Meeting with architect Hiroka Matsuura, partner of MAXWAN Architects + Urbanists and founder of MASA Architects

Give
February 02, 2018
Organizer
Ukrainian Real Estate Club
Cost
Free options
Час
11:00

On Friday, February 2, URE Club members Ukrainian Real Estate Club had an amazing opportunity to talk with urbanist and cosmopolitan architect Hiroka Matsuura Hiroki Matsuura, partner and chief designer of MAXWAN Architects + Urbanists office and founder of MASA Architects workshop.

Hiroki Matsuura talked about the projects he is working on, how in practice architecture, urbanism and landscape design coexist in these projects, and how Eastern idealism and Western pragmatism are manifested in his work.

Founded in 1994, the MAXWAN Architects + Urbanists office with headquarters in Rotterdam specializes in large-scale projects in the field of urbanism and landscape design, while the field of interest of the MASA Architects spin-off workshop is architecture and interior design.

MAXWAN's largest work is the general plan of Leidsche-Rhein, a colossal new district of Utrecht, which includes 30 houses for 000 inhabitants and is the most powerful urban project in the history of the Netherlands.

Thus, the tasks solved by the bureau's specialists are to answer the question "how to build a city?". MAXWAN architects developed projects of a similar scale in Rotterdam, London, Moscow and Sochi, where the office won a competition to create a master plan for the construction of post-Olympic areas of the city.

In each of their projects, the bureau's specialists try to make maximum use of the existing natural landscape and to preserve the existing natural landscape, which can hardly be recreated as a result of anthropogenic intervention.

An important and ultimately fundamental approach to the creation of a new urban canvas in the projects of the office is the demand for a "quiet" intervention in the environment, when residents of new districts have the opportunity to enjoy all the advantages of a harmonious combination of natural and man-made in emphasized typical landscape zones, where nature and architecture become a single and harmonious whole. Private (terraces, loggias and balconies) and public (streets, squares and promenades) spaces, in this case, are resolved as components of one sphere of life.

According to Hiroka Matsuura, this approach - no matter how ironic it sounds - did not allow MAXWAN to win a large-scale competition for the creation of the "Zaryadye" park in Moscow - the bureau's project received an honorable second place, because "it was too Russian".

A historically significant territory within walking distance of the heart of the Russian capital demanded an extremely careful attitude from the architects.

And they approached the creation of the master plan of the park on the site of the colossal Hotel Rossiya, which was demolished in 2006, with all the caution of their signature "quiet" intervention, taking into account the factors of the historical development of the area and its role in the system of the urban ensemble of the center of Moscow (on the territory of "Zaryadya" are located 9 unique historical monuments, including one of the oldest churches in the city - Annazachatev Church of the XNUMXth century).

The plan of the MAXWAN office is an "invisible" solution, which implied the creation of such a park area that "has already been here for centuries", bearing no traces of the work of the team of architects.

An example of the work of the MASA Architects workshop can be the renovation project of a villa built in 1938 on the sea coast in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The sturdy brick structure with the traditional rieten daken – a natural reed roof – was built specifically to withstand the gusts of cold salty wind from the sea.

The current owners did not have enough space in the mansion, and in addition, the view from the tiny living room to the garden was blocked by an open terrace. MASA architects brought innovations to the design, respecting the original character of the building.

The terrace overlooking the garden was hidden by a new elegant block made of glass and concrete, which housed a modern kitchen. And the living room was enlarged due to the glass volume that goes out into the garden and opens a view of the beach. The additions are visually separated from the original structure of the villa by glass belts that allow maximum light and air into the interior. This method made it possible to preserve the special character of the old building.

The terrace overlooking the garden was hidden by a new elegant block made of glass and concrete, which housed a modern kitchen. And the living room was enlarged due to the glass volume that goes out into the garden and opens a view of the beach. The additions are visually separated from the original structure of the villa by glass belts that allow maximum light and air into the interior. This method made it possible to preserve the special character of the old building.

Hiroki Matsuura managed to develop a unique building typology, creating a meandering line embracing natural vegetation on the island with an intensively animated city embankment, a freer, more intimate medium-height coastal zone and the most natural green interior spaces of the island, set aside for the organization of a number of public locations.

Such a circular solution and the maximum use of the hilly terrain made it possible to solve the problem of high costs for the construction of underground parking lots - in this case, they were proposed to be placed inside the hills, which, in addition, could perform the function of anti-flood protective barriers.

Explaining his desire to create complex solutions that combine landscape, architecture, and urbanism into a single whole, Hiroki Matsuura gave an example from Ukrainian culture. In the classic film by Sergei Parajanov, based on the novel by Mikhail Kotsiubinsky "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", the architect was able to consider the plot outline of the love story of Ivan and Marichka as a complete cultural code that uniteseats into a single powerful pulsating and sometimes shocking rhythmic series of children, old men, animals, forest, water and sky.

Matsuura was amazed and inspired by the fact that he met a similar "holistic" attitude inherent in Japanese culture in Ukraine. And it is precisely this principle of unity in every detail that he preaches in his works.