TOTO GALLERY·MA is holding the first solo exhibition in Japan to feature the distinctive work of Swiss-based architect Christian Kerez.

Describing architecture as an “adventure” and an “intellectual work” through which existing rules and conventions are broken, Kerez employs a design process in which he makes use of models and renderings to thoroughly study and develop space and structure based on the various building requirements of his projects. He does not adhere to preconceived notions and instead begins with the essences for each project to formulate fresh concepts and ideas while seeking to define a new order. Kerez simplifies the complex and reduces buildings to their primary ideas and principles that serve as the generators of an infinite variety of schemes in a process that he describes as “intellectual minimalism”, which lends the spaces that he creates with greater freeness and richness.

Kerez’s three recent large-scale competition proposals—the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2006–2012), Holcim Competence Center (2008), and Swiss Re Next (2008)—and two projects currently in planning—the Highrise in Zhengzhou 1 & 2 (2011/2012–2013) and Social Housing in Paraisopolis (2009–2014)—are presented in this exhibition through conceptual models, drawings, renderings, and animations that collectively represent the latest “Rules of the Game” that define Kerez’s current work.

*image (left)
Conceptual model of Highrise in Zhengzhou 2, 2012-2013
© Milan Rohrer