Rafael Vinoly: The Making of Public Space

The Making of Public Space

Foreword ~The art of construction has traditionally been an important focus for the Architecture Program at Michigan. Faculty at the College have long held the belief that it is the responsibility of architects to unite the art and science of building, a tradition begun in 1870 by William Le Baron Jenney, who was the first to give instruction in architecture at the University Nearly a hundred years later, John Dinkeloo-a graduate of the College-came to epitomize the architect who was able, through the union of design and technology, to raise the art of architecture to new levels . With an endowment established by faculty, alumni and friends of John, and with an annual gift from his widow Thelma, the College is pleased each year to celebrate the accomplishments of an architect who, like Dinkeloo, has advanced the art and science of architecture. ~ Dinkeloo was an architect whose design was wedded to technology His technical innovations include many things which architects now take for granted, including the use of oxidizing steel and the neoprene gasket ~There remain many opportunities for us to look at new materials and new methods of construction to help raise building to an art form. The John Dinkeloo Memorial Lectures are dedicated to that spirit of discovery, and we always seek out architects whose work elevates construction to the level of art. The work of Rafael \!lnoly stands out in this regard. We are honored by the opportunity to have Rafael \!lnoly represent the spirit of John Dinkeloo's quest in this year's lecture

Robert M Beckley Dean, College of Architecture+ Urban Planning

Š Copyright 1g97 The University of Michigan College of Architecture + Urban Planning & Rafael \i1nory Archrrects, New York Edrror: Annette W. LeCuyer Design: Christian Unverzagt Printed and bound in the United States of America by Unr-tersrry Lithoprinters, Inc. Typeset in Hefvetica Neue ISBN 1-891197-D0-2

Published to record the John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture held at the College on 31 March 1997 and an exhibition of the Tokyo International Forum at the College Gallery 24 March- 4 April1997.

College of Architecture + Urban Planning The Unr-tersity of Michigan 2000 Bonisteel Boulevard Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2069 USA

415

Introduction ~ As a way of celebrating John Dinkeloo's life, Thelma Dinkeloo has encouraged us to search out architects who are working to develop ideas and concepts with the same fervor that her husband so energetically demonstrated in his own work. As a student, that work was a great inspiration to me, and it is a tremendous honor to have this lecture every year at the College. ~ Rafael Vinoly is principal of the internationally recognized practice Rafael Vinoly Architects . He is best known as an American architect with practices in New York, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires. He was, however, born in Uruguay and, after completing his architectural studies at the University of Buenos Aires, formed a studio with six colleagues which was to become one of the largest architectural practices in South America. His first design, a competition-winning project for the Argentine Industrial Association, began a tradition in his office of successful competition entries and significant awards. While pursuing this practice, Rafael ~noly earned a Master's degree at the University of Buenos Aires and then joined its faculty. ~ Drawn to America's optimism in advanced technology, Vinoly came to the United States in 1978 and settled in New York a year later where he set up an independent architectural practice He has taught at such distinguished institutions as Harvard, Columbia and Yale, as well as in Mexico, South America, and Europe. ~ In 1989 , his design for the Tokyo International Forum was selected as the winning scheme from 395 submissions in the first international architectural competition ever held in Japan . The distinguished jury included I. M. Pei, Fumihiko Maki, Kenzo Tange, ~ttorio Gregotti, and

Arthur Erickson . This extraordinarily beautiful civic building was formally opened early this year. This achievement was perhaps best summarized in an article in The New York Times on 12 January 1997 by the architectural critic Herbert Muschamp who wrote 1/You will want to go into the Glass Hall immediately, but first you ought to look at the fire stairs set between the concrete cubes.

These are the Rolex of fire stairs, immaculately engineered cascades of open-mesh steel that rise without a crude or wasted motion. If you climb a flight or two of them, you will get the key to the whole building. 1/lt's almost unheard of for architects today to devote themselves to this level of detail. We pretend not to mind, because if we did we'd go crazy We accept that architects develop concepts, sketches, drawings and models, and then hand the project over to an "associated" firm to create the physical object in space. Here, we're dealing with a radically different economy of mind. The bolt beneath our feet emerged from the same esthetic intelligence that conceived the space around it. An architect is making architecture, and we almost can't stand it. It is dizzying to realize that excellence is a polite term for obsession." ~The Tokyo International Forum seems especially significant to us in this College, for it exhibits that same preoccupation with excellence from concept to detail that inspired the worlk of John Dinkeloo and which, I hope, continues to be one of the inspirations for our program today.

