The Co-ownership of Action

Kozo Kadowaki, Curator of the Japan Pavilion at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, and collaborating architects Ryoko Iwase and Toshikatsu Kiuchi share their recent work at the Biennale. The team utilized the materials they found and rescued from a 65-year-old residence, a house that was set for demolition. The building contained layers of material from different periods generated by decades of renovations and expansions, which are documented as part of the exhibition. The team will show how they rescue the materials from the scrap heap in a way that honors and documents their past, while also giving them a future. It sees this as a “co-ownership of architectural production” generated through movement and reconstruction. Many of the materials are being reconstructed for new uses. There are plans for them to be used as part of a community facility for residents of an apartment complex in the suburbs of Oslo, Norway.