Do We Really Need More Stuff? — with Japanese Architect Takero Shimazaki
4/16/202655 min
Most of us think we need more — more space, more things, more possessions. Japanese architect Takero Shimazaki believes we may already have enough.
Takero has designed some of the most elegant private houses in Britain, including one that was nominated for the Stirling Prize. His buildings are never grand or showy. Instead, they are thoughtful and restrained.
He grew up in Japan, where there’s a long tradition of embracing imperfection and accepting that materials age naturally. His grandfather — also an architect — taught him that light and proportion shape not just a building, but how we f...
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First 90 secondsTakero Shimazaki· Guest0:00
[gentle music] A home is, is to do with your necessity. I've not been very good personally with sort of a home as an idea of an investment. It's sort of home stemming from the idea of your own needs and, you know, what do you need. I find that, uh, if you just ch-chase status, it becomes much harder to define this environment as a home. I've lived in so many different spaces, sometimes in a dormitory, which is not mine at all, obviously, and, uh, you live there for a year or something, but you spend your time with this act of homing, keeping things quite light, keeping things quite light-footed and touching the Earth quite gently.
Matt Gibberd· Host0:45
[gentle music] Hello, welcome back to Homing. Today is a foundations episode, and I'm in the studio with the architect Takahiro Shimazaki. Takahiro spent his early years in Japan, but he's lived and worked in London for many years now. He's designed some very elegant private houses, some of which I've been to. Uh, and one of them was nominated last year for the Stirling Prize, which is basically architecture's equivalent of the BAFTAs. They're not big or flashy. Uh, they're much more thoughtful and understated. I think he's the ideal person to talk to about