The National Art Center, Tokyo
Mar. 19–Jun. 30: LIVING Modernity: Experiments in the Exceptional and Everyday 1920s-1970s *Mar. 20: Int’l Symp. w/ simul. Japanese&English interpretation
2025.02.17
LIVING Modernity: Experiments in the Exceptional and Everyday 1920s-1970s
An ambitious exhibition including the realization of a Mies van der Rohe unbuilt courtyard house at full scale
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The National Art Center, Tokyo, is pleased to present the exhibition entitled LIVING Modernity: Experiments in the Exceptional and Everyday 1920s-1970s from Wednesday, March 19, 2025, to Monday, June 30, 2025.
Beginning in the 1920s, architects including Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe explored new residential designs with function and comfort in mind. Their experimental visions and innovative ideas eventually intersected with everyday life, greatly reshaping people’s lifestyles.
This exhibition focuses on seven dimensions of modern houses: hygiene, materials, windows, kitchen, furnishings, media, and landscape. Approximately 14 masterworks of residential architecture spanning the world will be presented in detail through photographs and drawings, sketches, models, furniture, textiles, tableware, magazines, graphics, and films.
The modernity of this residential architecture in this exhibition continues to resonate today, offering an opportunity to reflect on our own living spaces and ways of living.
Press Release
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https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/
Exhibition highlights
1. The house: an exhibition emerging from our everyday lives
2. Master architects’ passion towards the home
3. A rich assemblage of works and images from Japan and the world
4. A centenary of modern houses + iconic furniture and lighting still in use today
5. Realizing a Mies van der Rohe unbuilt courtyard house at full scale
14 residential masterpieces
1. Le Corbusier, Villa «Le Lac », 1923
2. Koji Fujii, Chochikukyo, 1928
3. Mies van der Rohe, Tugendhat House, 1930
4. Pierre Chareau, Maison de Verre, 1932
5. Kameki Tsuchiura, Tsuchiura Kameki House, 1935
6. Lina Bo Bardi, Casa de Vidro, 1951
7. Kenji Hirose, SH-1, 1953
8. Alvar Aalto, Murtala Experimental House, 1953
9. Jean Prouve, Jean Prouve's House in Nancy, 1954
10. Eero Saarinen, Alexander Girard, Dan Kiley, Miller House, 1957
11. Kiyonori and Norie Kikutake, Sky House, 1958
12. Pierre Koenig, Case Study House #22, 1959
13. Louis Kahn, Fisher House, 1967
14. Frank Gehry, Frank & Berta Gehry House, 1978
Exhibition overview
Period: March 19 (Wed), 2025 – June 30 (Mon), 2025
Closed on Tuesdays, May7 (Open on April 29, May 6)
Opening Hours: 10:00-18:00 (Fridays and Saturdays, 10:00-20:00)
(Last admission 30 minutes before closing)
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo
Special Exhibition Gallery 1E, 2E
7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-8558
Organized by
The National Art Center, Tokyo; The Tokyo Shimbun; Japan Arts Council; Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
Contact
The National Art Center, Tokyo - Public Relations
7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-8558
E-mail: pr@nact.jp
Weekdays 10:00 - 17:00 * Closed on Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays
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Related Event:
International Symposium “LIVING Modernity: Past, Present, Future”
To commemorate the opening of "LIVING Modernity: Experiments in the Exceptional and Everyday 1920s-1970s," the National Art Center, Tokyo will hold the international symposium, "LIVING Modernity: Past, Present, Future." The exhibition reconsiders innovative attempts in housing design beginning in the 20th century from seven perspectives that shape the modern house: hygiene, materials, windows, kitchens, furnishings, media, and landscape.
The symposium presents key researchers/curators of the exhibition’s featured 14 masterworks from Japan and the world. They will consider how the architects' experiments beginning a century ago continue to shape living today and how their visions of modern houses may be passed on to the next generation. This symposium offers the opportunity to examine these questions from multiple perspectives of architect, client, and conservator.
Date: Thursday/National Holiday March 20, 2025
Time: 14:00～17:00 (Door opens at 13:30)
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo, 3rd Floor Auditorium
Admission: Free admission for LIVING Modernity exhibition ticket holders.
Organized by The National Art Center, Tokyo
Speakers:
Ken Tadashi Oshima (Exhibition Guest Curator, Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington)
Patrick Moser (Curator of Villa “Le Lac” Le Corbusier)
Akira Matsukuma (Representative Director of Chochikukyo Club)
Atsuko Tanaka (Architectural historian, Part-time lecturer of Kanagawa University)
Marcelo Carvalho Ferraz (Architect, Former Director of Bardi Institute)
Timo Riekko (Chief Curator, Alvar Aalto Foundation)
Kiwa Matsushita (Architect, Professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology)
Kei Sasaki (Exhibition Associate Curator, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Tokyo Institute of Technology (2019-24))
https://www.nact.jp/english/
Press Inquiries
The National Art Center, Tokyo
Public Relations
7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-8558
pr@nact.jp
Weekdays 10:00 - 17:00 * Closed on Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays