We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Hayato Ishii ("HI").
What we value most is the dialogue with the builder. What is important to you when you build a house? What kind of life do they want to lead there? By discussing these questions at length, we propose designs that we believe are the best for the client. 1.the designer is the voice that embodies the client's wishes. Many people experience home building only once in their lifetime. Therefore, they hardly know how to proceed. We organize the vague wishes of the client, and reflect them in the plan by drawing out unconscious behaviors that the client may not even be aware of. During the construction phase, many clients are at a loss as to how to communicate with the contractors. It is extremely difficult for the general public to talk on the same level with the construction professionals, the construction business operators and house builders. In such cases, we act as a representative of the client to accurately convey the client's intentions to the construction contractor. 2.take care of the drawings. Building a building is a big challenge and requires a lot of money. We understand that you must have a lot of anxiety. That is why we try to resolve the concerns of the client with the use of drawings. We will clearly show the solution to the client's request using drawings. Without accurate drawings, a good building will never be built. In construction, drawings are the only means of communicating requests to the contractor. We value the drawings and carefully create them. 3.We do not build houses only for their coolness. People often think that houses built by design firms are cool but difficult to use, or cool but expensive. However, we believe that good design is a state in which function, cost, and design are well balanced. We believe that a design that is cool but difficult to use or cool but expensive is not really good design. External coolness will always deteriorate over time. We aim to create meaningful spaces by thinking carefully about the people who will use the space and imagining how they will use it and how they will lead their way.
Hayato Ishii Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Hayato Ishii.
Hayato Ishii Design - Norm Air Hotel
Hayato Ishii Design - Norm Hotel
Designer Interview of Hayato Ishii:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
HI : When I was a child, I loved looking at the floor plans of houses in newspaper advertisements and imagining how I would live there, arranging the furniture, which was my weekly pastime on Sundays. My mother saw this and told me that there was a job in architectural design, and I became vaguely aware of architectural design. As a high school student, I was very interested in interior spaces rather than the exterior of buildings. Therefore, I wanted to take a course specialising in interior spaces as my university major. However, in Japan at that time, architecture was for men and interior space design was for women, and the course I wanted to take was for women only, so I remember feeling disappointed that I could not go on to higher education. Even now that I am an architect, I still attach great importance to the interior spaces where people actually live.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
HI : After working for three years in the design office of Daniela Puppa in Milan, I opened the studio acca first-class architectural office in Tokyo in 2004. In 2017, the firm was incorporated as studio acca Inc. The firm has been designing, supervising and designing many detached houses, villas and condominiums, etc. With the increase in the number of people seeking a new lifestyle, the number of projects at Lake Kawaguchi and Lake Biwa has increased, and we are working through trial and error with the builders to create a place that is more personal to them. We place the greatest importance on designing through dialogue with the builders, rather than creating a building as a work of art. What do they value when building a building, and what do they want to do there? By discussing these issues at length, we come up with more enjoyable ideas and propose designs and designs that we think are best for the builder.
DI: What is "design" for you?
HI : I believe that design is not only about design. In my opinion, a good design is not only beautiful in terms of design, but also well-balanced in terms of productivity, cost, and functionality. I believe that design is an essential and important thing for human beings to lead a rich life. At least, for me, it is.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
HI : I am attracted to designing spaces where people live. These include houses, holiday homes and hotels. I like to imagine people's lives. I am also attracted to designing spaces that the client can discuss with me. Of course, I am confident in my own design, but after all, I am creating a space for the client, so I want to communicate as closely as possible and get as excited as possible with each other as I design.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
HI : What I would like to design someday is a building like the Farnsworth House designed by Mies van der Rohe. It may be a little inconvenient for living, but the stable horizontal lines and the way it brings the outside environment into the interior are very interesting. However, if I were to design this building, I would think about whether it could be made of wood and glass instead of steel and glass. I would like to have a slightly more human-friendly texture. Also very interesting is the Schrader house designed by Rietveld. The idea of using partitions to identify rooms is something that only Rietveld, who also designs furniture, could come up with. This is very helpful when designing a small house in Japan.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
HI : The first building we designed was a corporate office building for a computer software company. The client had three main requirements: perfect security, consideration for the physically challenged, and visibility from the highway. In terms of security, we not only blocked material intrusion with a security system, but also blocked sight lines by using glass blocks on the walls that allow light to pass through but block sight lines. In addition, a ramp for wheelchair access was installed. The ramp, which tends to be in the shadows because of its functional priority, is placed in parallel with the stairs, which signify the connection to the next step, and was purposely adopted as the main façade. The facade of the building can be seen clearly from the highway running in front of the site, creating an outstanding advertising effect.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
HI : I like matte colored materials. And I also like materials with a textured surface rather than smooth mirrored surfaces. This is because a material with a textured surface expresses the shadows in the room very beautifully.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
HI : I think I am most creative in the moment when I make a plan for a large empty lot, imagining the surrounding environment and the client's life. Everything is a hypothetical plan based on my own imagination and assumptions, and I am always nervous when I present it to the client. Through dialogue with the client, I brush up that hypothesis and evolve it into a fixed theory that the client is really looking for.