Japanese architect Toshiko Mori, FAIA, the founder and principal of New York-based studio Toshiko Mori Architect, will be our new guest in WAC's Live Interview Series. The new session will be moderated by WAC editor-in-chief Berrin Chatzi Chousein.

WAC's new live talk will focus on the notion of innovation, a sense of belonging and their interrelationships within the projects' geographical context and wider perspective. 

Taking active roles both in practice and academia, Toshiko Mori is also the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), where she served as chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. 

Mori's teaching philosophy is deeply translated into her architectural practice where the detailed knowledge of materials,  applications, methods and production techniques are converged on her innovative architecture. 

Fass School and Teachers’ Residence in Fass, Senegal, 2019. Image © Sofia Verzbolovskis

Themed as "Learning from the Context", the discussion will be centered around the two key works of the studio: Thread Artists’ Residency and Cultural Center in Sinthian, Senegal completed in 2015 and Fass School and Teachers’ Residence in Fass, Senegal completed in 2019.

The session will discuss the design intentions of the projects by exploring the dialectic relationship between innovation, local sources, information and the context which can trigger a comprehensive thinking for authenticity in architecture.

Toshiko Mori. Image © Ralph Gibson

Toshiko Mori was inducted to the Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020 and has been a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2016. 

She won prestigious awards and honors such as the Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society Gold Medal in 2016, Architectural Record’s Women in Design Leader Award in 2019, and the AIA / ASCA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education in 2019. 

Nikkei Business recently listed Mori as one of 50 Japanese People Changing the World, and Newsweek Japan listed her as one of 100 Japanese People the World Respects. 

Her project "Thread: Artists’ Residency and Cultural Center" was awarded the AIA 2017 Institute Honor Award for Architecture and was one of the winners of the inaugural FIBRA Award for Contemporary Plant Fiber-based Architecture in 2019. 

This year, she published two new monographs, one with a+u magazine for their February 2020 issue and another with ArchiTangle titled "Toshiko Mori Architect: Observations." In May, her project “Fass School and Teachers’ Residence” was featured by The Guardian as one of the world’s top 10 new architecture projects.

The firm is currently working on a renovation and expansion to the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch, a greenhouse expansion at the Buffalo Botanical Gardens, and a comfort station in New York’s Hudson River Park.

WAC's live interviews are organized as 20-30-minute sessions to deliver a quick glimpse of the current projects of the architect and provide a fast-paced discussion on the architects' design philosophy.

See WAC's full program on this page. 

WAC Instagram Live Interview

Theme: Learning from the Context

Host: WAC editor-in-chief Berrin Chatzi Chousein

Date: Thursday, October 22nd/ 10:00am (EST) / 14:00pm (GMT) / 16:00pm (CEST) 

Venue: WAC Instagram