TOTO UK to host Tsuyoshi Tane’s first UK exhibition, Archaeology of the Future, in collaboration with TOTO GALLERY･MA
©Yoshiaki Tsutsui
Tsuyoshi Tane is a Japanese Paris-based architect who is currently working on many projects under the practice Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects. Archaeology of the Future introduces a trajectory of Tane’s intensive creative achievements and his challenge of exploring how architecture contributes to creating the future by looking into the memories of a place.
Behind the term ‘Archaeology of the Future’ lies an approach to which Tane and his team are committed to exploring the history and cultural contexts of the place where the upcoming project is to be built. This process of thinking from the past to the future enables the memory of the place to slowly become architecture, developing forward-looking ideas for its realisation.
©Propapanda / image courtesy of DGT.
What role can architecture play in mediating between the past and the future? This is a question that Tane has consistently engaged with throughout his career with his international body of work. At TOTO you can see how this manifests itself in an exhibition which highlights some significant projects.
Tane has recently completed “Vitra – Tane Garden House” as part of the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein near Basel. The Vitra Campus brings together the commercial and cultural aspects of the Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra, which was founded by Willi Fehlbaum as a shop-fitting business in 1934. The newly opened Garden House is located between the Umbrella House by Kazuo Shinohara and the Piet Oudolf Garden. The approach to the new Vitra Garden House was designed around Rolf Fehlbaum’s (the current chairman of Vitra) childhood memories and is based on ATTA’s concept for “overground architecture,” using materials gathered from the surface, rather than extracted from below the earth, and is built together with local craftsmen, which will also provide the continuous care of architecture.
© Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects
One of Tsuyoshi Tane’s previous exhibitions at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery and TOTO GALLERY･MA introduced a trajectory of Tane’s intensive creative achievements and his challenge of exploring how architecture contributes to creating the future. The exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, entitled “Digging & Building”, introduced Tane’s design method of digging and delving into memories of a place and taking a creative leap forward. It showcased his representative works created through this method including the Estonian National Museum, Kofun Stadium and his latest projects using a variety of media, including large-sized models and moving images, in such a way that it speaks to viewers physical senses.
The exhibition at TOTO GALLERY･MA entitled “Search and Research” introduced the processes of Tane’s architectural thinking and speculation and presented a methodology of “Archaeological Research” applied to all of his projects. These two exhibitions aimed to present a comprehensive view of Tane’s processes of search/research and its implementation through which he analyses memories of a place from different angles to establish new perspectives and develop his ideas into architecture leading to the future.
© Takuji Shimmura
Memory influences the present and creates the future– Tane’s creative achievements based on this belief invite each one of us, who are responsible for the present and future of our cities, to think about the possibilities of architecture.
Tane has an impressive list of completed projects including the Estonian National Museum (34,000m2), Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art (3,500m2) and The Al Thani Collection – Hotel de la Marine, Paris, amongst many others. He is currently working on a 3.4km long urban agriculture project – 388 FARM in Shibuya-city and the world-famous Imperial Hotel Tokyo (to be completed in 2036).
Tane surprised the world by winning the international design competition for the Estonian National Museum in his twenties and gained attention again when the museum was completed 10 years later in 2016.
©Julien Lanoo / image courtesy of ATTA and Vitra
In 2012, DGT. architects, co-founded by Tane, was selected as one of eleven finalists for the New National Stadium Japan international design competition and their proposal for Kofun Stadium was widely published in Japan and the world. After DGT disbanded in 2017, Tane founded Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects in Paris and is still expanding the sphere of his activities.
Tsuyoshi Tane’s book Archaeology of the Future published by TOTO Publishing in Japan is available to view at TOTO in London. TOTO is the renowned Japanese bathroom manufacturer with an extensive showroom in Clerkenwell, London, showcasing its multimillion selling WASHLET.
See the Archaeology of the Future exhibition from 22 September – 20 October 2023 at TOTO, 140-142 St John Street, Clerkenwell, EC1V 4UA.
For more information, visit toto.com
