woven wheat installation takes center stage in 'how is life?' exhibition at TOTO GALLERY·MA

‘How is Life? – Designing for our Earth’ at TOTO Gallery·MA

From October 21, 2022, to March 19, 2023, TOTO GALLERY·MA presents ‘How is Life? – Designing for our Earth,’ an exhibition that highlights solutions for how architecture can benefit our natural environment while still entertaining modern lifestyles and responding to current issues such as climate change, or social inequality. Curated by the gallery’s Planning and Management Committee, the show is the result of careful research and in-depth discussions, and introduces ways in which architecture and design can be used to achieve prosperity that is not based on growth. To illustrate this, the exhibition features various projects such as floating farms, urban forestry concepts, and solutions to integrate bicycles more fully into everyday city life. designboom visited the exhibition at the Tokyo-based gallery and had the chance to view the numerous photos, illustrations, drawings, and models that compose ‘How is Life? – Designing for our Earth’, as well as an installation made of woven wheat that takes center stage.

image © designboom

ARCHITECTURE TO IMPROVE EVERYDAY LIFE

‘Although we have come to enjoy plentiful lifestyles in the 21st century, we also face a variety of issues (…). Concerned by this situation, we held a series of discussions with our committee members about the possibilities of what architecture could do for the Earth’s environment.’ shares TOTO GALLERY·MA (find more here).

The team of the gallery’s planning and management committee says that during these discussions they turned their gaze to the various facets of everyday life, looking at architecture as something that serves to improve people’s lives. This thought led them to discover many budding model projects that could help individuals overcome the barriers that surround us today. The members involved include Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Manabu Chiba, Seng Kuan and Tsuyoshi Tane.

image © designboom

living together with the earth

The exhibition features various examples from different times and places that answer the question ‘How is Life?’ posed by the curators. Examples include the Capital Agricole, an exhibition held in France in 2018 that presented vivid illustrations of a future in which Paris and surrounding cities are interwoven with agricultural land, and Toson Memorial Hall (Gifu, Japan; designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi), built in 1947 in a resource-poor postwar mountain village by local men, women, and children whose deep devotion to the late local writer it commemorates resonated with its architect.

By introducing such projects that offer possibilities that depart from traditional conceptions of architecture and the city—regardless of whether they are of the past, currently being developed, or still foreign to Japan— TOTO GALLERY·MA hopes that the exhibition not only opens up diverse interpretations and further discussions but also sparks a new awareness in each and every visitor, inspiring all to explore new perspectives for living together with the Earth.

image © designboom