| WATER LANTERNS Product of workshop, 2006 Materials: plastic board, wood, LED, etc. Project description: Koichiro Miura was a visiting lecturer at the Architectural Workshop 2006, Shih-Chien University, Taiwan. |
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In designing the architecture one can not reach to the reality with either practicality or imagination missing. Even the most utilitarian building can not be designed solely relying on the practical aspects. There are always issues that we have to decide upon imagination. The relationship between the practicality and imagination is similar to the one between our life and rituals in modern society. We can not spend a day being free from the influence of either personal or collective rituals that we are not aware of their practical meanings. We casually exchange greetings and wear clothes those retain certain cultural meanings without caring about what they actually meant and surely feel good by doing that. In spite of this fact we tend to regard most of the traditional rituals as something like historic museum displays due to the aged appearances of the equipment and costume used in the rituals. It is a loss for the society if we fail to enjoy the essence of our ancestor’s achievement. Thus, building and using our own water lanterns are meant to redefine the rituals and understand the meaning without interference from the unrelated features of the existing things, merchandises in the other words. The experience also helps us to look at our own environment in the different way by linking ourselves with both the past and today. |