Tokyo Ride

Certain movies, I fall asleep after the first 10 minutes. Other movies like Tokyo Ride (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt13066868/ ) I find riveting enough that I can write about them a few weeks later with startling detail.

It’s raining hard on the morning of April 25th. The filmmakers beka and lemoine had planned this meeting for 10 years so rescheduling was not an option. Famed architect Ryue nishizawa pulls up in his Alfa Romeo. He’s dressed in a long sleeve tropical shirt, chill and unassuming. At 43 years old, he was the youngest pritzker  prize winner in the history of the award in 2010.

They cram into the car and start the ride. The subject of the film is a candid impromptu conversation with Ryue over the course of a day. Having learned many lessons in architecture driving Murcutt, I was curious how much there was to learn in driving with Ryue. 

To deal with condensation fogging up his front window, ryue leaves his window gaping open while he drives. His left arm is completely drenched. His European passenger in the rear is soaked. Most people would close their windows and turn on the defrost, Ryue embraced the stormy weather and let it into the car by rolling the windows down.  His driving attitude in bad weather  is consistent with his architectural approach which is open to nature.

As Ryue weaves between lanes on Tokyo highways, he talks effortlessly about ideas of architectural history and cultural theories through anecdotes and conjecture. They ride around the highway which were built over the Venice-like Tokyo canals in the 1960s. “In Tokyo, everyone likes new stuff. There’s no regulations.” Ryue is not a sentimental architect, yet he acknowledges history and tradition. His delivery is matter of fact.  He drives fast but his knowledge of the city is vast and deep. He knows the city and all its layers of history underneath. “I’ve lived my whole life in Tokyo. Spent one month outside Venice biennale.” When they stop at a temple that his ancestors used to attend and where his grandmother was buried, Ryue explains all the superstitions like pacing back and forth in front of the shrine 100 times makes the person’s dreams come true. When asked if he believes in this religious stuff Ryue replies “yes”. 

Since the filmmakers are European, much of the dialogue centers on cultural differences and insights. When the trio talks about driving and cars, ryue opines, “German cars are like machines, you can feel each element distinct. An Italian car is like a living organism.” “What about Japanese cars?” “They’re like computers.”

I found these types of observations fascinating... as they showed ryue’s thinking process. 

“In Europe everyone has to get along with other people... Japan is naive in isolation. In Japan, people are like kids— 15 year olds. They have no armor.”

Feeling hungry, the trio makes a stop at Ryue’s favorite soba shop. They pay special attention about how they make tea out of the soba water and pour them from square ceramic kettles. During the meal, ryue speaks of recent admiration of Candela’s work in Mexico. “Every time I go back to Mexico City i go to Barragan’s house. I’ve been there 10 times.” The noodles are served on flat woven baskets. The filmmakers go to the back of the shop and marvel how the noodles have been made there for generations. 

On the way to a secret destination, beka and lemoine ask Ryue about his favorite architects. Ryue responds with 3. “corbusier was the greatest. He was the  ‘adder’. He knew how to put new architecture on top of old. Mies van der rohe built architecture for Kings every detail unique. When I asked Oscar Niemeyer who his favorite architect was, he said ‘my brother’ cause he was communist” 

The surprise destination they arrive at is Seijima’s house. Seijima is the architect ten years senior who he partnered with in the 1990s. Now middle aged, Seijima recounts how they used to fight all the time. “Before we fought. now we don’t fight. people assume we’re the same. We’re not. I’m more structural he’s more emotional. Now we’re old and  tired and don’t fight anymore.” 

Seijima’s house was designed by  ryue. They fought all the time over the house design initially. Seijima would say, “ I don’t like this drawing, why don’t you draw it like this? Then when he drew it the way I wanted, I asked ‘why did you draw it the way I told you?’ For one year the design of the house was debated till finally seijima relented and let Ryue design the house. Seijima’s mom was supposed to live there. By she didn’t. A small altar with a picture of her mom sits by a wall. She looks startling similar to her mom.

In the house, plants abound. Seijima admits she spends all day at the architecture studio and only comes home to sleep. 

With seijima in the car, the group drives to SANAA’s office. When you enter the office, a walkway is flanked by plywood bookcases. You walk through a slot to the back  where there is a larger communal space, seijima’s desk and daybed. Huge models they work on are seen everywhere.  Seijima admits she sleeps on the daybed during the day to refuel. She probably spends 16 hours a day working in the studio. Having seen their airy work like the new museum and River building, it’s interesting to contrast the studio where their architecture is dreamed up and their work. 

Leaving seijima at the office ryue takes beka and lemoine to kenzo tange’s Olympic stadium. He reminisces how his father would take him swimming there as a kid. “The stadium is amazing in that it is naturally ventilated. In high school I saw Springsteen, Dylan, Rolling Stones concerts here. It also is striking in its dialogue with eero saarinen’s structures. They were influenced by each other before the age of the internet. Somehow the conversed yet they were on opposite sides of the earth.”

Continuing about his childhood, ryue recounts the wonder he had attending a summer camp as a kid. “The sleeping dorm was separated from the toilet facilities. At night you had to walk across the field to get to the toilet and on the way you could see the whole Milky Way.. all the stars.” It was these types of experiences that would help formulate his ideas of the moriyama house... the last scene of the movie. 

the kind of life that mr. moriyama has in that house it is totally related to the feeling ryue felt when he was in camp as a kid. In the final scene, moriyama, beka as lemoine and ryue eat sushi on the roof of the house. Ryue explains the logic of the house. “Designing a house you think of all the things that can happen in there.  moriyama has a bedroom that is separate from the bathroom, from the kitchen, and from the rest of the house. To go from one room to another Moriyama has to go outside. in the summer it’s very hot, and in the winter it’s very cold, but he has to go outside to live. he lives in a house that is outside and inside.”

To analogize his house to culture, ryue explains “China and europe are like nouns. They are very stable civilizations rooted in permanence. Islands in the Asia like japan and Indonesia are like verbs. They and their architecture are like waves and movement." 

After watching the movie I had the sense that the story told by European filmmakers covering a renowned Japanese architect had the right balance of verbs and nouns to paint a portrait of a man, his culture and his architecture.