Monaco . Kengo Kuma Laboratory Project

Recently, I was privileged to have Monaco project in which I was team member of exhibited at Design Life Bangkok - an RMIT graduate Alumni exhibition. I have been meaning to get my work together for while but I seem to quite easily find others things to occupy my time on - like the next project. Nevertheless, here is the text and images that was displayed at the exhibition.

Project

This is a proposal for 12 boutique apartments, penthouse and mixed use commercial in the illustrious Monte Carlo, Monaco. The 1000m2 site sits directly adjacent to the Monte Carlo Casino Gardens providing sweeping south facing views of the Monte Carlo Casino and Mediterranean Sea. The extruded volume is carefully twisted, tapered and pulled, directing the buildings energy towards this main view. Juxtaposed against the context of heritage Beaux Arts, Mediterranean influenced and late 20^th century in situ concrete buildings, timber louvers and triangulated glass panels are used to carefully articulate the volumes movement and operate with varied planes of transparency based on privacy needs and admission of light. Each apartment has equal north views onto Boulevard des Moulins and South facing views towards the park and ocean. A reinterpreted fishbone plan was adopted to achieve this which therefore created dynamic internal and external spaces. The plan is separated into night and day zones with the focus on the living, dining and main terrace to be spatially generous and awash with ambient light. Linked by a passageway and restaurant terrace, the ground level lobby, mezzanine office space and first level retail areas are accessed on both Boulevard des Moulins and Avenue de la Madone. 

Practice

Kengo Kuma and Associates, in association with the Kuma Laboratory at the University of Tokyo is a large scale practice involving more than 150 personnel. Kuma founded his Tokyo based practice in 1990 before establishing his Paris branch in 2008. With over 60 projects on the go around the world, Kuma rarely takes a day off in his quest of sensitive architectural perfection “for architects, perfection is necessary” (CNN). Through his early experiences with Japanese craftsman in the countryside, Kuma applies traditional materials and sentiment to contemporary design problems – often resulting in delicate, textural and multilayered works that harmoniously respond to the atmosphere of its place. 

Professor Kengo Kuma and Associate Professors Ko Nakamura and Mikako Koike headed up the Monaco project team which consisted of Bojan Koncarevic, Tomoyo Sakane, Nikola Nikolovski, Chen Yao and myself as an intern. Over a two month period we all worked through an intense design process involving many digital and analogue processes. I was personally responsible for the fundamental apartment planning and later devised the twisting concept for the form.

                                

Day One 2012 . M&D day 4

The attitude of the night was set by an intoxicated Japanese gentleman on the Yamanote line train. At first he sat swaying back and forth in a drunken slumber, then he decided to pull himself up, pirouette, then slump solidly against the doors and lastly slide down gradually to assume an incapacitated fetal position on the floor. His mum would be proud. I did fear for head as it was precariously close to the opening and closing doors. However it was also amusing to see the reactions of the awaiting passengers to step on the train having responding to the odd hurdle they have to overcome once the doors opened. As I arrived at the epicentre of debauchery; Shibuya, I thought my night was heading straight to hell. I crossed Shibuya crossing amongst the thousands of New Year revelers to find Inkashira Dori (a main string in the Shibuya web) filled with bodies and debris. I made my way through the mayhem towards Bar IssHee to meet some friends from uni. As I made my way up the twirling stairs, enthusiastic voices and layers of music bounced off the walls signaling healthy activity. I found B waiting for me out the front of the bar and we greeted each other like long lost warriors; big bro hugs all round. He was full of beans and ready to party. We headed in to find the tiny bar comfortably full and mostly with familiar faces. Until around 3:30 or so, we all screamed at each other, danced to soulful classics like lunatics and drank consistently. My Macedonain compatriot N was as liberated as I have ever seen represented by his decision to bash on the establishments drum kit. After a few minutes his band of monkeys deciding to bash on them as well, the owner swooped in and shooed them all away. B and I decided to head up to our new favorite watering hole the Beat Café. We found it packed as usual with a mix of counter culture Gaijins and Japanese. We quickly came into meaningless discussion with a couple of people for the next hour or so. I was required to get back to the hotel for a 7:30am departure to Mt.Fuji and Hakone day trip so I suggested we head off. B agreed and we ducked back down stairs to say goodbye however most people had left as it was around 6am by this stage. B and I headed to Shibuya station and boarded the Yamanonte to Tokyo. B parted with me at some station I can’t remember, and I did the fatal thing by sitting down. I fell into a slumber and woke up realizing I had done the full loop on Yamonote (which takes 50 minutes or so) and 7:30am was now fast approaching. I finally managed to get off at Shimbashi and head up to the hotel room by 7:29 to receive my wakeup call from mum at 7:30am…Mum was not proud. 

