Public Lecture:

Terunobu Fujimori
Translator: architect Jun Sakaguchi.

Terunobu Fujimori will speak about his architectural activities, as well as his involvement in the construction of unique contemporary teahouses. From his first unique project – described as “It Makes me Feel Nostalgic, Though I Have Never Seen It Before”, Professor Fujimori has worked to create architecture that he describes as “international vernacular”. He said he has tried to adopt the following two rules as a design policy:

1. The building should not resemble anyone else’s building, past or present, or any style that has developed since the Bronze Age.
2. Natural materials should be used on parts of the building that are visible, and at times plants should be incorporated in the building, so as to harmonize the building with nature.”

Terunobu Fujimori is a Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science where his main focus is architectural history and the history of technology. He exhibited in the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006.

The acclaimed Japanese architect Professor Terunobu Fujimori will be arriving at RMIT Gallery on Monday 28 September. Prof Fujimori will be constructing a 4 m high contemporary teahouse in RMIT Gallery as part of the Shelter: On Kindness exhibition, 25 September – 25 October, as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival (see below). The exhibition asks more than 50 artists, architects, writers and philosophers to explore the concept of shelter in a physical and metaphorical sense. Professor Fujimori will be making use of wood from bushfire affected areas in Victoria to echo the loss of shelter and home that has resulted from the devastating fires.

 

Exhibition:

Terunobu Fujimori & Jun Sakaguchi, Architects, Japan.
Exhibited Project: Tea House, 2009
This 4m-high contemporary Japanese teahouse built inside the gallery by internationally renowned Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori has incorporated wood from bushfire-affected areas in his teahouse. This material reflects the loss of shelter in Victoria. A Project team of RMIT Architecture students assisted the Curator Vanessa Gerrans in assembling the installation.

RMIT Gallery brings together artists, architects, writers and thinkers to reflect on what qualities of environment and circumstance afford us shelter in a physical and metaphorical sense. Is shelter a sense of safe haven, a place to protect ourselves from the natural elements, from the unrelenting pressures of modern life or, perhaps, a place or space to reflect on our innermost thoughts?

Shelter: On Kindness is about tea houses, contemporary architecture, cattlemen’s huts and aboriginal shades. It examines ideas of nurture and kindness through the filter of the writings of psychoanalyst and author Adam Phillips and historian Barbara Taylor in On Kindness, Penguin, 2009.

 

Exhibitors and participants include:

Dr. Charles Anderson, Artist, RMIT Landscape Architecture Senior Lecturer, Melbourne

Robert Bridgewater, Artist

Gregory Burgess, Practice Director: Greg Burgess Architects & Pip Stokes, Artist, Melbourne

Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Waradgerie Artist

Dr. Peter Corrigan, RMIT Architecture Professor, Practice Director: Edmond and CorriganArchitects, Melbourne

William Eicholtz, Artist

Terunobu Fujimori & Jun Sakaguchi, Architects, Japan. A Project team of RMIT Architecture students assisted the Curator Vanessa Gerrans in assembling the installation.

Stephen Haley, Artist

Jane & Tor Holth, Writers

Alan Johnston & David Connearn

LAB Architecture Studio, Melbourne

Ronnie Lacham, Artist, Industrial Designer, Melbourne

March Studio, Architects

Paul Memmott, Professor of Architecture, University of Queensland

Prof Murdo Macdonald, Artist

John R Neeson, Artist

NMBW Architecture Studio, Practice Directors: Nigel Bertram, RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer, Marika Neustupny, with a project team of RMIT Architecture Students

Adam Phillips & Barbara Taylor, authors of On Kindness, Penguin, 2009. (see below)RMIT Indigenous Arts Unit

Alan Saunders, Radio National

 

Workshop:

NMBW Architecture Studio
Practice Directors: Nigel Bertram, RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer & Marika Neustupny,
with RMIT Architecture Student project team
Exhibited Project: Corners

Booklet by RMIT Architecture student Jennie Lang.

Booklet by RMIT Architecture student Luca Lana.

Booklet by RMIT Architecture student Mike Sharp.

Booklet by RMIT Architecture student Rathyana Renthawa.

Booklet by RMIT Architecture students Ariana Harasymiw + Gaudensia Olago-Odeny.

 

Public Programs:

ARTIST FLOOR TALK
Terunobu Fujimori
Translator: Marika Neustupny, Architecture Practice: NMBW.
TIME: Thursday 1 October 1-2pm.
Renowned Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori will talk about chashitsu – architectural spaces designed for tea ceremonies.

TEA CEREMONY
Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony
VENUE: RMIT Gallery, Under the Fujimori & Sakaguchi teahouse.
TIME: Saturday 24 October 1pm and 2pm. Free event

Artplay Workshop:
Design & Construction Workshop
Worshop Leaders:
Nigel Bertram, RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer and Marika Neustupny, Directors of NMBW, andRMIT Architecture students help children build shelters for kind moments.