"When drawings of the main buildings I have designed in the last five years are juxtaposed, the fact that they all involve the pursuit of certain configurations is obvious to anyone"
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Taniguchi is doing something sly here: he’s stripping architectural authorship down to a repeatable set of moves, then daring you to notice. By framing his last five years of work as a group of “drawings” that, when “juxtaposed,” reveal a pattern, he shifts the argument away from lofty rhetoric about inspiration and toward evidence. Put the projects side by side and the signature appears, not as branding but as a kind of structural habit.
The key phrase is “pursuit of certain configurations.” Not “styles,” not “forms,” not even “ideas” - configurations. That word is technical and modest, suggesting arrangement, proportion, and relationship rather than spectacle. It’s an architect’s way of claiming consistency without admitting to formula. The subtext is a rebuttal to the demand that every major commission perform novelty. Taniguchi implies that serious work evolves through iteration: you return to a problem, refine the solution, test it in new contexts, and slowly make a language.
There’s also a quiet politics of perception. “Obvious to anyone” sounds democratic, but it’s also a provocation: if you don’t see the continuity, maybe you’re not looking properly. In the late-20th-century culture of star architecture - when buildings were often sold as singular events - Taniguchi’s insistence on recurring configurations reads like a commitment to discipline. The intent isn’t to impress with difference, but to argue that coherence is the deeper kind of ambition.
The key phrase is “pursuit of certain configurations.” Not “styles,” not “forms,” not even “ideas” - configurations. That word is technical and modest, suggesting arrangement, proportion, and relationship rather than spectacle. It’s an architect’s way of claiming consistency without admitting to formula. The subtext is a rebuttal to the demand that every major commission perform novelty. Taniguchi implies that serious work evolves through iteration: you return to a problem, refine the solution, test it in new contexts, and slowly make a language.
There’s also a quiet politics of perception. “Obvious to anyone” sounds democratic, but it’s also a provocation: if you don’t see the continuity, maybe you’re not looking properly. In the late-20th-century culture of star architecture - when buildings were often sold as singular events - Taniguchi’s insistence on recurring configurations reads like a commitment to discipline. The intent isn’t to impress with difference, but to argue that coherence is the deeper kind of ambition.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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