About This Project

Ochanomizu Station, Olympic Archery Venue // Tokyo, Japan

Advisor// John Bohn

In collaboration with// Kenji Hattori

We will start with diachronic intensity and the laws of Thermodynamics (stick as combustible). Entropy will describe the ontology of this Tokyo; a city that has emerged over time, through a cycle of creation and destruction, and continues to metabolize into to the 21st century. The past, present and future exist side by side, manifestations of a vital urban context that can be understood as much a confluence of thermodynamic systems as mechanical ones (or political, social, etc.). By examining the city of Tokyo as systems of energy environments with different scales of size, time and intensity, perhaps a new language of architecture can emerge that critically engages 21st century issues of importance in a more meaningful way. What are the possibilities for an architecture that embraces the rate and intensity of change in some instances, accelerates it in others and resists it in even more. An architectural language that works within frictions between boundaries of movement, change and multiple scales of energy, and realizes a formal material organization second.

The Olympic archery event is held outdoors with the lanes fully exposed to the sun. The available lanes for the gold medal round of the events will be used for audience seating. To keep the audience cool, a fog is created to cascade down the seating and pour in between the lanes. Both the Tokyo metro and JR lines run beneath the lanes, pushing air up to emit bursts of clouds to shade the crowd.