Brian Carter Professor & Chairman of Architecture

s l7

The Making of Public Space ,lThe invitation to deliver the John Oinkeloo Memorial Lecture is, for me, much more than an opportunity to talk at one of the many architectural schools in this country. In 1961 , when I started architectural school, the picture of American architecture for us in South America was completely connected to the work of Eero Saarinen and, subsequently, to the work of John Dinkeloo and Kevin Roche. Years later, after graduation, and in times which were not as fertile as today with regard to the importance of technology and materiality in architecture, I was particularly drawn to the work of John Dinkeloo. ~ The. education that I had was less fiamboyant and less sophisticated than architectural education today Prior to coming into architecture school, I was trained as a musician. It always struck me as a curious phenomenon that something that costs so much money, that requires so much effort, that involves so many people, and that is going to be here for so much longer than a piece of music is usually orchestrated, so to speak, with so little rigor. ~ One of my most interesting moments at school was when I recognized that I was not quite sure what I was learning, and that learning was not going to come from the teaching, but rather from my own attitude. I began to understand that the process through which I could receive bits of knowledge, formulate ideas, and filter them through my own perception of how things could be realized was critical. ~ In trying to understand exactly the inner workings of architectural production, I became interested in dissecting the natures of the one kind of architect who could come up with an inspired notion about how to develop a part!, and the other kind of architect who could implement it

"'-,

~~~\v

(

~. ')

'

I

\

i

~

~I

ajg

After being in practice for some years, I realized that there is no such split, that the process through which an architectural work is produced is one complex, multi-faceted skill that requires the ability not only to design but to manage political circumstances, economics, organization of skills, and people. It is critical that design never stops, and that throughout the process of implementation, the so-called original idea is reformulated many times, even down to the last moments in which a job is actually finished. ~ I have always been puzzled by the split between what I call formal knowledge and tacit knowledge. It is a split from which we all have suffered. There are things that can be learned because they are formalizable, because somebody can create or construct a way of describing conceptual notions, and other things that can be learned only by doing. To me, architectural practice is essentially a long process of learning by doing. ~The split between the design architect and the builder architect, between formal and tacit knowledge, is for me one of the most glaring contemporary fallacies and, I would suggest, part of the reason why the profession is in such a weakened state. This depressing aspect of architectural practice can be overcome by two things • the enthusiasm of young people and a major renovation of the educational system In my view, these two things can counteract some of the conditions which the market has created. ~ Practicing architecture today is at best a marginal operation, something which demands extraordinary commitment One has to have ethics in order to go from a very large job to a very small job with the same intensity and with the same character and enthusiasm . When I was 19 years old, I won

a competition for a very large building in Buenos Aires, the first high rise in the city. At the time Roche Oinkeloo's Ford Foundation was almost complete and it was in my mind for the whole duration of that first project Subsequently, I won a series of commissions that were all the result of competitions When I came to the United States, it was a surprise to me to realize that competitions were not the normal way of developing a practice .

Instead of having people propose ideas about programs and needs that architects could articulate, the process of selection was predicated on other things like Form 259, having a certain number of people working in the office, building so many millions of dollars of construction a year, and so on.

These criteria reftect an outdated mode of measuring professionalism We need to recreate a process that instead recognizes skills, ability and excellence . ~lThe only proof is to just do it The dilemma, however, is how to get the opportunity to demonstrate that you can do it when you have no track record. The only possible way is to develop experience incrementally, step-by-step.

As long as you build something-never mind how large it is, and never mind how important it is- you grow in demonstrating not only to the world, to the market so to speak, but also to yourself that the process of learning is something that can be translated into a real service. ~ Being involved with ma~ng is the only aspect of architectural culture which I find completely satisfying. I have never been prone to philosophical posturing. Tactically, I think that we should convey to people the fact that we are here to build and not to talk about it To build is a very difficult thing. It requires a range of skills that can only be developed with practice

Ford Foundation , New York, 1968 Ke~n

Roche John Dinkeloo and Assocetes

12 ! 13

~ Today

we are all under the pervasive influence of fantastic image~making. There is a lot of vanity associated with architecture in this setting, and this is something about which I feel very dubious.

There is much confusion about this question of the autonomy of architecture as an artistic practice.

Aesthetics and self~expression in architecture are not as important as the fact that it is a social act There is an enormous social responsibility in what architects do. It is important to push beyond the obvious in order to make something more than what is required. The satisfaction of a requirement is a starting point but is not sufficient As architects, we neither have the money nor the need for making the Tokyo International Forum. If there is somebody who needs such a building, their requirements must be satisfied first Then, mechanisms must be sought which ensure the proposal can be enriched and transformed into something which has cultural meaning and which contributes to the sense of permanence and the betterment of the city. ~Tokyo International Forum ~The idea for the Tokyo International Forum was born in the late 1980s at the height of Japan's economic boom.

