Lecture Hall in Park Groot,  ©junya.ishigami+associates

The cherry trees at Fondation Cartier were in full bloom for Junya Ishigami‘s opening of twenty architecture designs and models. And discovering his work was a blessed moment. The laureate of the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2010, Ishigami represents at 43, the young generation who devotes an important place to landscape, poetry and conceptualism in architecture. Recently celebrated at MoMA in New York, he shows in “Freeing Architecture” a new concept of nature invading buildings. It is totally magical.

Junya Ishigami at Fondation Cartier, showing a model for the visitor center in Tytsjerk, Holland

Retirement homes in wood for Alzheimer patients in Tohoku, Japan, Chapel of Valley in Rizhao,  China, Park Vijversburg Visitor center in Holland, Botanical farm gardens in Yamaguchi, every single building seems a miracle of poetry and transparence. There is the Polytechnic museum in Moscow and a space for personal reflection  and meditation in Nordhavn,  Copenhagen harbour.

Ecumenical Chapel of Valley in Shandong, China is 45 m high and made of concrete

Waves, clouds, trees often transported from a forest, water garden, Ishigami uses every item with a new eye and the playfulness of his architecture is really exciting. The architect seems as confortable with private houses full of vegetation as with large university projects or children’s parks.

Traditional wooden houses for Alzheimer patients

I toi well worth watching the film downstairs which explains how his wooden houses are transported wholly built, how his one kilometer long promenade  building was planned in Rizaho. The environment is so important to his buildings that size is of no relevance.

Interior view of House with Plants, ©junya.ishigami+associates

All models were made especially for this show which is his first retrospective. The exhibition is on at Fondation Cartier, until June 10.