21_21 is a new design museum near rop­pongi, and tokyo ‘mid­town’ new devel­op­ment. the build­ing is designed to be dra­matic whilst not over­whelm­ing the sur­round­ing park-scape. it is part-buried in the ground. what can be seen from the out­side is essen­tially the roof. this, together with the un-dressed con­crete is the sig­na­ture of mas­ter of bru­tal min­i­mal­ism; tadao ando.

on this day, as part of tokyo’s 2009 design week, there was a joint pre­sen­ta­tion from lead­ing japan­ese designer naoto fuka­sawa, and dutch designer, and teacher at the RCA, jur­gen bey. unfor­tu­nately, whether due to the appallingly reflec­tive acoustics in the stair­well where the pre­sen­ta­tion was held, or in the unfath­omably gnomic pro­nounce­ments of the two great men, lit­tle of what was said could be under­stood. this didn’t seem to trou­ble the exhibition’s organ­is­ers, the two design­ers, or their ador­ing audi­ence in any way. a rather depress­ing and shal­low be-there-to-be seen admi­ra­tion fest. this is a shame, both design­ers have pro­duced work which man­ages to be both provoca­tive, and prac­ti­cal. i was expressly for­bid­den to take pic­tures, but i man­aged to include one here.