Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

In his ongoing research into the effects of windows and how the different usages influence their design, the Japanese architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto has travelled to Scandinavia and Finland.The result is this book, The Nordic Window – the first ever publication on the topic. Here, Tsukamoto and his students at the Tokyo Institute of Technology analyse a long list of canonical projects from the Nordic architectural tradition through beautiful photographs and elaborate drawings. His approach emphasises both the physical elements of the window, but also the more ephemeral aspects such as behaviour and atmosphere.This book is a study into how the design of windows is shaped by different cultures and social contexts. The fascination and tenderness shines through the text, while it presents a unique perspective on the architectural tradition that we are so familiar with. Through this exquisite example of Japanese craftsmanship, we are invited to see the Nordic architecture through the eyes of an acclaimed Japanese architect.Yoshiharu Tsukamoto is one of the founding member of the acclaimed Japanese architecture studio Atelier Bow-Wow and a lecturer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Together with his studio, he has previous published the books Pet Architecture Guide Book and Made in Tokyo.

Since the beginning of the century, the field of architecture has fervently turned its attention to documenting the contemporary urban condition. Every city been has been examined as a repository of architectural concepts, scrutinized as an urban manifesto, and recorded as a series of found objects. The Ordinary articulates a potential genealogy for this practice and for the genre of books derived from it. Organized around conversations with the authors of three seminal texts that document the city-Denise Scott Brown's Learning from Las Vegas (1972), Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York (1978), and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto's Made in Tokyo (2001)-this volume traces the history of these "books on cities" by examining the material they recorded, the findings they established, the arguments they advanced, and the projects they promoted. These conversations also question the assumptions underlying this practice and whether in its ubiquity it still remains a space of opportunity.