Revisiting Shoei Yoh

30 November 2021 - 2 February 2022

Presented by Australian Design Centre, Revisiting Shoei Yoh is an exhibition by the University of New South Wales and Kyushu University that draws from the archive of Japanese architect and late 20th century pioneer of digital design, Shoei Yoh.

The exhibition traces a trajectory of experimental design practice across five key buildings completed by Yoh between 1979 to 1994. This includes the formally bold Kinoshita Clinic in Fukuoka, Japan (1979) that demonstrates Shoei’s early interest in material technology.

In the 1980s Shoei contributed to the modernisation of timber architecture in Japan by integrating early computer analysis techniques into his exploration of three-dimensional timber truss structures. The Music Atelier (1986) and Oguni Bus Terminal (1986) were prototype projects to test the possibilities and performance of non-standard three-dimensional timber truss structures using a combination of locally grown old and new cedar. These projects paved the way for the building of the Oguni Dome (1988) that became the first and largest, free span three-dimensional timber truss structure in Japan.

The Naiju Community Centre (1994) represents Yoh’s most radical architectural exploration that brought together locally grown bamboo, hand weaving construction techniques, and advanced computer analysis to realise a complex geometry.

The exhibition showcases the work of Shoei Yoh through archival architectural drawings and photographs as well as new 3D scanned animations and digitally fabricated parametric architectural models. It celebrates the launch of the online Shoei Yoh Archive that hosts a repository of newly digitised archival assets in an immersive 3D spatial environment developed from 3D scans of the Naiju Community Centre in Fukuoka, Japan.

Project Team
This exhibition forms part of a research collaboration between academics from the School of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia and the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

Kyushu University: Assistant Professor Maasaki Iwamoto | Associate Professor Tomo Inoue | Yu Momoeda

Soundtrack and interpretive sonification by Sofie Loizou
Additional LiDAR Survey Scanning: Yuki Takarabe

Revisiting Shoei Yoh is funded by the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia Japan Foundation Grant (2020-2021) AKF2020045 Revisiting Shoei Yoh: Digital Preservation and Architectural Archiving and supported by project partner micro global agency doq.

Events

Revisiting Shoei Yoh: Digital Cultural Heritage Symposium
This symposium will explore future directions of digital cultural heritage practices and celebrate the launch of the exhibition and new online Shoei Yoh archive.
When: Thursday 2 December, 4.30 - 7.30pm
Where: Online
Tickets: Free, book online

Video: Shoei Yoh, Oguni Bus Terminal Animated 3D Scan, 2021: Courtesy of Dr Jack Barton

Top Image: Shoei Yoh, Naiju Community Centre 3D parametric model, 2021 Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Yu