FOBA

Profile of FOBA

Business Name

FOBA

Location

Japan

Services

Architecture

Website

http://fob-web.co.jp

Katsu Umebayashi

Principal(s)

Katsu Umebayashi (1963)

Philosophy

From The Situation to a Genesis (Text written by Katsu Umebayashi)

The world is undergoing sudden changes.

Even from our small scale, I can feel it.

Questions of energy and the environment often yield pessimistic thoughts: food problems, the tyranny of capital of the advice, history and traditions which are destroyed... I remain an optimist and translate these concerns into architecture, working to give a new reading in an old context.

I think of architecture in the context of a situation to which it is related and not as "a space" which is independent.

The unconsciousness of architecture as the essential basis for supporting the situation, which modernist architecture had cut off.

The figure of the old stratum of BEGINNINGS, which feeds the first origin, the universality of the architecture that we see in the past, the present and the future, is the framework of our research.

Background

• Founded: 1994
• Offices: 1
• Design team: 8

Key projects

• AURA, House and office, Tokyo, Japan, 1994
• ORGAN I+II, Office, Kyoto, Japan, 1994-1995
• SKIP, House, Kyoto, Japan, 2002
• PLEATS, House, Kyoto, Japan, 2000
• RUBIA, Apartment building, Tokyo, Japan, 2006
• ASPHODEL, Gallery, Kyoto, Japan, 2004
• POROUS, House, Kyoto, Japan, 2003
• SPA & ECO-GARDEN SHARA, Spa Resort, Tokushima, Japan, 2004
• SACHI NO KI, Commercial, Hyogo, Japan, 2007
• FOB HOMES, Type A-1, House, Osaka, Japan 2000
• Beach Houses 1 & 2, Houses, Chiba, Japan, 2003-2006

Key publications

• INAX, 12 dialogues, 2000
• TOTO, 10 City Profiles from 10 young Architects, 2001
• River-Axis City, 2003
• INAX, F.O.B HOMES BOOK, 2005
• Princeton Architectural Press, FOBA / Buildings, 2005
• Ningbo Publishing House, Twelve New Houses in Japan, 2006

Key awards

• House Design Awards ( project AURA), Tokyo Kenchiku-shi kai, Tokyo, Japan, 1997
• Good Design Award ( project Kinosaki BEER FACTORY), Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization, Tokyo, Japan, 1999
• Selection for exhibition "Expo Online", Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2000
• ADC Awards, 2001
• Selection for exhibition "Post-Modernism revisited / DAM 20 years", DAM Deutches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, 2004
• Excellent Prize, Nakanoshima Newline Station Design Competition Watanabebashi Station, Keihan Electric Railway, Osaka, Japan, 2004
• Good Design Award ( project BLANCREA), Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization, Tokyo, Japan, 2006
• JIA Architect of the Year ( project ASPHODEL), JIA Japan Institute of Architects, Tokyo, Japan, 2006
• Gold Prize / multi Family Housing ( project RUBIA), Bienal Miami + Beach 2007f, Florida, USA, 2007