The Governor of Tokyo wanted to mark Japan's importance in the global economy with a grand projet. The site of the Forum, formerly the center of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, was vacated as part of a master plan which called for relocating the City Hall to the city's periphery in order to restore civic and cultural functions to the center. Kenzo Tange, who had designed the City Hall, convinced the governor to decentralize the government, thus liberating a 7 ~acre site in the heart of the city, an unimaginably huge site for Tokyo. It was a puzzling situation: Tange offered his own building, a superb

building, for demolition He subsequently won a competition to design the new city government offices in Nishi-Shinjuku. ~The site of the Forum occupies a key position on the boundary between Marunouchi, Tokyo's vital central business area, and the elegant Ginza shopping and entertainment district The site faces the outer Imperial Palace Gardens to the west and is bounded on the east by the tracks of Japan Railways, the city's principal system of transportation. It is a highly consolidated urban setting characterized both by the grid of institutional buildings edging the Imperial Gardens and the curvilinear sweep of the railway Four subway lines and two of the most heavily used train stations, Tokyo and Yarakucho stations, are located to the north and south of the site respectively generating significant pedestrian traff1c in the area. ~The fact that the competition for the Forum was the first international architectural competition in Japan was highly significant because Japan has long been perceived as a closed society.

The competition was designed to counter that xenophobic image. One of the reasons why we entered was not only because the competition was exciting in itself, but because the bnef was ambitious and maginative. It was written by an absolute master, an economist who was completely clear about what he knew and what he didn't know He wrote the brief in an unbiased fashion, creating an intriguing list of requirements that was very difficult to solve. ~The complex was to accommodate dance, musical, and theatrical performances in four theaters ranging from 600 to 5,COO seats. Each theater was required to have equal status with regard to the main entrance space of the complex. The brief also included

Site plan

I

0

I

20

I

40

I

80m

D D

CJ

=--==--"

~~.~~

~ -

~

;

-0

G

16 117

two cinemas, facil ities for conventions and trade shows, a conference center, retail and restaurants.

In addition, offices, cultural information centers, a garden and a gallery for an internationally recognized art collection were to be provided.

A major requirement was a strong north~south pedestrian connection through the site between Tokyo and Yarakucho stations through which around 7 million people move each day very efficiently Finally, the brief called for a 4,000 square meter open public plaza. ~ The brief for the Forum described an ambition for a unique civic institution intended to serve as a focus of both cultural and business activities in the capital city of Japan.

The building's program is a hybrid, a combination of cultural and multipurpose spaces responding to the implicit goal of inducing the special synergy between artistic and economic forces intrinsic to the development of Japanese culture.

Commissioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and funded by private capital, the Forum was envisioned as a prime venue for events from around the world, a unique center promoting open dialogue and intemational cultural exchange. ~ With a vibrant but constrained site and this long list of requirements, we set out to study the competition with great intensity, as if it were a real JOb. We split the office into four teams to develop the four theaters independently Trying to make sense of the work of the four design teams, we searched for a way of somehow locking the project into the site geometry. For me, an indication of good architecture is that a building is site specific and cannot be moved anywhere else. ~ The crux of the design problem proved to be where to locate the public plaza. We explored many possibilities.

1a j 19

I talked to a number of distinguished people about Tokyo and about the site in particular, and they all offered ideas and advice. But the most important insight came from a friend-a housewife who lives near and uses this part of the city regularly. Her insight was totally matter~of~ fact about the nature of the ground level in Tokyo Because Tokyo is such a condensed city, the reality of the sidewalk is multiplied at least four or five times.

