This issue of a+u magazine features Junya Ishigami. Titled “From the First Work,” the issue begins with Table for a Restaurant, the first project of his career, and discusses 28 additional works, some of them completed and others still in progress.

Underlying the monograph’s compilation was the question: What will emerge if the entirety of Ishigami’s career is examined from the present? In his work, Ishigami removes all preconceived notions to pursue an architectural process that acknowledges the diverse values of people living in the every-increasing complexity of today’s society. The foundation of his highly logical process is to delve into the essence of the disparate contexts found in history, environment, materials, functions, and users, and deeply contemplate their facets.

Therefore, this issue examines Ishigami’s considerations at the time of a project’s initiation, as a way to understand the root of architecture. For this reason, the projects are not listed in their order of completion but rather in the order in which the architect began to think about each one. Ishigami has written accompanying texts for projects especially for this issue, surveying the past from the present, to unveil his thought process at the point in time when the project began. These texts should not be considered as separate explanations, then, but as an overarching reflection on the interconnectedness of the different projects to create a single flow of logic. This issue hopes to unravel Junya Ishigami’s architectural thinking to see even greater possibilities in the future. 

This issue of a+u magazine features Junya Ishigami. Titled “From the First Work,” the issue begins with Table for a Restaurant, the first project of his career, and discusses 28 additional works, some of them completed and others still in progress.

Underlying the monograph’s compilation was the question: What will emerge if the entirety of Ishigami’s career is examined from the present? In his work, Ishigami removes all preconceived notions to pursue an architectural process that acknowledges the diverse values of people living in the every-increasing complexity of today’s society. The foundation of his highly logical process is to delve into the essence of the disparate contexts found in history, environment, materials, functions, and users, and deeply contemplate their facets.

Therefore, this issue examines Ishigami’s considerations at the time of a project’s initiation, as a way to understand the root of architecture. For this reason, the projects are not listed in their order of completion but rather in the order in which the architect began to think about each one. Ishigami has written accompanying texts for projects especially for this issue, surveying the past from the present, to unveil his thought process at the point in time when the project began. These texts should not be considered as separate explanations, then, but as an overarching reflection on the interconnectedness of the different projects to create a single flow of logic. This issue hopes to unravel Junya Ishigami’s architectural thinking to see even greater possibilities in the future.