Koichi Takada: Design, Nature, and the Future
An Evening at the Museum of Arts and Design
Join me for a thought-provoking, memorable evening on design and nature, as I host award-winning starchitect Koichi Takada at the Museum of Arts and Design on March 25th, on one of his rare visits to New York City.
To Japanese, Sydney, Australia-based architect Takada, fusing buildings with the natural world is the embodiment of contemporary principles in architecture and in landscape urbanism, and a winning recipe for a sustainable and green future. For the past three decades the award-winning architect has cemented his vision of ‘form follows nature’ with buildings which are not only integrated and blurred into the nature around them but also mimic it. As in the Zen tradition, landscape and architecture are one to him, and his buildings stand as kinetic, living organisms, while at the same time projecting positive environmental impact -- clean energy and efficiency, solar principles, and environmental connections. Climate change and biodiversity loss, he says, must stimulate shifting from the industrial to the natural, and to allow architecture to generate its own energy. His buildings are soft, organic, and flexible, with movable screens, rotating roofs, natural ventilations, reflecting and responding to the ever-changing natural environments.
Takada’s circular Sunflower House in Umbria, Italy was inspired by the region’s famed yellow fields, mirroring the way sunflowers turn to face to the sun; his Mamsha Palm in Abu Dhabi is an urban oasis in the shape of palm tree, the symbol of life in arid regions; and the Landmark by Lexus pavilion in Melbourne, which featured 1,000 native Australian plants growing on its façade was a powerful green statement. Each project illustrates Takada’s study of how the present ecological constrains weigh on the architectural design processes and how the reality of our densely built habitats changes the perception we have of buildings and cities, offering a compelling look at environmentally conscious architecture today and to the future evolution of the practice.
This event comes to celebate Takada’s second monograph, which advances his narrative, illuminating his nature-led architecture as a regenerative model for shaping a bright future. The event will conclude by a book signing.