Two levels down and three levels up are exactly the same as walking on the street The understanding that these levels above and below are significant led us to the notion that the building should wrap the civic space. ~The breakthrough came when the existing contour of the railway viaduct was fiipped over to make an elongated boat shaped figure at the eastern edge of the site. This guided circulation through the site and created a freely accessible space at the heart of the ground level plan that is both linear and central, the main civic space of the scheme. Within this public plaza, people could be totally unrelated to the building, and the building could reconnect to itself in a ring of circulation on many levels above and below the space. A public precinct could thus be created protected from the visual and environmental impacts of the surroundings-particularly the elevated train viaduct to the east-and at the same time very accessible from all sides of the site. ~ At the outset, people thought that our scheme was a Japanese entry-uncomplicated and perhaps even a little boring. That was exactly what we had intended to do----that is, to base the project on something other than the senseless formal innovation and pseudo~artistic form making which seem to figure so prominently in architectural circles today

To me, modernism is based upon ethical posturing about form-making. We thought that there was an interesting unexplored topic about how to find a kind of classicism in modem architecture, how to make modern architecture the natural consequence of functional response filtered through geometric control and structural legitimacy. ~The scheme has four major components: a protective perimeter wall, the theaters, the glass hall and the plaza The plan of the building is a response to the two adjacent urban geometries : the gridded commercial blocks of the business district to the west and the railway and more informal character of the Ginza shopping district to the east. Clad with precast concrete panels faced with Brazilian granite, the perimeter wall defines the long east and west sides of the site, and is broken at the north and south ends to allow generous vistas of the public space at the center of the block. The four theaters are placed along the western edge of the site with their fly towers contained in a thin slab building which faces the downtown grid. While all are derived from the same three-dimensional 9 meter module, the theaters diminish in size as the site narrows to the south.

To the east, the lens-shaped glass hall is held by a curved slab building housing the conference center which shields the complex from the railway The space between the theaters and the glass hall is a generous open air plaza, a lavish display of Japan's scarcest commodity: space. ~The plaza is both a space of transit and a destination, both a void between buildings and a positive volume.

The ambiguity in the legibility of the space is intentional. People can actually feel propelled through the space but, at the same time, have the sense that this is a static place. A series of

Plaza level O.Om 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

paza void (glass hall) Yarakucho subway entrance Tokyo subway entranoe flowershop cafe travel bureau forum shop bookshop gallery video suite goods/seNicing

I

0

I

10

I

20

I

40m

I I

I

I L

l

/

ll

II

_/

22 j 23

civic functions-a library-mediatech, restaurants, cafes, shops, an art gallery, and a 24 hour multi-media theater that tells the story of Japanprovide the activities that give the space its public character. In addition, the space is activated by the lobbies of the theaters at second fioor level which overiook the plaza Zelkova trees and lighting in the plaza are set out on the same 9 meter grid as the structure. ~ Under the landscaped plan of the plaza, a large concourse connects the access from the prqect to several lines of local and regional rail networks. The concourse is lined with an extensive food court with convenience shopping, continuing education facilities, and an lntemational Exchange Salon. This circulation space wraps around a large exhibition center and becomes itself the main fioor of the glass hall where the general information kiosk is located. Within the exhibition center, the 9 meter module is expanded to an 18 meter structural grid with a series of tree-like columns. ~ Since the plaza and basement concourse are so large and so important, a trough of light articulated by a lighted glass fioor that wraps around the whole site marks the threshold of the public area and gives people the sense of crossing a curtain of glass or light before entering into the calm and totally abstract space of the grid of trees.

At the same time, the trough provides natural light to the basement and creates a sense of ambiguity between the reading of the plaza as being at ground level, yet disengaged from the sidewalk.

The plaza fioor is treated as a filtering plane rather than as solid ground. It is articulated by pieces of granite mounted on neoprene pads. When people walk upon this fioor, it is not rigid but gives a little, implying that this is something other than

1 2 3 4 5

Concourse level - 7.5m glass hall information center exhibition center fooo court Yarakucho subway entrance Tokyo subway entrance

I

0

I

10

I

20

I

40m

0

0

0

0

0

0

'

0

0

0

0

0

0

~~/' ~

" 2

",~t ~

"

~*" ~

"

Q

"

~*.,

L

24 125

a typical sidewalk. The rhythm of trees and lights can be seen both above ground and from the concourse below, maintaining an important visual connection between levels as well as a conceptual understanding of the coincidence of grids above and below grade. ~All functions of the building are accessible from the concourse level The theaters have direct entrances from the street as well as from the concourse below so that they can be used independently or all together. Above, the lobbies of the theaters and the conference center overlook the space of the plaza and the glass hall.

The conference rooms are connected to the theaters through a network of bridges across these voids, creating total fiexibility of usage among the various components of the complex. From the plaza, a zig-zag ramp intersecting the bridges ascends along the length of the glass hall to the top of the building where restaurants and art galleries overlook the city and Tokyo Bay ~The Forum is open and accessible to the public 24 hours a day It is a statement about the role of institutions in contemporary urban culture and as such, addresses issues of fiexibility, permanence, openness and civic responsibility.

