Yugen and the Art of Mysteriousness in Japanese Architecture
Yugen: appreciating the unknown Japan is a country made up of islands. Surrounded by the ocean, its climate is humid and constantly changing. Along the coast, high mountains are often covered in mist and fog. In part, familiarity with these transforming, obscured landscapes–as seen in this scroll from the Edo period–is what creates the Japanese […]
Self, Space, and Beyond: Where and How Do We Experience Mindfulness?
Connections between the mind, body, and environment Imagine you are walking through an outdoor path in Kyoto, surrounded by bamboo. While you walk, your blood pressure happens to decrease. Is it because you are taking in the smells of the bamboo as you walk? Is your mind communicating a positive reaction to the space to […]
“Clouds, Bubbles, and Waves” of Japanese architecture
What are “clouds, bubbles, and waves”? They suggest impermanence of Japanese architecture, but also resiliency of it. At the symposium on this very curious subject at Yale School of Architecture, Yoko Kawai of PED had a pleasure to moderate one of the sessions. Japanese architecture is known for its respect to the impermanence of life […]
Designing Mindfulness: Spatial Concepts in Traditional Japanese Architecture
On May 31st, Yoko Kawai is going to talk “Designing Mindfulness: Spatial Concepts in Traditional Japanese Architecture”, at TALKS+ of New York Japan Society. Please join this event!
Workplace Matters In Spite of Innovation
At the panel discussion event ” The Future of Innovation in the Workplace”, PED’s Yoko Kawai, on behalf of Mirai Work Space, had a pleasure to moderate the conversation. It was at Williams Club in New York on January 22nd, and we had a large and lively audience! The panelists represented cowork or cowork-like places in […]
