慶應義塾大学アート・センター　Keio University Art Center

Our first exhibition focused on Maki’s architectural creations at Mita (February 2021), and sought to give insight into the nature of the environments he was endeavoring to create on campus. This work was oriented by the concept of “oku” (inwardness), a theory on the usage of space which he had long espoused. This, the second Art Center exhibition to focus on Maki, will feature the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), the design for which he is almost entirely responsible.

Unlike the Mita Campus, where the buildings he designed took their place surrounded by a host of existing historical structures, the starting point for the SFC Campus project was a blank slate, with the first step being the development of land. Accordingly, Maki, who above all else esteems the creation of environments in his structural design, had the opportunity to refine and realize on a grander scale the “Group Form” he had advocated since his Metabolism and Harvard days and which he had previously attempted to bring to life at Rissho University.

Group Form, a concept in which multiple buildings with common factors are linked together to form a frame that creates an entire environment, emphasizes the individual buildings and the relationships that connect them. This exhibition will turn its attention to this point, shining a light on Maki’s particular aims in using Group Form to design a campus destined to house a university community.