[No. 213] Gaku Inoue

It is a great honor to be asked to write for the Keio University alumni Relay Column.

I would like to thank Professor Tatsuya Kishimoto and Professor Jorge Almazán

for recommending me.

I currently co-direct an office called GROUP,

where I work on architectural design.

Looking back on my journey from before I entered university to the present, I realize that my current life has been shaped by the small choices I made somewhat vaguely without being able to imagine the future, and by chance encounters with people. By tracing the intersecting and continuous web of countless choices and relationships with people in this text, I thought I might be able to offer a little support to those, including my past self, who are on the verge of collapsing from the anxieties of a career in architecture. That is why I am writing this.

When I was trying to decide on my future path before entering university, I was reading a magazine with a special feature on architecture and learned about an architect named Kazuyo Sejima. At the time, I wasn't particularly interested in architecture, but I was captivated by the interdisciplinary lightness and brightness of the buildings she created. I looked her up and found that she was teaching at the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology, so I decided to take the entrance exam for the Faculty of Science and Technology. After I enrolled, however, she left her position at Keio University in the year I was to be assigned to a laboratory. I decided to join the Jorge Almazán Laboratory, where many students from the former Sejima Laboratory were enrolled.

As a student, I thought the potential of architectural design was narrow. As I continued to learn and practice architecture, my thinking changed. I realized that the potential of architecture is, in fact, vast, and that designers carve out small pieces of that potential to create new forms. Depending on the designer, the potential of architecture can change dramatically. With this mindset, even when I look at the current state of architecture and feel like there is no place for me, I know I can create a place for myself. The shape of the potential I now carve out in my architectural design is related to the research and practice I chose during my university years.

In the Jorge Almazán Laboratory, where I was a member, I wanted to pursue not only theoretical but also practical research in architecture, so I planned projects where I could practice architectural design. For my theoretical research, as an undergraduate, I studied the emergent spaces of shops that place seating on the street. For my master's and doctoral work, I researched the significance and role of architects in low-budget architectural renovation projects. For my practical research, I designed and sometimes constructed places for local community interaction in Yamanashi and Gunma Prefectures. I continue to pursue this parallel path of theoretical and practical projects today. I believe my current activities are possible because I was able to learn the fundamentals of both at university.

In parallel with my laboratory activities, I began doing internships and part-time work at an architectural design office called junya.ishigami+associates, after being invited by a senior student from the university. junya.ishigami+associates is an office led by an architect who previously worked at Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, and they designed projects of various scales, from landscapes and public buildings to houses and products. I would continue to work at this office after graduation, and there I was able to learn many things, such as design methods, attitudes toward projects, and how to collaborate with experts from various fields. In particular, I have applied what I learned about collaboration, and in our office now, we are exploring ways for people with non-architectural backgrounds to get involved in design by re-examining architectural collaboration.

After leaving my doctoral program and becoming independent from junya.ishigami+associates, I started an office with a few friends. At that time, we didn't have any specific projects, and I was just thinking about what to do next. Amidst this, projects gradually began to emerge through encounters with various people.

The very first project was called "Hamacho no Hanare" in Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture. The client was someone who worked at the university library. The project began when I went to the counter to borrow several architecture books, and they asked me, "Are you in architectural design?" A project called "Ebina Art-Expressway" came about when the client from "Hamacho no Hanare" introduced me to a friend. For another project, "Renovation of the Shinjuku White House Garden," I met the client at a live music venue in Kyoto, and it started after we had dinner together after the show. For the "Maintenance of the Migishi Atelier" project, I visited an open house for the building called the Migishi Atelier and offered the owner to let me repair a damaged part of the studio. What kind of architecture can be created is, of course, dependent on architectural design skills, but it is also determined by chance encounters with people. And as I gain more experience, I become entrusted with jobs I wouldn't have been given back then, so my relationships with people change according to my current situation and track record. Through my present choices, I am re-encountering clients. By re-encountering them, the impression of our initial meetings also changes.

The "Renovation of the Shinjuku White House Garden" led to a solo exhibition at WHITEHOUSE. In this exhibition, I displayed the act of architecture as a work of art in a gallery. For "Ebina Art-Expressway," I invited a film director, a playwright, and a photographer to collaborate on the design as designers. It was an attempt to shape the potential of architectural design together with artists from other fields. Each project has given birth to new ones, and now I am working on the facility design for the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, as well as large-scale projects like station-front redevelopments, landscapes, residences, store designs, and exhibition venue compositions, while also exhibiting my architectural work in galleries and museums in Basel, Switzerland, and New York, USA. Through projects born from chance encounters, the human relationships that have already been built continue to change over and over again.

Through my current design work, I see that just as past choices and relationships continue into the present, the choices I make and the relationships I form now, together with those of the past, create a web, and the entire past is reconfigured. Making choices haphazardly, little by little, and vaguely to create this web can cause anxiety and regret, but it might be possible to change it again through present choices and encounters with people. I hope this can be a small source of support for those who are feeling down about the future. Thank you again, Professor Tatsuya Kishimoto and Professor Jorge Almazán, for giving me this opportunity.