Kochuu has been described as a visually stunning film, which looks at the Japanese tradition, and its impact on the Nordic building tradition. Kochuu, which translates as “in the jar” refers to the Japanese tradition of constructing small, enclosed physical spaces, which create the impression of a separate universe. The film illustrates key components of traditional Japanese architecture, such as reducing the distinction between outdoors and indoors, disrupting the symmetrical, building with wooden posts and beams rather than with walls, modular construction techniques, and its symbiotic relationship with water, light and nature.

The film illustrates these concepts through remarkable views of the Imperial Katsura Palace, the Todai-Ji Temple, the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, the Sony Tower, numerous teahouses and gardens, as well as examples of the cross-fertilization evidenced in buildings throughout Scandinavia, and shows how ‘invisible’ Japanese traditions are evident even in modern, high-tech buildings.

Kochuu also features interviews with some of Japan’s leading architects as well as Scandinavian contemporaries including Pritzker Prize winners Tadao Ando and Sverre Fehn, Toyo Ito, Kazuo Shinohara, Kristian Gullichsen and Juhani Pallasmaa.

This is not an IAF event