Go Hasegawa is a Japanese architect based in Tokyo. Hasegawa graduated with a Master of Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2002, after which he worked at Taira Nishizawa Architects before establishing Go Hasegawa & Associates in 2005. He has taught as a visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Academy of Architecture of Mendrisio, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, the University of California in Los Angeles, and, currently, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has received a number of awards—including the 2008 Shinkenchiku Prize and the 2014 AR Design Vanguard—and has made many publications such as Go Hasegawa Works (TOTO Publishing, 2012), Go Hasegawa Conversations with European Architects (LIXIL Publishing, 2015), and a+u in January 2017 as the recent monograph. In 2015, he received his PhD in Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Go Hasegawa
CAB 2 Contribution
Project Overview
Golden ‘New’ Proportion
Go Hasegawa has designed a site-specific installation of work in an architecturally complicated intersection between the original 1897 Chicago Public Library building and the 1970s Cultural Center renovation. The spatial result of this convergence is seen in the clear intersection of two architectural logics; the historic windows are partially obscured by the newer fit-out. Hasagawa’s intervention in this space is a simple alteration to the window, covering it in a shim, that provides an even light. Inside this space there are several canvases, covered in gold foil, as a backdrop surface for a selection of Hasegawa’s own buildings, each exemplifying an architectural element. Hasegawa suggests that the elemental approach to architecture is a way to bypass the classifications between the vernacular and the architectural. The golden canvas is an allusion to Japan’s historic use of gold leaf in their architecture for details and surfaces. With these two simple elements, the shrouded light and the gold leaf panels, they propose to produce a singular experience for the viewer as their interaction reveals and obscures the drawing depending on the time of day.