Kazunari Sakamoto Architecture Exhibition opens at SCUT in China

Poetry in Architecture: Kazunari Sakamoto Architecture Exhibition is being held at South China University of Technology (SCUT) in Guangzhou, China from May 9 to July 3. Sakamoto is an influential Tokyo Tech professor emeritus who specializes in architectural planning and design. The Department of Architecture and Building Engineering of the Graduate School of Science and Engineering and the Tokyo Tech Museum are co-hosting the exhibition.

Sakamoto's exhibition at SCUT

Tokyo Tech and SCUT have a long-lasting relationship. The predecessor of SCUT's School of Architecture is the Department of Architectural Engineering at Xiangqin University, founded in 1932. At the inception of the department, professors who had studied at Tokyo Tech played a pivotal role in the development of its architectural education. As history would have it, the relationship between the two universities was cut off for some time, but the exhibition of the late Professor Emeritus Kazuo Shinohara at SCUT in 2013 restarted educational exchanges, again through architecture. This also opened the doors for Sakamoto's exhibition.

Exhibition attracts many visitors

The current exhibition at SCUT introduces twenty of Sakamoto's works through architectural models and enormous photos of building exteriors and interiors printed on cloths. It showcases his forty years of design activities and architectural theories, from his first work, House in Sanda from 1969, to his latest design of the academic center at Changzhou Institute of Technology in China.

The opening ceremony of the exhibition was held on May 9 at the SCUT campus. Sakamoto was joined by Tokyo Tech Professor Yoshiharu Tsukamoto of the Department of Architecture and Building Engineering and Associate Professor Koichi Endo of the Institute's Museum.

Starting with Kazunari Sakamoto: Houses — Poetics in the ordinary, held in Tokyo in 2001, the architect's exhibitions have continued for 15 years. Gradually evolving in scale and content, these shows have spread from Japan and Tokyo Tech to tours in Europe and universities in China. Regardless of culture or country, Sakamoto's consummate architectural creations continue to fascinate.

Poetry in Architecture: Kazunari Sakamoto Architecture Exhibition

• May 8
  Lecture entitled "Architectural Behaviorology" by Professor Tsukamoto
• May 9
  Opening ceremony
  Lectures
  "Poetics of Neutrality" by Professor Emeritus Sakamoto
  "Archiving Activities about the Architects at Tokyo Tech" by Associate Professor Endo

Professor Emeritus Sakamoto speaking at the opening ceremony

• South China University of Technology (SCUT)
• Architecture exhibition from Japan held in SCUT
• Tokyo Tech Museum and Archives (Japanese)