Exhibition: "The house as a work of art"

Within the framework of the World Congress of Architecture, Casa Asia This exhibition, dedicated to the Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara, serves as an introduction to Shinohara for audiences unfamiliar with his work and diverse career paths. It focuses on his residential designs, which comprise the majority of his projects. Furthermore, it aims to stimulate new perspectives on his work beyond the narrative he himself established, understanding it as a process where all the elements of his architectural exploration have been present from the beginning.

The exhibition aims to reinforce this idea and has been designed like the novel Rayuela Julio Cortázar's work: a guided tour is recommended, but visitors can create their own itinerary of discovery. The project names have been retained in English, which is the international standard for Shinohara's work; he also named his own house in English.

Kazuo Shinohara (Shizuoka Prefecture 1925 – Kawasaki 2006, architect's degree 1953, first project 1954) was an architect who pushed architecture, especially residential design, beyond its conventional boundaries. He is arguably the most influential architect of his generation in contemporary Japanese architecture. His influence on teaching, theory, and design has only deepened over time, reinforcing the visionary quality of his work.

This remarkable influence stems, surprisingly, from a short list of rather small houses and his writings. His architectural reflections focus on the house as a means of evoking emotions and on the city as a source of emotional experience, but they encompass all aspects in which architecture can function as an instrument for social critique.