Yuri Iwata
+1 213 269 8910 yurily8181@gmail.com https://sites.google.com/view/yuriiwata/home
Professional References
Devyn Weiser
Design Studio, Visual Studies Faculty, SCI-Arc e-mail. devyn_weiser@sciarc.edu tel. 310-985-1172
Matthew Au
Design Studio, Visual Studies Faculty, SCI-Arc e-mail. matthew_au@sciarc.edu tel. 951-283-1165
2024 FALL / 2GA Studio
Group Work / Yuri Iwata, Jacob Praglin, Constantin Gardey
Supervisor / Prof. Devyn Weiser
Contribution / Design Process, Drawing, 3D Modeling, Model Making, Photoshop
Selected work in SCI-Arc Archive
Our concept draws out publicly the relationships between performance, viewing and staging.The aim of this is to create a theatre-going experience that feels contemporary and in line with the values of LA Dance Project.LA Dance Project is a contemporary dance company, with a direction that emphasizes experimentation and collaboration. Visibility, in all respects, is an important consideration within our concept.It is possible to extrapolate these ideas to a broader understanding of architecture beyond the theatre. An architecture that is designed to encourage multiplicity. With this understanding our scheme proposes an armature for LA Dance Project to work within. While considerate and specific to LA Dance Project’s brief, our proposal is designed intentionally with a level of indeterminacy. Spaces are designed for reconfiguration, open for multiple uses, stagings or constructions.
We saw certain traditions associated with theatre architecture as especially salient for a more contemporary adaptation. Tropes like the ‘box in the box’ were borrowed to support our ideas of indeterminacy, and planning for changes in need, or changes in use.
Private programming is often nested within larger public zones. For instance, a private rehearsal space sits within an open-air arcade that connects street to site. By nesting these private, conditioned volumes within covered, but unconditioned spaces, we allow for change: when LADP has the means, additional volumes might be added. Or, if the demand for space grows, the project’s various structures could be parceled off and rented to third parties.
It was important that the project be understood as a series of parts that may accommodate a range of programming and future use. With ideas of longevity in mind, an architecture that is ‘not fixed’ may provide the utmost agency and economic opportunity to LADP.
Temporary architectures provided strong material cues to support the ideas of impermanence. We combined our strategies for nesting with curtains and screens, movable walls, and rolling shutters - architectural elements that accommodate flexibility in programme.
Our material palette also helps to establish a connection with the neighborhood: translucent and open-air structures expose activity to passersby.
2024 Fall / 2GA Visual Studies
Group Work / Yuri Iwata, Constantin Gardey
Supervisor / Marcelo Spina
Contribution / 3D Modeling, Rendering, Photoshop
Here is “Arena de Morro” designed by Herzog & de Meuron. By placing this architecture in a completely different context, we sought to find new value in the interaction between environment and architecture. The architectural chunk also gives us, the viewers, a new awareness of form and concentration on the parts.
“A concrete brick structure sits in a shallow marsh. The air is misty and the water ripples around the building. Lights shine through the lightweight roof structure as dusk draws into night. The space is being used to throw a party. Sounds of nature and people are drowned out by the growing sound of music.”
2024 SPRING / 1GB Studio
Individual Work
Supervisor / Matthew Au
Exhibited in SCI-Arc Spring School
Here is a copy of a family register with the information erased. Originally, this document contains names, addresses, and family information, but these have been erased, leaving only blanks. This blank space can be said to have no information, or it can be said that any information can be included. This blank space allows for any word. And then there are words that are defined by words but allow for ambiguous interpretations. This ambiguity can be anything or
nothing, like the blank space in a document. This is also true of space. Actions that take place in a void space overlap or extend, and their boundaries are ambiguous. A courtyard is a hole in a building, like a blank space in a document. Comparing several courtyards, I found that there is an intermediate area that is neither a building nor a courtyard, or both. I thought that this intermediate area could be a space that could tolerate ambiguity. This vague space, extended from the courtyard, leads to the second floor. Here, all activities such as walking, waiting, sitting, talking, and running, as well as ambiguous programs such as exhibitions, play groud, communal space, and terrace can be accommodated. The boundaries of the space are spontaneously generated by the people who use it.
Reductant paper blanks allow for both everything and nothing. We thought that there are some unspecified programs that can be included in such a blank space. For example, communal spaces, play grounds, and stacks. The activities that take place in these spaces are inherently undefined and ambiguous. Sitting, talking, reading, running, and other activities have no boundaries and are connected by extension. I thought that just as language is ambiguous, space should be ambiguous as well.
In these courtyard diagrams, the black areas represent the masses and the white areas the courtyards. Comparing some courtyards, there is an intermediate area that is neither a building nor a courtyard, or both. This intermediate area is. It is proportional to the complexity of the plan and section. I thought that architecture with many of these intermediate areas would create spaces that allow for the aforementioned ambiguity. Therefore, I chose the architecture called micro hutong by zao / standard architecture.
Section
The three programs and the open/close space, the courtyard, are connected to this intermediate ambiguous space by a small ramp. The ambiguous space itself is also a large oblique, a circulation from the courtyard through the entire building to the library.
2021-2023 / Iwamoto Laboratory Project, Master Thesis Project
Group Work / Yuri Iwata, Miki Katsuki, Hanano Tanaka, Mika Araki, Masaaki Iwamoto
Supervisor / Mika Araki, Masaaki Iwamoto
Contribution / Design Process, Modeling, Manufacturing, Photoshop
Selected work in KUKAN DESIGN AWARDS / Excellence Award in Structural Shapes contest in AIJ
The Pargola of Kirigami Auxetic demonstrates a new way to create porous, free-form, and three-dimensional surfaces. The small but innovative project is an application of a geometric structure, which is called auxetics and uses the plasticity of metal plates to create a curved surface with a minimum of material and labor.
The incisions pattern in the metal plates, reminiscent of the Japanese paper cutouts in ‘Kirigami’, creates a striking roof that filters sunlight and shines like a rippling water surface. This work reminds the viewer of sunlight falling through the leaves of a tree.
Auxetics are geometric patterns consisting of a number of periodic incisions in a flat surface, which, when stretched laterally, also expand longitudinally. In our project, this mechanism was applied to a metal plate.
To understand the relationship between the incision pattern and the curved surface produced, we performed 1/10 model experiments in the laboratory and apply a uniformly distributed load. As a result, a curved surface is strongly affected by the angles of cutting rather than the length of cutting. This research enabled to predict the incision pattern required to produce the desired surface shape.
1. Cutting into Kent paper using a cuttig plotter.
2. Attach weights at equal intervals and provide uniformly distribution load.
3. After a certain period of time, fix the shape with lacquer spray and remove the weight.
In order to practice in an architectural scale, we selected steel plates as the material, which can sustain its form through plastic deformation. Material experiments were conducted to investigate the strength of the material against deformation at different angles.
First, a 1 mm thick stainless steel plate is laser cut with a geometric pattern. This steel plate is then loaded and plastically deformed to produce the desired porous surfaces. This forming process can be carried out by hand, without formwork or jigs, and is therefore economical and resource-saving.
The pavilion can be bent to change its shape according to the climatic conditions of the site and control light and heat to create a comfortable space in the shade.