endotecture

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Extravagant curves and unconventional free-form twisting distinguish the work of Osaka architect Shuhei Endo, whose buildings' unbroken lines and "noncompositional" construction corrugated steel explore the continuity of space.

Arriving at the train station in the small town of Maihara 90 minutes from Tokyo by bullet train, I'm greeted by rising star of Japanese architecture Shuhei Endo. On this warm, sunny day, the 43-year-old Osaka architect is dressed in dark linen pants and black Nehru shirt, buttoned to the top. He is a quiet man with a serious demeanour, markedly different from some other young architects I've met, who tend to act more like rock stars than humble master builders. After a perfunctory handshake, he points me in the direction of an adjacent steel structure.

Cyclestation M is a bicycle-storage building, which was completed in 1994. Endo has described it as his first "noncompositional" construction. With its extravagant curves and unconventional, twisting use of corrugated steel, the highly expressive architecture couldn't be more different in character from the man who created it.

But it is not simply one of those exercises in avantgarde architecture for which the Japanese are known. Nor is it evocative curvilinear pre-Bilbao steel sculpture. And neither is Endo's use of currugated steel, a simple industrial material, intended as social commentary. The winding, wrapping, twisting corrugated steel is, in fact, the simplest and most economical way to express this architect's central preoccupation, the continiuity of space - which Endo has likened to RENMENTAI, a form of Japanese calligraphy drawn in an unbroken line.

In PARAMODERN, a book on Endo's work published in 2002, Japanese architecture critic Hiroshi Kashiwagi positions his work in relation to other Japanese architectural movements. "In using what is, if anything, a low-tech material, Endo's interest lies in how far he can take its architectural, sculptural possibilities". Thus, Endo's work in corrugated steel is unlikely to be left behind by generational changes in technology.

As Endo has explained the origin of his analogous concept, "Brush-based writing cultures such as ours in Japan are distinctive for making entire texts, not single words, into cursive continua. The use of the brush with renmentai permits freedom in how characters are formed, and the brush can be charged with ample amounts of ink. Most important, brushes impose form only weakly. The characters are written as a result of the motion of the brush as the calligrapher freely wields it".Endo has also described this aesthetic as being somewhat like a Japanese furoshiki gift-wrapping, which is made from a single square of cloth, and dissimilar to a bento lunch box, which has discreet walls, roof and floor.

In Maihara, at the time, there was little concern for the aesthetics of the proposed bicycle shelter, whose commission Endo was awarded by the mayor. The sole concerns of city officials were that the cost of the structure not exceed the limited budget and that there would be space for 300 bicycles. With relative freedom, then, Endo had the opportunity to develop what has since become his leitmotif.

We make a short trip to the site of Endo's childhood home and his newest project, a weekend house/studio entitled Springtecture B. Amid ancient thatched roofs and their modern traditional equivalents, Springtecture B looks like the oversized experiment of an overindulged child. Springtecture B is named for the way the continuous sheet of corrugated steel is coiled, creating tension suggesting a dynamic ability to spring.

The letter B stands for the location of the project in Biwa-cho, which, like the town of Maihara, is also in the Shiga prefecture. Naming of projects, especially of building types, is of particular interest to Endo: Rooftecture is the term he has derived for projects in which a single bent shell-form roof contributes the dominant architectural gesture; Skintecture projects appear as if placed on their sides, with the skin or walls of variable placement perpendicular to the landscape.

Endo's Halftecture is an open form of architecture that incorporates views directly through the spaces. To date, almost all of these projects have consisted primarily of corrugated steel. As with many of Endo's designs, Springtecture B intermixes interior and exterior. Connected sheets of corrugated steel twist and turn, appearing to float over large expanses, with no clear delineation between roof, floor and walls. A sliding door and black-and-white brick wall provide stark contrast to the undulating steel panels; the lightness of the material is especially emphasized by the presence of sporadically placed diagonal steel columns.

While the straight brick wall gives regimented form, laterally, glass is used to separate spaces, lengthwise, in a lighter manner and flowing ribbons of corrugated steel add an unexpectedly lyrical quality. A tatami room lightly rests upon its section of metal-sheet flooring, which then curves upward to enclose the room. The afternoon sun plays off the glass and steel to dazzling effect, the rooms seeming to exist as if dependent upon the whimsical placement of the rippling steel and its interplay with the planes of brick and glass.

Slowtecture S, another Endo structure, completed a year ago in Maihara, signifies a new format. The design of Slowtecture S, a combination community centre and shopping centre rendered in corrugated corten steel, perhaps may be seen as a response to the acceleration of society.

For Endo, the form is uncharacteristically rectilinear. Within the rectangular frame of Slowtecture S are many irregularly shaped spaces, punctuated by other geometric references, especially acute triangles. Windows are placed within spaces that appear to have been pried away from the flat exterior surfaces, providing the practical benefit of sound barrier from passing automobile traffic. These windows also appear as a drag against the adjacent JR Tokaido bullet-train line and high-speed expressway.

In addition to being economical and maintenance-free, the rusted corten steel that Endo has used has the added benefit of ambiguity of age: It is impossible to date the building. And so Endo proceeds, asserting himself with new building types as he continues to challenge the hegemony of the modern box. A kindergarten school, completed in March 2003, is the first of another building type. Bubbletecture, based on the dynamic symmetry of soap bubbles that he hopes to explore more in the years to come. As Endo has explained: "It is not an architecture of point and line, but an architecture of original thought".