DESIGNWORKS Vol.09

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Interviewer: Near Disneyland, an amusement park that is separated from the city, is Cirque du Soleil Theatre Tokyo, which you observed.Doi: A circus is an event that's out of the ordinary. The physical skills of Cirque du Soleil are superb, and that is something "real." Of course, the aim is to create a fictitious world, but each individual performance is outstanding in terms of real abilities. This is another reversal of fiction and truth, the fake and the real.Interviewer: Natural history can be interpreted broadly as including human beings. It seems that Korakuen is creating a curious phenomenon from the standpoint of natural history in the city.Doi: It is often said that in Japan, what is of a private nature also contains elements of a public nature. The public dimension of culture gradually emerges from the business of the private sector. The budget of the Agency for Cultural Affairs has been cut, and national museums and other public museums are seeing a decline in donations. However, the private sector can survive because it consists of private activities. The same holds true for entertainment. Korakuen has good strength of place; the Yomiuri Giants are there; and with its geographical advantages as well, it is very unlikely to collapse. Although Cirque du Soleil is a circus, it is theatrical as well. It is also musical in nature, and the composers and musicians are described in detail on its French language website. However, its Japanese site focuses more on the performers. The areas of interest are completely different. About 100 years ago, the opera was a symbol of a country's cultural independence, and it played the role of reproducing history. Both ballets and operas introduce foreign cultures. For example, the Nutcracker includes Russian and Chinese dances. This teaches viewers about the behavior and costumes of foreign countries. It is like a natural history guide. In addition, pictures of Japanese people are painted on porcelain, and when Westerners see it, this porcelain is like a natural history guide for them. Perhaps boxing and martial arts could also be seen in this light.Interviewer: What concept could provide a key for urban facilities in the coming era?Doi: In a world where the Web plays a central role, the number of performers will soar, and urban spaces for these performers will be necessary. In the past, it was a privileged position to be a performer, and everyone else was a spectator. Rikidozan performed alone while a hundred million others just watched. When the ratio declines to one to 1,000, there will be a qualitative change. There will definitely be a need for spaces to perform, dense spaces. Today, life is difficult for young people who have no work, and there are problems of homelessness and so-called permanent part-time workers. However, in Japan, it has frequently happened that hardships are sublimated into art. Art and performance have the potential to provide relief, as in the case of the Beatles, who emerged from a city of working people; or the artists who have emerged from the drifting of immigrant workers in the banlieues of Paris. Japan has not yet experienced great success in this kind of transformation of troubles. This is also an issue of the nature of Japanese society. According to sociologists, it is society which is collapsing, not individuals. Therefore, if performance could relieve such troubles, perhaps the issue would be more to develop this sort of mechanism in the region and in society than to encourage individuals.Interviewer: Disneyland began as a small endeavor by the private sector, and as the railroad got involved, it ballooned in size and was transformed into the most public kind of space.Doi: What is structurally necessary seems to be a way to return the money which accumulates to the winning team. This is suited to buildings of a public nature. In the U.S., there is a good tradition of donations and philanthropy. And in Japan as well, the people who were on fire with determination to build society did things like developing the banking system.Developing system processesInterviewer: The buildings we saw today may have aspects of new performance venues.Doi: That is also true of Denshokan. Famous works are viewed with an awareness of the process by which Japanese culture has been established between two mirrors, facing each other, the mirror of Japan and that of the West. The same applies to the building's identity as a Phoenix Hall. This is a concept of exhibition. It could also be recursive modernism in the broad sense. There is an interesting process in which meanings are piled up in multiple layers, involving a variety of people, with the concept of Byodoin at the core. In the same way, today we can repeat the things that people once enjoyed at amusement parks, and this becomes leisure. It's like a recursive amusement culture. When we bathe at a hot spring, we can enjoy it doubly by repeating the same kind of bathing that was done by people long ago, adding our own experience as an additional layer. It is a matter of maturity.Interviewer: So it's necessary to look at it in the sense that the city has reached a certain level of maturity and has completed a cycle.Doi: In contemporary society, the individual is like an atom. Therefore, we need to revisit the question of how individuals relate to society. Facilities of a social nature provide a way for this relating to take place. Spaces which fulfill this role will be scattered here and there, although they may be small spaces. Setagaya and Suginami Wards are mature residential districts. I would associate this with facilities such as Za Koenji*5 created by Toyo Ito. There are many private art museums in Setagaya Ward. You can see a great deal of art just by strolling around for awhile. I think Mr. Kuma has renovated a private art museum. After World War II, when Setagaya was still quite rural, many artists moved there and built homes that included art studios. These are now individual art museums. Some of them have become satellites of the Setagaya Museum of Art. There is also a Setagaya artists' association with about 200 members. They are scattered around the large area of Setagaya Ward, and they have formed this invisible network. I believe that this gives the residential district a kind of atmosphere. Setagaya Ward is a good example of a postwar residential district that has matured.Interviewer: Thank you very much.(Interviewers: Hiro Hara, Yasushi Kawatate, and Takumi Shigeno)*1 Bracket complex (kumimono or tokiyo): A system of wooden brackets on top of columns, which support the weight of the eaves. Bracket complexes consist of bearing blocks and bracket arms. They are structural elements, but also play an important decorative role.*2 One-stepped bracket complex (hitotesaki-gumi or degumi): This is one type of bracket complex. The bracket arms support the beams at a position that is stepped out from the wall.*3 Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879): French restoration architect, architectural historian, and architectural theorist. He opposed the classicism of Beaux-Arts, a national school of fine arts, and systematized Gothic architecture from the viewpoint of rationalism. (From Language and architecture, Historical horizon and concepts of architectural criticism [in Japanese], Architecture & Construction Press)*4 Vienna Secession: An artists' association which formed in Vienna at the end of the 19th century, seeking a new formative expression within art in general. Also known as the Union of Austrian Artists.*5 Za Koenji: A public arts theater in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. This theater complex includes small theaters and a ward citizens' hall. Theatrical works are presented, and human resources are trained.Yoshitake Doi / Architectural historian and registered architect licensed by the government of France1956Born in Kochi Prefecture1979Graduated from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo1983Studied at École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-La Villette and at the Sorbonne University on a scholarship from the government of France1989Completed the doctoral course in architecture at the University of Tokyo Graduate School; withdrew1990-Served as adjunct at University of Tokyo Faculty of Engineering, associate professor and then full professor at Kyushu Institute of Design, and other postsPresentProfessor, Graduate School of Design, Kyushu UniversityWorks by Yoshitake Doi include:Language and architecture: Historical horizon and concepts of architectural criticism [in Japanese], Architecture & Construction PressCounterargument: Architecture and time [in Japanese], coauthored with Arata Isozaki; Iwanami ShotenAcademy and architectural order [in Japanese], Chuo Koron Bijutsu PressKey words in architecture [in Japanese], Sumai no Toshokan Press.and etc.Interview