BETWEEN SURFACE & ESSENCE

Tradition is often constructed.

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We tend to freeze the tradition. This can be directed to the study of built heritage within the rich trad巾onal landscape, such as Kyoto. In this most traditional of Japanese cities, there are a plethora of cultural forms covering all aspects of life. However, in such a stereotypical construction of Kyoto, we have cast the contemporary interpretation of trad巾on aside and focus only on the traditional forms as we see them. This studio questions such an approach and encourages the exploration of a different encounter with the tradition. The point of entry into the Kyoto milieu can be literature, crafts, rituals, world view.... The site is a modernist secondary school not far from the river Kamogawa. I want to propose a new use of the school buildings within the urban and cultural contexts of the site, and design new facilities to support the functional programme to enhance the significance of the built heritage.

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