After I showered and reset my body, Mum Dad & I headed to Hamamtsucho bus terminal to join our booked tour. We headed off towards Mt.Fuji and I quickly fell asleep for the first 2 hour bus leg of the journey.  I woke up at the optimal viewing time and was simply stunned by the Mt.Fuji. With dense suburbs in the foreground, I immediately thought about the destruction it will cause when it next erupts. Our destination was the 5^th station of Mt Fuji and after a quick viewing stop, an hour more on the bus and we arrived at the icey fifth station. At 2,300 metres the 5^th station provided wonderful overs the Ft.Fuji area and towards the Japan alps in the North West.  After a quick whiz around the souvenir shop we where back onto the bus descending to the lunch location. After a delicious mixed bento of traditional Japanese favourites like sashimi and udon where again on our way to Lake Ashi. Unfortunately this time of the year is at time colorless with the deciduous trees completely bare. The Lake Ashi cuise was worthwhile nonetheless; I was quite amused by the creepy remnants of a 80’s lake side theme park holiday destination. The pedal operated lake swans, decomposed mr whippy van and creepy animal farm with a chained up Labrador was odd to say the least. After the cruise was the enjoyable ropeway ride to the top of mount Komagatake. The peak ropeway station looked like a concrete folly from WWII that had fallen under disrepair. The views over the Hakone area where stunning despite the freezing temperatures. The journey home consisted of me sleeping more and then a quick dash for everyone from the bus to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. 

We made it back to the hotel and despite my slumber I was due at Kengo Kuma’s house for a New Year celebration.  I managed to link up the Ginza line and the Tozai line to reach Kagurazaka station. From there it was a quick dash through the streets (because I was making 2 hour late cameo appearance) to find Kuma Sensei’s house. He emerged in the front glazed staircase and pointed in an upwards direction to the house. This implied to scale the three flights of external stairs to reach the top kitchen, dining and living areas. It was quite the entrance as the staircases linked 3 open terraces for the various floors all open to the night sky. Furthermore, the elevated site lent to sweeping views of the blazing Tokyo skyline. I was greeted by Kuma who was clearly fuzzy around the edges and he immediately introduced me to his wife and a full glass of red. Brilliant! For next hour I floated around grazing on the delicious food, chatted with Toudai colleagues and ended up watching a Korean pop group live DVD; the lads where quite attentive. By this time I had been awake for quite some time and was looking forward to hitting the sack and after stringing together the two metro lines again I passed out in my room 1518.

Hiroshige Ando Museum - Kuma Kengo

On this Christmas eve, B and I decided we would embark on a three hour journey to our professors most highly acclaimed building; The Hiroshige Ando Museum. Starting early and after a long night in front of the screen, we both nodded in and out of consciousness throughout the journey. Nonetheless, the weather was fresh and clear which provided us great views of a a snow capped mount Fuji and surrounding mountainous ranges when our eyes were open. This again immediately sparked my memories of the Annapurna region in Nepal.

It has become increasingly clearer to me just how significant my experience was in India and Nepal.

We finally reached the building in the small town of Bato. The approach to the museum is a key element of the Kuma's design. Set at the foot of a small mountain, the large opening draws you towards the base of the steps towards the towns Shinto shrine hidden in mountain woods. Kuma professed during a lecture last week that his intention was use the museum as a vessel to draw visitors to both the shrine and the exquisite artwork inside. We took various photographs of the exterior and entry foyer for at least two hours. We discussed the detailing, philosophy and play of light like two archi students do...tragic really...however this building really does deserve proper attention. The layering of timber and aluminum slats, large sheets of glass and the exposed steel members make for a highly layered, ephemeral and reflective structure overall. I was pleasantly surprised at how robust , and dare I say crude at times, the structure was up close despite its achieved appearance being relentlessly crisp. Hiroshige's Ukiyo prints were a pleasure to see and building fittingly took backstage where it was required in the modestly sized exhibition spaces. It was getting on mid afternoon so B and I decided to head to the gift shop...oh boy. I ended up buying up big on hand reproduced prints: four of Hiroshige and two of Hokusai. We sat down at the museum restaurant for a delicious buckwheat soba lunch and I went the whole nine yards by ordering the locally roasted specialty coffee as well (Saza Coffee). Damn it was good.

B and I then made our way up the mountain to the Shrine. At this point it was 4:30 and the sun was descending quickly behind the distant mountains. The yellow warmth draped over the roof of the museum and filtered through the tall trees further up the path. It genuinely felt great to be there and the thought of heading back to grey Tokyo was not so appealing. Nonetheless as night well and truly fell we heading to the bus stop and on the way I picked up the last sad looking Christmas cake from a local sweet shop (my desperate attempt to spark some festive spirit). I snoozed all the way back to Tokyo, cheerfully parted ways with B at Ueno and disappeared into the Yamanote line crowd.