Shohei Matsukawa: Architecture in the Flow

2021/10/21

Recently, I've been hooked on YouTube videos of people building structures using primitive methods. Before they even start building, they dig the earth, build a furnace with clay, collect iron ore from riverbeds, smelt iron in the furnace, and create tools like chisels and saws for processing wood. They also build their own infrastructure for water and sewage, such as drawing water from nearby rivers, collecting rainwater, and filtering wastewater.

Nowadays, we can drink water just by turning a tap, and wastewater flows away when we pull the toilet lever. Products ordered on Amazon arrive the next day, and trash left at the collection point is picked up before we know it. Architecture is a "vessel" through which these various "flows" pass. However, we are usually not very conscious of the flows before they enter and after they exit the building.

Furthermore, architecture is made of plant-derived wood and mineral-derived soil, stone, and metal. When viewed over a long period, architecture as a "vessel" is also part of the "flow" of nature's material cycle. However, with our sense of time, it is not easy to imagine the flow in which wood and soil circulate.

YouTube videos of building structures using primitive methods are excellent teaching materials that make such invisible "flows" visible. If both the materials that make up architecture as a "vessel" and the materials and energy that pass through it are all part of a "flow," then these videos teach us the obvious: all we can do is understand the flows surrounding architecture and slightly change the way they flow.

From 2014 to the present, I have been involved in the design of the buildings at the Miraisozojuku (Institute for Designing the Future) β Village adjacent to SFC. Under the banner of SBC (Student Built Campus), we are attempting to have the students (where "students" includes faculty, staff, students, and alumni) create their own campus themselves.

SBC has seven guiding principles for its activities, one of which is "Never finish; keep trial and error." At the Miraisozojuku (Institute for Designing the Future) β Village, I want to continue the trial and error of understanding the flows surrounding architecture and slightly changing the way they flow.