The facilities are fully rented for the next four years.

Several of next year's events will involve the whole complex, bringing some 35,000 people into the building at the same time. ~The four theaters, raised up to second floor level, are articulated as metal-clad objects which hover over the public space of the plaza below ~ Hall A is a 5,000 seat theater which is intended to be used for events ranging from KabuKJ theater to rock concerts.

It is entered under a rather Guimard-like canopy that gives a sense of compression. The light trough in the fioor divides ticketed from non-ticketed areas.

Theater level +27 .5m 1 HallA 2 Hall B

3 Halle 4 Hall D 5 void (glass hal) 6 restaurant 7 gallery

I

0

I

10

I

20

I

40m

26 127

Within the ticketed zone, escalators carry visitors up to the lobby which has views back to the plaza and out to the street below and the city beyond Bridges then carry people up around the belly of the theater and finally into the auditorium. Vvlthin, there is a wall of light that is essentially a single gigantic house light which, as it dims, changes from bright white to a soft, warm amber color.

The enormous proscenium is the proportion required for Kabuki theater The orchestra pit and shells are all moveable, and the auditorium has a state of the art lighting system and facilities for simultaneous translation. ~The whole building was built on an incredibly fast program of 48 months from beginning to end. An mportant consideration in the development of the detail of Hall A was the fact that we had to build the theater in the shop and bring it to site practically complete because there was no time in the construction program to build scaffolding inside the space. The design of the ceiling is predicated on its ability to be prefabricated and spliced together with the superstructure. This entailed careful coordination of air conditioning systems with sound and lighting systems, all of which were installed in the prefabricated ceiling panels in the shop before the steel superstructure was completed. ~ Hall 8 is a fiexible space for 3,000 people which is used primarily as a banquet hall. Its interior character is more anonymous .

The ceiling is divided into 65 moveable panels which are moved with the aid of a small model linked by computer to the panels. As the model is adjusted and shaped, so is the ceiling. The hall can be divided into smaller spaces by means of giant shoji screens. ~This Hall is located above the main entrance on the west side of the site which

28 129

is on axis with a major vista towards the Imperial Palace. From the entrance, a long escalator takes people directly up to the main feature of the upper lobby, a huge 18 meter square window which frames the view of the palace. The diagonals of the window frame ensure continuity in the lateral bracing of the wall-which is of course very Important 1n terms of earthquakes-and also triangulate the surface of the glass to resist wind loads ~ Hal l C, a music hall with 1,500 seats, is a very special place. Because of the music, it had to be a resonant interior. It is therefore made of wood. We looked for the nght wood for nearly six months and finally found two Karim trees 1n Jakarta.

Everything is made from these trees. The wood is exactly the color of the finest Cremonese stringed instruments. This hall is highly transformable. The stage platforms move and change heights; the ceiling refiector is adjustable and even folds into the fly space to make a single acoustic volume of stage and auditorium. ~ Acoustics pretends to be a science but, in my mind, is 100 percent a question of intuition. Some strategies are proven Because this IS a performing arts center surrounded by train and subway lines, the whole building is acoustically isolated on elaborate foundations consisting of two walls around the entire perimeter of the site which are separated by vibration isolating pads. Another proven strategy which we adopted is derived from the typical box of the traditional 18th century concert hall in which balconies-which were created primarily for structural reasons- also produced multiple refiections of the early s1gnal to the audience in the center of the hall. Balconies work incredibly well acoustically as well as structurally In lieu of balconies, we have computer controlled

East Elevation

DDDDD

oooqp oooq!= lilO~D1al J

30 ls1

towers along the walls of the hall The computer can change the angles and reflectivity of the wood cladding on the towers which has been designed to enhance the pattern of acoustic refiections.

Panels fold in and out to regulate the early refiection of sound which varies, for example, from a full orchestra or chorus to a small chamber music ensemble One critic has described the impression of this space as being inside a Cubist violin ~ Hall D, at the south end of the site, is the smallest theater seating 600 people. It serves as a black box experimental theater or as a large conference/audio visual room. ~The glass nail, the most dramatic space of the complex, is a 60 meter high transparent enclosure of steel and glass in the architectural tradition of the great nineteenth century civic spaces. The glass hall is essentially about light and transparency It is a metaphor for openness which stands in marked contrast to the opaque and inaccessible Imperial Gardens, the so-called dark heart of Tokyo. ~The structure of the glass hall is very simple.

Having often said that architecture is the art of dealing with heaviness, the glass hall is intended to defy gravity, to be a manifestation of lightness.

