130 x 200mm, 172 pages, Colour printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, 2026

Built in Tokyo in 1961, Umbrella House is one of the smallest residential buildings by celebrated Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara (1925-2006). Considered a masterpiece of his First Style, it represents a pivotal moment in Shinohara’s career before he began moving away from decorative concerns towards his search for an abstract space. It was recently saved from demolition and reconstructed on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany.  Bringing together contemporary responses to Umbrella House by international practitioners working across fine art, filmmaking, creative writing, architecture and calligraphy, Encounters offers timely new readings of Shinohara’s work. Foregrounding the voices and positions of women, the project expands existing technical, historical and almost exclusively masculine narratives around one of the most influential architects of Japan’s postwar generation.

Published by