Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce our first presentation within Japan of the work of Akihisa Hirata. Born in Osaka (1971), after completing the postgraduate course at the Graduate School of Engineering at Kyoto University in 1997, Hirata was employed from 1997-2005 at Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. Under Ito, Hirata worked on projects including the Sendai Mediatheque (execution design), Miyagi; Aluminum House in Sakurajosui, Tokyo; “Forum for Music, Dance and Visual Culture”, Gent and TOD’S Omotesando Building, Tokyo. In 2005, Hiratata established Akihisa Hirata Architecture Office in Tokyo.

Hirata has received several awards including the Asakura Award of SD Review 2004 for House H, the SD Review Award finalist for House S, 2007 and the 19th JIA New Face Award 2007 for MASUYA and is nowadays very highly valued architect.

In 2007, Hirata launched the Daikanyama Market Street “Sarugaku” project (Daikanyama, Tokyo) and participated in the same year in the 1st Lisbon Architecture Triennale. In 2008, Hirata presented “ienoie” (Information Center of the Yokohama Triennale) and exhibited at the Frieze Art Fair with his chair “csh”. His works have been well received within Japan and abroad. At Milano Salone 2009, he presented his most recent work “animated knot”, a projection screen constructed of three-dimensional shapes.

This is a proposal for the production of a flame-like object fabricated from golden aluminum. The aggregate pieces of pressed golden aluminum in twisted forms fills spaces of varying size- and this enables the piece to be utilized in a variety of circumstances. This unprecedented system projects space in a unique manner and functions as an abstract, multipurpose object; it may be used as a partition, for example, or a display when placed in larger settings such as that of a hotel lobby. Alternatively, the frame may function in a more intimate settings such as a space suitable for the hosting of a tea-ceremony, or, in the case of a domestic setting, the frame may function on the scale of furniture in the form a chandelier.

The image of rising flame is dynamic in nature. A mode of gaps, such as those found between layers of leaves, the piece is inspired by the mysteries of existing natural phenomenon and life and is mean to function as a simple system for gently projecting the relationship between people interacting within a space.

Akihisa Hirata
Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to present Hirata’s new work “Flame frame”. The piece will be displayed within the gallery office space until the end of 2009.

The principle of Hirata`s work is a closeness to nature and its various functions.
“While people are enjoying themselves under a tree, this tree is ruthlessly doing photosynthesis, it is spreading its leaves with highest efficiency to live and is not thinking about human beings. If we would implement this independent principle of existence into architecture, I think it would have marvelous persuasive power on the people.”

Hirata, interpreting the mystery of life and the origin of architecture is connecting the points which are resulting from this theory. He is seeking for the possibility of architecture which will be decided by the struggle between inside and outside: when creating spaces his motif is “the principal of nature” - the roof is inspired by the mountains and valleys that are formed by running water, the walls and floors of an inside building by rising smoke and the cellular structure of growing plants.