Architecture of Life

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Architecture of Life

Architecture of Life is the first English-language essay collection from the world-renowned architectural duo known for Fuji Kindergarten and the Roof House, among numerous other works. Beyond drawings and photos, this book embraces a philosophy that is simultaneously radical and obvious: how to make comfortable spaces and places that enhance the lives of individuals, families, and communities.

The authors challenge the modern obsession with creating architecture as sterile, climate-controlled, soundproofed objects. Instead, they propose architecture as a frame and stage for all of life, from people to microbes. Through a series of in-depth discussions of the intentions and design processes that produced their pioneering and world-renowned buildings, they demonstrate how architecture has the potential to foster freedom, dignity, and joy.

Drawing on the authors’ own life experiences, as well as the careers of those who have inspired them, introducing cultural and philosophical concepts from Japan and elsewhere, these essays cumulatively reveal how architecture might connect people with each other, and with the wider world. Part personal narrative and part philosophical meditation, this book is both a critique of existing circumstances and a manifesto for new approaches.