Experience the Message Behind "A Single Rod"

This year marks 25 years since Soichi Mizutani established his interior design firm. As he contemplated how to give back to those who had supported him over the quarter-century, an unprecedented disaster struck the Tohoku region. Visiting Kesennuma, Sendai, and Fukushima—places he had connections to—left him speechless.

"In the 1990s, I considered how to break free from architecture itself. As a spatial design concept, I explored whether a new interior space could be created by incorporating a simple box within a building. Through trial and error, I succeeded in designing a space that was essentially an empty box. The idea was that even if a major earthquake were to destroy the building, the box created within the interior would remain. This led to the design of another box within the architecture."

Then came 2011. "A truly massive earthquake occurred. After the disaster, I heard stories from survivors who managed to cling to life, and I was simply stunned. Some people survived by gripping a single handrail on a rooftop amidst the tsunami. Others held onto an antenna rod on the roof. Hearing that a single rod saved many lives, I decided I wanted to design that single rod."

A single rod within a space. What will you feel?

Soichi MIZUTANI
Interior Architect. Born in Fukui Prefecture in 1955. Joined Plastic Studio & Associates in 1979, established Soichi Mizutani Design Office in 1990. Recipient of numerous awards, including the JCD Grand Prize for Commercial Environment Design, the Lighting Contest Grand Prize, and the NGS Design Award Special Jury Prize. http://soichi-mizutani.com/

A Single Rod / Soichi Mizutani Exhibition
Venue: TIME & STYLE EXISTENCE Minami-Aoyama
Dates: December 2, 2011 (Fri) – December 25, 2011 (Sun)
Hours: 12:00 – 18:00
Admission: Free
http://www.timeandstyle.com/ja/shop_existence.html