a+u 2024:08 OMA Shohei Shigematsu
Content
a+u’s August issue features Shohei Shigematsu, the lead at OMA New York since 2006, whose architectural works include projects from educational facilities, art museums, and exhibition designs to high-rise commercial complexes, all of which are “open-ended” and “absorb and reflect society in the moment.” Toranomon Hills Station Tower, completed in Tokyo in 2023, where the subway concourse connects to a large atrium flooded with natural light, provides continuous access from the basement of the tower to the very top. Buffalo AKG Art Museum has an undefined space wrapped around the building. Shigematsu adds an element “playful in the matter of construction” to the program’s structure by manipulating the cross section and use of materials, creating architecture that conveys fluidity. The 2021 monograph OMA NY: Search Term is an obsessive archival compilation that uses a vast collection of images to chart the evolution of the firm’s design principles. With carefully curated images, this issue captures architecture that demonstrates the “rational box and soft form can coexist,” as embodied in the contemporary public realm. Along with 34 projects and a text by Shohei Shigematsu are 4 essays and artworks that represent architecture of 2 major cities: New York and Tokyo. (a+u)
Conversation: Play
Shohei Shigematsu and Jeffery Inaba
New Museum
Essay: More Room
Sarah Oppenheimer
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Pierre Lassonde Pavilion
Cai Studio
Sotheby’s Headquarters
Exhibition Design: Open Frameworks for Display
Gion Monogatari
Audrey Irmas Pavilion
Faena Forum
Essay: Structuring Community
Germane Barnes
Once with Me, Once without Me
– Pam Tanowitz Performance at Faena Forum
Vocaloid Opera “THE END” by Keiichiro Shibuya × Hatsune Miku
7 Screen Pavilion
Taryn Simon: An Occupation of Loss
Prada Waist Down
Manus × Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Miss Dior: Stories of a Miss
Louis Vuitton: Visionary Journeys
Tiffany Landmark
Essay:
Shohei Shigematsu
Toranomon Hills Station Tower
Harajuku Quest
Tenjin Business Center I & II
121 East 22nd Street
Park Grove
Kahala Villa
Yokohama Stadium
Tsuruga Community Center
Kiyoharu Art Colony Tent
Casa Wabi Mushroom Pavilion
The ReefLine
HUD Rebuild by Design Hoboken
Conversation: On Resiliency
Shohei Shigematsu, Paola Antonelli, and Carson Chan
UIC Center for the Arts
DPI Headquarters
Milstein Hall
Essay: Je ne sais quoi
Nick Axel