Two monumental columns have articulated pin connections at both top and bottom. The shape of the columns is the result of the moment of inertia of the horizontal forces which are the main stress of the whole structure A single roof truss spans 230 meters between the two columns. The boat shape of the truss enables it to accommodate the maximum width of the space at the center and the minimum width at either end. We have provided a public walkway within the roof truss but the government has not yet allowed it to be used.

32 133

~ The profile of the truss is derived from its stress diagram. The structure is basically a compression ring and two parabolic beams which attach to the capitals at the tops of the columns. It is designed to reflect the nature of the forces of compression, tension and shear. Compression, of course, is taken by the parabolic arches; tension is dealt with by the longitudinal cables; and the ribs of the truss connect tension and compression members and deal with shear The ribs are thin at the center of the span where shear is minimal and thick at the ends where shear is greatest The wall of the glass hall is a system of cable-stayed trusses which also emphasize lightness and transparency. This tension structure is hung from the roof truss and anchored to the plaza slab. ~ Architecture structure and services are carefully integrated. Fire stairs are hung from the main structure. In addition to providing means of escape , they serve as expansion space for the lobbies during intermissions. The ramp along the length of the glass hall which carries visitors up to the roof is intersected by a number of bridges which, in addition to connecting spaces, work essentially as horizontal struts to resist the wind pressure on the walls of the glass hall. Rainwater from the roof comes into the parabolic arches and drains into the columns which are connected with the main water storage tank for the fire fighting systems of the building. ~ With lighting at night, the bridges become fioating or flying figures in the space. Light is also captured by the truss, transforming the transparent canopy by day into an enormous lighting fixture at night The dramatic lighting of the truss has achieved what we never set out to do: The roof is becoming a horizontal landmark in the city Landmarks are normally

34 j35

conceived as endless vertical structures up to the sky. In contrast, this hovers over Tokyo .

It can be seen from many places and it is quite wonderful. ~ The glass canopy to the subway entrance on the west side of the site is a detail we developed as an aftermath of the glass hall.

It was something we wanted to do from the very beginning but could not convince anyone else to do. The canopy is a cantilevered glass assembly which spans approximately 14 meters . It has no steel frame; the structure is the result of the juxtaposition of glass members articulated through a connection piece that we developed with Tim McFarlane, a talented young engineer in London.

Following on from the work of Peter Rice, this connection conveys compression into the mass of the glass. We designed and tested the connection and, with much effort, finally convinced the client it would work. It is a bravura assembly which flies over the subway entrance. Everything hinges on the connection point at the base, which is the torsion element ~ The building was designed primarily through a series of working models done at many scales ranging from 1:500 site models to full-scale mock-ups of connection details. The final model of the whole building, which was exhibited at the Museum of Modem Art, is nearly 25 feet long and includes every detail of the lighting system, the air conditioning system, the final form of the structure, and even the furniture. The model can be disassembled so that each part of the building can be studied in detail. Photographs of the model of the glass hall look almost exactly the same as what was finally built It is also interesting to see the relationship between sketches and the final form of the project ~ Architects today are too often

36 137

enamored with the initial phase of work. The Tokyo Forum has an enormous consistency formally speaking; it IS hard to see the difference between the final building and the competition entry, but I can assure you that they are totally different buildings in factual terms. The final building is about different things, things that happened during the development and implementation of the initial idea.

On the design teams in the office, many people got bored after the initial design stage was completed.

It is a crucial thing pedagogically speaking to try to explain to somebody that they shouldn't be bored.

The creation of intensity, enthusiasm, and respect for what happens "afterwards"-that IS during the building process-is difficult unless it is understood as not being afterwards but as being the same as design. What we did over six and a half years in Tokyo was worth zero until the doors opened.

If we had not succeeded in building it, I can assure you that it would not be a fraction of what it now is conceptually. ~This brings me back to my opening comments about the continuity of design and implementation, and the importance of being committed to the whole process. Workng on the Forum has been a permanent reminder of the opportunities and challenges that come with the Internationalization of architectural practice.

Japan is the third country in which I have had to take exams to become a licensed architect You cannot imagine the level of pressure we were under. The Forum was the largest JOb in Japan.

Work there is controlled by two or three very large architectural firms each with about 4,CDO architects who felt threatened by our presence. Fortunately we were somewhat protected by the fact that our scheme had been selected as a result of

38 39

09 93

01 94

02 94

04 94

05 94

10 94

40 141

an open competition . I passed the exams. We bravely said that we were going to do the drawings, and we did. We also managed the construction which was carried out by two very large joint ventures of major Japanese contractors. ~ In Japan, the major obstacle to acceptance is to demonstrate commitment It seems difficult for us nowadays to be committed for the long haul. I moved to Japan and took most of my office along. Together with those hired in Tokyo, we had 250 people from our office on site together with 800 engineers.

