Koshirakura/Tokyo

Tuesday 17 July – Thursday 2 August 2012

Two consecutive workshops will bring together contrasting visions of the present cultural and economic climate of Japan seen from two extreme sites, one rural and one urban, located 200km apart. Participants are encouraged to apply for both workshops in order to document a set of landscapes: a micro-social fabric and architecture of urban erasure.

Tuesday 17 July –  Tuesday 31 July
Landscape Workshop, Koshirakura Village, Niigata
Launched in 1996, the Koshirakura Landscape Workshop has evolved into an annual local event. Its overall agenda is to explore a form of social and cultural sustainability within the post-agricultural community of Koshirakura. A new phase of the programme will set out a long-term strategy for an intercultural revitalisation tailored to the community, with a series of building experiments with locally available materials such as timber, earth, stone and bamboo, documentary making and informal events all running in tandem with Koshirakura’s annual local festivals.

Tuesday 1 August - Wednesday 2 August
The City After-Image (AA Maeda Workshop) F-2 Site, Tokyo 
The F-2 project – an ongoing urban redevelopment scheme in Fujimi 2-Chome 10 Ban Area in central Tokyo – is probably the last example of urban transformation on this kind of scale in Japan. This workshop is planned as a series to coincide with key stages of demolition and construction and will take place over the next five years. Utilising spaces within the project site, the workshop will explore and test alternative strategies for the creative use of urban spaces caught somewhere between scrap and buildings, while capturing a series of moments through which hidden layers, interiority and sections reveal their narratives, documenting the surrounding city as a catalogue of beautifully incomplete objects.

Applications

The deadline for applications is 5 July 2012. All participants travelling from abroad are responsible for securing any visa required. After payment of fees, the AA can provide a letter confirming participation in the workshop. Applicants are required to submit a short statement about why they wish to attend the workshop. Please fill out the PDF application form and return to the Visiting School Coordinator.

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM HERE

Fees

Both AA Visiting Schools are free for AA Members, students and staff. Other applicants are required to pay a £50 AA Visiting Membership fee. All successful applicants will be asked to make a contribution for food and accommodation plus insurance (based on 2,500 JPY per day) at the beginning of each workshop. Fees do not include flights.

Students need to bring their own laptops, digital equipment and modelmaking tools. Please ensure this equipment is covered by your own insurance as the AA takes no responsibility for items lost or stolen at the workshop.

Eligibility
The workshop is open to architecture and design students and professionals worldwide.