tadao ando’s complicity in corporate cultural vandalism in central tokyo. tadao ando is largely admired in the west for his architecture of uncompromising and cool minimalism. but the other side to ando’s practice is an uncompromising and cool commercialism. omotesando hills is the harajuku development which swept away one of the few remaining examples of tokyo’s pre-war embrace of architectural modernism; the bauhaus–inspired dōjunkai Aoyama Apartments, which had been built in 1927 after the 1923 kantō earthquake.

these apartments, although in sore need of restoration, could, with a will, have been preserved. what has replaced them is not the ando of the pared down cold un-dressed concrete of his more well-known works, but a monument to modern consumerism — since the initial excitement of the opening, the building now looks like any of the other sanitised anonymous cathedral-like shooping malls which have sprung up all over tokyo, thanks to the mori corporation and their vision of the urban garden.

in the aoyama area of tokyo  comme des garçons store (flagship with aspirations to starship; the store was designed by the label’s chief designer and founder, fashion legend  rei kawakubo) also the much photographed arresting design of herzog and du meuron’s prada store.

the city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.

italo calvino

teppan-yaki-ya are usually associated with flashy upmarket slightly tacky pepper-mill twirling wisecracking steak chefs in london and new york epitomised by ‘benihana’.  this place was a bit different. it’s warm and friendly, and the food has a distinctly japan meets the rest of the world cosmopolitan complection.  you’ll find it on one of the little back streets off the roppongi crossing (and more than that i’m not prepared to say)

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.