Sendai Mediatheque by Toyo Ito
Toyo Ito describes the “erotogenesis of his Sendai Mediatheque to be rooted in the experience of observing languorous plants and piscine movements through the glass wall of a giant aquarium”(Witte, Sendai Mediatheque, 29). As he explained in his words this project is based on the metaphor of Aquarium, its transparency and hence the similarity of the pillar with algae. And taking this idea the building was conceived as a transparent cube through which thin floor plates float suspended on organic-looking seaweed-like “tubes.”Rather than viewing media as a foreign element to nature, Ito embraced new media/computing as forming an integral part of the contemporary urban environment. The tree-like nature of the metal tubes of the Mediatheque are continuous with the natural surroundings of the area, as the design is found on a street lined with trees. These tubes were designed to give the flexibility to the structure to resist to the seismic forces. It achieved a highest performance during the magnitude-9.0 earthquake in March, 11, 2011.
-Gamze Kahya
RESEARCH RESOURCES
Ito, Toyo. Toyo Ito. London ; New York : Phaidon, 2009.
[This is a book. There is a part in that book where Toyo Ito explains Sendai Mediateque project.]
Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo. The function of ornament. Barcelona : Actar ; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, 2006.
[This book is a graphic guide to ornaments in the twentieth century. It unveils the function of ornament as the agent for specific affects, dismantling the idea that ornament is applied to buildings as a discrete or non-essential entity and this contains Sendai Mediateque as one of the case.]
Ito, Toyo. Sendai Mediateque. Barcelona : Actar, 2003.
[This book documents the structure’s design, construction, and current use of Sendai Mediateque.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53JEfrBD-kg
[This youtube video was recorded from inside the building during the earthquake.]