We had to demonstrate that we were there for the duration, not only of the project but afterwards as well We completed the project three months ago, and we still have an office of 20 people in Tokyo taking care of details. ~The amazing thing about Japan is that, once we were able to prove our commitment, the whole country turned into an incredible machine of efficiency. There was no critical path method Every single morning we met at the beginning of the work day for calisthenics.

Then the contractor would announce the basic work plan for the day. At the end of the day, around six in the evening, the same people would get together, review what had been done, and decide what was to be done the next day. ~ There is no hierarchy. Architects, engineers, contractors and subcontractors all work together.

I gave a detailed lecture about the design of the building to the welders of the structure because in Japan, the laborers want to know what is behind the architecture of the building and why the building has the form it has. This high level of commitment and intensity on the part of labor occurs within what might rightfully be called a totally unjust competitive situation. Japanese construction is

42 ]43

a market of around 650 billion dollars a year which gets distributed systematically among only nine construction companies who do all the work.

In spite of the lack of competition, they are very interested in performance. It was marvelous to be on the same wavelength as the contractors.

They are the best, absolutely the best ~There is an enormous sense of pessimism that pervades the whole of Japanese culture. They are convinced they are doomed, but that pessimism gives them the total detachment that enables them to focus on perfection, on the excellence of the work they do. It is an unbelievable place to work once this is understood. ~ Something which I now see with a different eye after an experience like this is that Japanese culture is enormously obstructive on the one hand and totally pragmatic on the other.

The Western schism between high culture and commerce is non-existent there. For the Japanese, this connection-the fact that trade, commerce, performance, and art of the highest quality live together-is what inspired the Tokyo International Forum, what built it, and what is now giving it life.

Rafael \!ino!y

44 145

A Forum for Tokyo ~ Style aside, the diverse

manner in which architecture is practiced together with the multifarious ways in which it IS judged and received by the public are both perhaps more vaned now than ever before. At the same time, some of our more renowned architects, as promoted by the media, emerge as being little more than fashionable scenographers . Against this negative JUdgement we may set world-wide, an equal number of exceptional architects Among them, today, we must include the practice of Rafael Vinoly Architects , most notably for their awe inspiring Tokyo International Forum. ~ This mammoth complex is an undertaking of far greater scope than most architects achieve 1n a lifetime and the fact that a relatively unknown architect was selected through an open international competition says much for the client's vision and for the perspicacity and honesty of the jurors. ~ The achievement of Vinoly's Forum stands to become the rarest of all rare events, namely a twentieth-century res publicae on a scale that is comparable to Raymond Hood's Rockefeller Center, still one of the finest uriban set pieces realized in this century. Thus the project is not on~ a professional tour de force but also a civic worlk of the highest possible caliber. ~ At the same time we must further acknowledge the didactic relevance of the work as an ingenious uriban fragment on an extremely difficult site. The simple gesture of fiipping the geometry of the railroad tracks to generate the volume of the Glass Hall resolves one of the most awkward aspects of the site. The second felicitous move was to place the auditoria, one after the other, so as to form a continuous streetfront on the exterior, and a public agora on the reverse side as defined by the staggered auditoria and the crystalline elliptical plan of the glazed atrium. Triangular 1n plan, and

open to the sky, this public space is exceptionally permeable in terms of the pedestrian movement and views throughout the site. This is the very heart of the scheme the creation of a protected public forum in the center of Tokyo that is surely comparable with the historic role playec by the Piazza San Marco in Venice. ~What also has to be acknowledged at this stage is the remarkable professionalism with which the project has been developed; a value, incidentally, that is all too readily discredited in the current architectural debate. The rational organization of the complex within a strict boundary and the precise positioning of extremely variec components within a regular square gnd is ingeniously infiected so as to create a constantly changing three-dimensional space-form. ~ In many respects this work involves a dynamic and didactic play between the light tectonic form of the atrium and the stereotomic form of the auditoria. The two are brought together on top of a three-story podium that is, as it were, the unifying earthwork informing the whole. Nothing perhaps could be more peculiarly Japanese than this subterranean concourse that amounts to a worid 1n itself, linking the man lobby to the conference center and the undercroft of the theaters ~ Rnally, there is the awe-inspiring, elliptical plan form of the atrium itself, a mega-engineering volume, cradled under a single gigantic truss and crossed by futuristic passerelles at different levels.

