Alastair Townsend
The seeds of my current work in building communities were sown during my final year at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture in London. My Diploma project addressed the issue of trailer homes in the US, which often trap owners in a cycle of poverty due to high-interest loans and depreciating value.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article summarizing my observations about the economics that stimulate Japan’s eccentric residential architecture. In addition to featuring my work, the correspondent – Lucy Alexander – also interviewed our clients. The Onjuku Surf Shack certainly isn’t as unconventional as S-House, a curious see-thru split level home designed by Yuusuke [ ]
Japan has engineered the world’s largest earthquake simulator, the nation s first line of defense in a geophysical war. Many older homes in Japan don t meet modern earthquake code and have proven a major liability in deadly earthquakes like Kobe suffered in 1995. Full-scale testing to destruction at E-Defense gauges their widespread risk to society and [ ]
I recently published an academic paper answering the question: where do curves come from? I started this research well over a decade ago when I was working everyday with 3D design software at Grimshaw architects in London. The research began when I gave an internal presentation to overcome the architects reticence about using 3D software [ ]
I edited the November 2014 issue of a+u (Architecture Urbanism) magazine. The issue’s theme – Data-Driven Cities – is broad, designed to encompass a range of technological drivers reforming urbanity. It’s also a provocative title which elicited many contributors to implore that human agency, not big data, should sit firmly in the driver’s seat [ ]
I listen to a lot of podcasts. They keep me in touch with what s happening in the US and UK. I recently suggested to the team at WNYC s Freakonomics Radio that they look into Japan s weird housing economics. They liked the idea and did some research. You can listen to the episode below. I m impressed by [ ]
I recently learned with sadness that Kathryn Findlay has passed away from a brain tumour at the age of 60. She leaves an important architectural legacy for a number of reasons. Firstly, the works that Ushida Findlay built in Japan during the early-to-mid 90s were truly groundbreaking. Since the Modernist era of the 1950 s and 60s, [ ]
The CNN interview I gave last week has aired as a part of a piece on Japanese residential architecture (I show up around 1:00 in). The crew got in touch after reading the ArchDaily article and they contacted the owners of some of the homes pictured to arrange access and interviews. Sou Fujimoto was also [ ]
I was contacted by a number of news outlets after I published my recent article explaining Japan s crazy housing economics and how I think they facilitate experimental residential architecture. Since many people seem keen to see or photograph these in-person (or via streetview), I have assembled a map that catalogs some interesting examples of Tokyo [ ]
The following article about Japanese housing economics and how they motivate Japan s penchant for experimental architecture first appeared on ArchDaily, where it quickly became one of their most popular articles. Unfortunately, copyright restrictions prevent me from including here the photography that accompanied the original article. In architectural magazines and websites, like ArchDaily, we see…