue Residences, Pioneer & Crescent Halls at NTU, and CapitaGreen) with two further projects (the Crest Condominium, and one undisclosed project) coming soon. It was really compelling to see such an accomplished master speak on three of his less widely published local projects.
BELLE VUE RESIDENCES
Restricted at fifth floor due to proximity to the Istana, Ito stated that he “wanted to make a very fractal relationship to nature, like branches”. This manifests as a series of Y-shaped interconnected blocks with porosity to the central water gardens and the surrounding vegetation. He mentioned that “in the beginning, we were concerned with privacy due to the tight distance between units. By turning the units, the views are not directly facing”.
This residential complex currently under construction comprises 3 high-rise blocks at around 150m height, and 4 low-rise 5 storey buildings. The building footprint gets larger as it gets taller so the high-floor units with good views are larger than those at the base. Ito mentioned that he had visited the site the day prior, and found that the top-heavy arrangement was more dynamic than what he thought at concept stage.
Ito said that he wanted to create “a new symbol for 21st century Singapore” by putting back the greenery that would have been on the site in the facade and on the roof. The entire facade has either planter ledges or double-layered glass, and the building features a large sculptural ‘funnel’ which catches cool, clean tropical breezes at 250m height to bring cool fresh air into the building.
Ito describes the building as a metaphor for a tree with the wind scoop funnel as the crown, the green planted facade as the branches, and Olafur Eliasson‘s sinuous artwork as the roots. Interestingly, the lift core at ground level is a beautifully textured earth tone wall which Ito mentioned was made using a special earthen plaster technique by master craftsmen from Japan from Singapore soil- furthering the tree metaphor (pictured below).
To summarise, Toyo Ito stated that the role of tomorrow’s architects should be:
1) to create architecture not only as a product, but also as an activity and
2) to aim to overcome modernist architecture by making architecture open to nature.
He finished by saying that “I think that Singapore has a big expectation of future architecture”, and that he looks forward to see what local architects will come up with for the future.
