Edo Tokyo Museum

 One of the museums I would like to show is the Edo Tokyo Museum.

The permanent exhibition is about the Edo period in Japan (17th until 19th century) with models with sizes from 1:100 to 1:1. It was amazing to see the huge wooden structures and get to know the lifestyle of the japanese citizens at that time.

Japanese theatre, scale 1:1. 

Influences from Europe change the japanese architecture, scale 1:1.

 When a friend from my internship and me saw the smaller scale models, we were shocked by the amount of detail shown. Every character was actually doing something (shopping, doing the laundry, dancing, selling goods, chasing a dog) and we were really glad that at the office we did not need to make models with such a power of expression. Respect for the patience that the makers of the models had!

Rich area of the city, scale 1:50.

Just amazing how the movement of the water is expressed, scale 1:100.

The more wood you waste, the more respect you get? scale 1:10.

To zoom in, there were binoculars available since the models were so big.

 Beside the models there was a step by step display of how wood printing worked. As one who likes to draw it was very interesting to see that each colour of one picture had its own wooden block with the shape carved out. Something I might try in the future.

Upper row: actual print, middle row: print of the wooden block, lowest row: carved wooden block.

 To give you the real experience of a local at that time, there were a banner and two containers to carry. The the banner was via a chain attached to the ceiling to prevent it from falling to the ground and in both containers was a weight of 5kg.

Me barely carrying the banner.

My friend from the internship lifting the containers: "Ah! This is so heavy!"

 The museum had a lot of other funny objects for display, such as weapons, boats, kitchen tools and even cooking books. My favourite part was actually the smell of the wooden theatre that was spread through the huge hall. That reminded me of the idea that when experiencing a space not only the eyes, but all five senses are used: another aspect to take in accordance with for my future design projects.

A short visit at the Kengo Kuma office

A short while ago, I had the opportunity to visit the architecture office of Kengo Kuma and Associates. http://kkaa.co.jp/
Being one of the bigger offices which produces very interesting architecture, I wanted to a part of my internship here. But as they only accept Master graduates it was not an option for me.

At the entrance of the office. 

The person who showed me around told me that the working hours were very long (from around 9am until 10pm-2am) and late and that often the staff members have to come in on Saturdays (and/or Sundays) as well. Interns will make mostly models, but if they are applying for being a staff member, they should be able to work with technical drawings, contact with clients and presentations as well.
Different from other architecture offices, at Kengo Kuma's the interns will get paid. And if they like you, you may take a test of which the results will determine wether the office keeps you as a staff member or not. The salary is very low at the beginning and will gradually grow over the years you work for the company. This system is quite normal for Japanese offices.
There are people with different nationalities working at the office and a lot of them are from Asia and Europe. It seemed like a pretty diverse working area.

Front facade of the office Kengo Kuma and Associates. 

The office used to focus on creative and conceptual design, but in my eyes, these days the concentration lies a little more with commercial projects that are very profitable for the office, but less innovative. Although the office works a lot with scale models and plans, which in my opinion is an important process, I am not sure if this would really be my taste and style of working.

My search for a fitting office continues.