The bearable lightness of bricks

via Mallory

Vault 201 soars! I just got these photos from Mallory, who went down with Lara to decenter (aka remove the formwork) the vault at the Cooper-Hewitt. I couldn't help but cheer when I saw these images - she flies so beautifully! (Yes, I am talking about bricks and mortar.)

It's hard to believe that an entire year ago, we were just conceiving of this project. There were just four of us on the team at that time, and what we had originally designed was perhaps a more modest thing than what was actually built. Throughout the entire process, we zoomed up in scope, had our ambitions crash (literally) to the ground, and then went back to the drawing board several times before this form came through. It's simpler but in some ways, more elegant than before. And, the vault is impeccably clean!

Now the team numbers 7, plus additional members who graciously jumped on the bandwagon for last minute bricklaying over spring break. I look at this and feel just...really proud and happy.

The Design Triennial, "Why Design Now?", opens at the Cooper-Hewitt on May 14. Hopefully some of us will be able to head down for the opening reception, but in any rate, the vault will be there - standing tall - for 8 months. Can't wait!

The Risen Son

Flowers "blooming" in Roppongi

This has been an utterly gorgeous weekend in Boston, with good timing for Easter today. Gone (hopefully, for good) are the downpour days typical of the area (and of Tane, too). Hello, season of renewal.

Thank you, God, for the sun and Your Son.

Bulletproof hair

Music video by La Roux - check it out for crazy hair (giving Justin a run for his money), funky pseudo-architectural floor patterns, and fun beats. (One of my favorite moments is at 1:28.)

To see a better (but unembeddable) version, find it here.

Why I use "heart" and Japan in the same sentence

vending machines as facade in Kyoto

I'm not one of those people who uses many emoticons or slangy online chat speech (although I'm a victim of the occasional 'lol' and :D ). But I want to declare that I <3 Japan. Somehow it seems more appropriate given the graphic and often cute nature of things Japanese.

It's been almost a week since coming back to the States. And I miss Japan. My schedule this week could be seen as a trail of Japanese moments:

• On Tuesday, I decided to write my final research paper for the Theory of City Form on Tokyo.
• On Wednesday, I checked out 20 books on Tokyo from Rotch library and wrote my paper proposal (looking at Tokyo's seemingly spontaneous urban development as related to slum development).
• Today I went to the MIT bookstore and got a book of Fumihiko Maki's essays on architecture and the city.
• I also ate udon with Reem and Ryan at Samurai, one of the few Japanese restaurants in Boston.

What does that say? (See the subject of this blog post.)

Some things that remain in mind, in no particular order:

• incredibly generous and kind people (embodied in omotenashi, which is hard to translate into English)
• heated beverages from ubiquitous vending machines
• the juxtaposition of the old and new, found in the most unexpected places in the urban fabric
• heated toilet seats, even in public restrooms
• constant politeness in the form of "sumimasen"s and perpetual bowing
• convenience stores that actually have tasty foods and are...well, convenient
• impeccable attention to details, especially in the design world. and packaging.
  

More updates from the trip to come.