TOSHIKO MORI ARCHITECT - Observations

For over three decades, the firm Toshiko Mori Architects has been dedicated to designing ecological, technologically innovative architecture at the forefront of “the social turn in architecture”, as Andres Lepik calls it in the foreword. When the firm’s founder Toshiko Mori, a New York local with Japanese roots, joined the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), she became the first female faculty member. Later she sat as Chair of the Department from 2002 to 2008. Many of her architectural projects have received international acclaim, as has she herself, with awards such as the Architectural Record’s 2019 Women in Architecture Award for a design leader, and the AIA/ACSA’s Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education - the highest distinction for teaching in the field.

The focus of Toshiko Mori Architect Observations is on observations as the foremost, indispensable method in the developmental process of architectural projects. TMA projects are geared toward creating infrastructure for the development of society. The wide sense in which the word infrastructure is used in the book gives an impression of the conceptual nature of Toshiko Mori’s work.

In the eight chapters of this publication, projects are introduced which foremost consider social and ecological demands such as community building. Backed by thorough research and engaged with architectural tradition while also questioning industry norms, the projects remain on the cutting edge of the architectural profession. They include a think-thank called VisionArc which Mori founded together with Landon Brown, the award winning Thread and Fass School and Teachers' Residence in Senegal and several curatorial works at the MoMA and Smithsonian museums. The vast variety of projects featured in the publication illustrates Mori’s philosophy that there is no universal design solution for every problem, which makes each of her architectural engagements unique.

Toshiko Mori is a New York-based architect and Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design for many years. As a long-time member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities, Mori led research and inquiry into sustainable architecture, enhancing cities’ livability, and creating efficient urban services. Mori is also on the board of Dassault Systems, a company connecting technology to environment and life science. And she has founded the platform VisionArc, a think tank dedicated to exploring the role of design within complex social and environmental issues. Toshiko Mori Architect PLLC (TMA), founded in 1981, is a New York City-based firm known for an innovative and diverse body of work spanning nearly four decades. Toshiko Mori Architect has worked on a broad range of programs including urban, civic, institutional, cultural, residential, museum and exhibition design. Mori’s intelligent approach to ecologically sensitive siting strategies, historical context, and innovative use of materials reflects a creative integration of design and technology. The work of TMA combines a strong conceptual and theoretical approach with a thorough study of programmatic needs and practical conditions to achieve a design that is both spatially compelling and pragmatically responsive. http://www.tmarch.com/

Andres Lepik is director of the Architecture Museum at Technical University of Munich (TUM) and professor for architectural history and curatorial practice. He is an architecture historian and is holding a PhD from the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome. He began his academic and curatorial work at the State Museums in Berlin in 1994. From 2007 to 2010 he worked as a curator at MoMA in New York and became a Loeb Fellow at Havard University in 2011. He is an expert in the field of socially engaged architecture and participatory structures.

Cristina Steingräber is a noted art historian and publisher who spent more than a decade at Hatje Cantz, a world-leading publisher of visual arts, photography and architecture. Cristina possesses deep industry expertise, having served as the Managing Director of Hatje Cantz where she was fully responsible for the operational and strategic management of the company. A keen interest in the arts motivated her to pursue a PhD in Art and Architectural History from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel followed by an MBA from the prestigious TUM School of Management.