Liam Young from Tomorrows Thoughts Today is curating an exhibition and lecture on the work by the maverick ‘architect’ Mas Yendo.

Salvaged from the wreckage, Mas’ artifacts are evidence of a near future where labyrinthine, steel filaments mesh together like roots of an overgrown tree, mechanical elements bulge from decrepit structures, naked pipes wrap around each other in bondage. Loose wires, rusted steel panels, chipped paint, layered walls and the assimilation of organic entity and machine capture the essence of this city. Born in 1957 in Tokyo, Japan, his experimental works have been compiled in his monograph Ironic Diversions, published by Springer/Wien through Lebbeus Woods’  Research Institute of Experimental Architecture. He currently lives and works in New York City.

The exhibition titled E-X PROSTHESIS will be a collection of his extraordinary objects made from hacked military model kits and accompanying graphite drawings. Mas will give a lecture at 6.30 in the UCL Darwin lecture theater before opening the exhibition in the Bartlett School of Architecture Lobby Gallery.

Japan thinks the real world should be more like Gundam, the apocalyptic robot war series. Next year, a team of experts from all walks of life will join together to form the Gundam Academy, an academic institution dedicated to bringing humanity into the age of mecha suits, helper robots, and space colonization. It’s time for the Universal Century. (more…)

Five hours from Tokyo and a half hour boat ride across the Setonaikai, one finds Naoshima. This island retreat once was a fishing village, but is now an art-themed Elysium inhabited by sculpture parks, two spectacular Ando museums, and a fishing village exquisitely retrofitted with site-specific artwork. Even the ferry terminal is a Sanaa bespoke. (more…)

On a street of love hotels in Osaka, the Don Quijote building presents the idea of ‘facade as amusement park ride’, in so doing, referencing the room compartments of capsule hotels and indeed the capsulized love within pay-per-hour hotels. (more…)