This grounded dirigible, flooded with light, announces to the rail transit entering the city, the stature of the new Japan; a fonm aspiring in its scale and symbolic value to the fiying shells of the Sydney Opera House or the grandeur of the Eiffel Tower.

Kenneth Frampton

46 147

John G. Dinkeloo was born in Holland, Michigan in John Dinkeloo, 19 18 1981 1918 and graduated from the architecture program at the University of Michigan in 1942. Upon graduation he joined the office of Skidmore Owings and Merrill in Chicago where he worked first as a designer and subsequently as the chief of production Eight years later John returned to Michigan to JOin the office of Eero Saarinen and Associates in Bloomfield Hills where he was to become a partner.

During this time he was involved with the design of a number of important prqects including the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport and Dulles Airport in Washington DC, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Morse and Stiles Colleges at Yale University. Following the sudden death of Eero Saarinen in 1961 John Dinkeloo formed a partnership with Kevin Roche becoming a founding partner of Kevin Roche John Oinkeloo & Associates in 1966. This practice was to become one of the most distinguished architectural offices in the United States and, with the completion of prqects such as the Ford Foundation in New York, the Headquarters for John Deere in Moline and the Oakland Museum, became a practice whose work has been internationally recognized. ~ John Oinkeloo was responsible for the development of thoughtful and elegant systems of design and technical innovations including the use of structural neoprene gaskets, new glazng systems and high-strength low-alloy weathering steel in the exposed structures of buildings. In 1968 he received the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects . Six years later the practice received the Architectural Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects. In 1995 the Ford Foundation Building was selected for the AlA 25-Year Award. ~ John Dinkeloo died in 1981 . The John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture was established at the College of Architecture and Urban Plann1ng as a recognition of his extraordinary contribution to architecture and to honor the work of this distinguished and highly respected alumnus of the University of Michigan.

The Dinkeloo Lecturers ~ The John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture has been delivered by architects who are internationally recognized for their work in practice.

I 984 I 985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

Kevin Roche E Fay Jones Robert J. Frasca William Pederson Richard Meier Thomas H. Beebe Gunnar Birkerts Thom Mayne Tod Williams + Billie Tsien Michael McKinnell Diana Agrest John Patkau Richard Horden Rafael Vinoly

Acknowledgments ~ The College of Architecture and Urban Planning is grateful for the generous support for the John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture which has been provided by Thelma Dinkeloo and an endowment from faculty and friends. We would also like to acknowledge the help of both Chnstiaan and Derek Dinkeloo. ~ Without the enthusiastic assistance of recent graduates Paul Warner and Craig Synnestvedt in Ann Arbor and of Crystal Son and Peter Coe at the office of Rafael Vinoly Architects in New York, neither the exhibition of the Tokyo International Forum nor this book would have been possible. ~ The commentary by Kenneth Frampton, written and first published 1n 1993, has been made available courtesy of Rafael Vinoly and Professor Kenneth Frampton. ~ Finally, the energy, inspiration and tenacity of Rafael Vinoly and his colleagues in the office have been fundamental in the creation of the Tokyo International Forum

1 3 7 9 11 17 27 31 33 35 37 38 39 41 43 47

Photography credits Courtesy Rafael Vinoly Architects © RoyWnght Courtesy RVA - Christopher Campbell Courtesy RVA- Takeshi Mlyagawa Courtesy Kev1n Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates © UPI - Corbis-Bettmann © Roy Wnght Courtesy RVA - Takeshi Mlyagawa Courtesy Rafael Vii'ioly Architects Courtesy RVA - Naomi Saito Courtesy Rafael V1noly Architects © Toshinori Hattori © Toshinori Hatton © Shinkenchiku-Sha © Akio Kawasumi Courtesy Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates Tokyo International Forum

Design Rafael Vinoly Architects Architectural GKK Architects & Engineers Masao Shiina Architects Structural Structural Design Group Umezawa Structural Engineers Hanawa Structural Engineers Sasaki Structural Consu~ants Yokoyama Structural Engineers Facilities P.T Monmura & Associates Acoustic Jaffe Holden Scarbrough Acoustics Yamaha Acoustic Research Laboratory Theater Theater Workshop Jules Fisher Associates (Basic Design only) Lighting Claude R. Engle, Lighting Consultant Lighting Planners Associates Mechanical Transporation System John Van Deusen & Associates Planting

ALP Signage Plants Associates Quantity Surveyor Futaba Quantity Survey