Interview with Toshiko Mori, FAIA
On Monday, March 8, 2010, the Museum will present the 2010 Women of Architecture lecture featuring Toshiko Mori, FAIA, founder and principal of Toshiko Mori Architect. Established in 2007, in collaboration with the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF), the series recognizes and celebrates the professional and personal accomplishments of women in the field of architecture.
Ms. Mori will present a lecture titled “Role Models and Paradigm Shift: Frank, Paul, Marcel and Me.”
The Museum recently spoke with Mori about her work and career.
National Building Museum (NBM): You are well known for your work on the Darwin Martin House Visitor Center in Buffalo, NY. Can you share with us some of the design process you went through in designing the center?
Toshiko Mori: The visitor center is designed to reflect and promote the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright to the new century. I have interpreted the principles of organic architecture to embrace the balance of a man made world and nature through the integration of a sophisticated climate engineering technology in order to minimize its impact on its environment. It ranges from the understanding of acoustics and energy use to the integration of natural lighting.
NBM: Frank Lloyd Wright is such a well known and well followed figure in architecture. What sort of opportunities and/or pressures did this present to you while working on the Visitors Center?
Mori: I was interested in re-interpreting Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural ideas, not mimic them. Therefore in material use and details, I have invented ways to address his principles with an architectural language of our day. In general, I have worked with a strategy of “contrasts” highlighting the essential qualities through opposing ideas such as the use of glass instead of brick, the use of a reverse hip roof, and the maximizing of daylight instead of working through the rich variations of shadows that exist in the Martin House.
NBM: You are currently preparing your next publication, “Textile Tectonic in Architecture”, can you tell us a little about that?
Mori: It is about looking at the fabrication techniques of weaving, knitting, etc. that are influencing a new and dynamic way of understanding innovative technological breakthroughs in architectural production.
NBM: Your lecture is presented during Women’s History Month. Who are some of the women that have had the greatest influence on you and your work?
Mori: I am sorry to say that I did not have a female mentor or role model in my professional life. It is the sorry state of the impact of women in our profession to date; but things are changing rapidly. My interest in materiality and the fabrication process in my work comes from my mother’s and grandmother’s ingenious use of the limited resources available when I was growing up in post-war Japan. Today, I am inspired by my female peers, and young women of our time who are willing to go beyond the prescriptive parameters to help others, who are courageous, and who are innovative.
