The Window Research Institute, a Tokyo-based architectural foundation, has been engaged in research activities and cultural projects based on windows since 2007. Alongside research, our website features interdisciplinary articles concerning windows and architecture in English and Japanese.
With this renovation, we overhauled the design and layout of the website and improved searchability to make it easier for users to access their desired information regardless of genre or category, including articles such as interviews and essays, as well as information on fellowships, research findings, publications and exhibitions.
The new website also offers new content featuring Japanese Modern Architecture built between the pre-war times and the 1970s, and which is still lived in today. We explore and introduce the history behind each window, which until now has not been told in detail, through interviews with the building owners.
New contents
The Windows of the Migishi Atelier: Inheritance and Change
Architectural historian Kanemaki examines the inheritance and change of wooden modernist architecture based on the Migishi Atelier (year completed: 1934).
Takamasa Yosizaka: A Window Looking Out on the Slope of a Mountain, For One to View the Scenery Below
Yosizaka Takamasa, a modern master most known for the Japan pavilion, the biennial of Venice, once designed unique windows for the private residence in Hayama, Japan.
Selected contents
Four Tectonic Features that Reside Within Prouvé’s Window Details
Structural engineer Shin Yokoo, who has been researching Prouvéʼs achievements from both an engineering and design perspective, sheds light on the architectʼs experimental work with windows.
Short Film A City of Columns
Created by Japanese architectural historian Norihito Nakatani, the film explores the distinctive dwelling culture of nagaya, a housing typology that flourished in the Japanese early modern period.
A Conversation with Peter Märkli
One of the series of interviews with Swiss architects conducted by the Chair of Architectural Behaviorology at ETH Zurich led by Japanese architect Momoyo Kaijima (Atelier Bow-Wow).
The Bauhaus and Its Influence in Japan
Two architectural historians, Jin Motohashi and Hiromitsu Umemiya discuss what the impact the Bauhaus has left on Japan.
The Diverse Openings of the Yosuitei’s Thirteen-Window Tearoom
Architectural historian and architect Terunobu Fujimori introduces the Yosuitei, a teahouse with 13 individually unique windows in Kyoto, tracing the history of the teahouse in Japan.
Panel Discussion: Windows in Photography
Photographers, Iwan Baan, Takashi Homma, and an architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Atelier Bow-Wow) discuss how photography, architecture, and windows are interrelated.
For further reading, visit the site here.
About Window Research Institute
The Window Research Institute is a public interest incorporated foundation engaged in research activities and cultural projects based on windows. The institute’s recent projects include CCA-WRI Research Fellowship Program launched jointly with the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), and the exhibition “WINDOWOLOGY: New Architectural Views from Japan” at the Japan House, an overseas hub for the promotion of Japanese culture established by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs with locations in Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, and London.
