Scandal continues to swirl around erroneous -- and potentially lethal -- structural assessments of hotels and condominiums by former architect Hidetsugu Aneha. Few, however, would detract from the universally accessible, "barrier-free" design of most modern Japanese condos. Few except Shusaku Arakawa, that is.
An internationally acclaimed, award-winning painter-turned-architectural-designer, Arakawa brands typical modern Japan dwellings as lifeless and inhuman -- not to mention harmful. This is, he insists, partly because they feature too many straight lines and flat planes that do not exist in nature.
By contrast, Arakawa, who now bases himself in New York, advocates "architecture that defies death." How? By incorporating inconveniences and obstacles in his designs in order to bring people's sensory perception back to life -- or by helping them "externalize" themselves, as the 69-year-old artist describes it.