Dulux Study Tour 2024

Fostering harmony in architecture for communities

The five winning architects of the Dulux Study Tour observed how the Japanese honoured the old and new with their design while working for and within their own communities.

Tokyo was the first of three cities of the 10-day tour for achitects Simona Falvo of Trower Falvo Architects, Mike Sneyd of EKD Architects, Flynn Carr of Susan Dugdale & Associates, Jamileh Jahangiri of Studio Orsi, and Emma Chrisp of Hayball.

The Tokyo itinerary included Shibuya Station, Tokyo Toilet Project, Omotesando Hills, 21_21 Design Sight, Yoyogi Stadium, Meji Jingu Museum, Nezu Museum, National Art Centre, Archi-Depot, SANAA, TeamLab, Share Yaraicho, Kengo Kuma and Associates, Love House, Riken Yamamoto and Field Shop, and Gazebo House.

"You see the celebration of traditional culture but not in an ornamental way," Jahangiri said. "It’s been truly transformed into a new way of living or a new way of understanding the environment.”

Tokyo itself is “a constant juxtaposition,” Chrisp observed. “You get really old buildings alongside really new and big-scale buildings next to tiny quaint entrances.”

“There is also an element of people caring about what they care about,” said Sneyd. “When you look at the urban fabric, it’s really obvious what they care about and what they don’t care about, for better or for worse. That was a learning experience for us.”

Many of the Japanese practices visited on the tour engaged in model-making as a part of their design process and as a training tool for students entering practice.

“It seems like it’s a part of the evolution in terms of what you get to do in the practice," said Chrisp. "You have a foundational period where you’re working with models. You’re probably learning a lot about how to think, how to put things together, and it’s probably embedding a lot of understanding of sequence.”

Read more about the Tokyo visit

Reflections Day 1

By Simona Falvo

Tokyo's significant projects have influenced my architectural practice over the years so it is a pleasure and privilege to see these in person.

The urban character is truly fascinating. Layers of civic, infrastructural and domestic spaces overlap, stack and intersect, appearing inextricably complex yet equally effortless and systematic.

We visit projects by Tadao Ando, including one of Tokyo's largest train stations, Shibuya Station, which integrates a poetic response to the surrounding built environment with natural ventilation and atriums, and 21_21 Design Sight; a personal favorite with its triangular roof planes elegantly folding towards the ground to signify entry.

At Kenzo Tange's Yoyogi Stadium, I am in complete awe of this outstanding project. Its complexity is difficult to describe because the scale of an individual is completely engulfed in the industrial proportions of steel cables, anchors and curved concrete base.

We also visit Kengo Kuma's Meji Jingu Museum and Nezu Museum where the roof plane for is exaggerated and Kisha Kurakawa's National Art Centre, which is an exercise in experimentation and innovation.

In my own practice, we are fascinated with the ground plane and all that emerges from it however, being in Tokyo and experiencing what we have throughout the day, I am critically reminded of the importance of also looking up.

Simona Falvo is director of Trower Falvo Architects.

Reflections: Day 2

By Mike Sneyd

We woke to an earthquake warning, a unique Japanese message that drives home the challenges each locality places on the structures we consider.

Earthquakes warnings aside, we visited a suburban house where I soon realised it was not the building giving me a sense of serenity, but the people who both created and occupied the space.

Later at SANAA's office, we were greeted by a familiar smell: cutting model foam. It's a scent that architects will remember somewhat fondly from their student days. SANAA's approach to model-making was truly something to behold and an approach that has become somewhat of a rarity (for better or worse) in Australia.

Before the trip, I was on a mission to find how low-cost builds are achieved around the world. Studio TAB caught my eye with its Super Low-cost Big House (SLBH) series. I found a kindred spirit in Kawai Keigo, an architect-builder­ carpenter with a fun and hands-on approach. Given the opportunity, I would choose him to design my home, which is no higher honour you can give another architect.

My take from the day: architecture is not about the buildings, it's about the people. This is what makes them alive and loved.

Mike Sneyd is principal and director of EKD Architects.

Reflections: Day 3

By Flynn Carr

As part of Day 3, we visited Share Yaraicho, a development designed to challenge the city's dominant single-dweller housing typology. A lack of housing diversity and energy efficiency, and a desire to aid the resilience of communities after the 2011 earthquakes drove the design by Satoko Shinohara of Spatial Design Studio and Ayana Uchimura of A Studio.

A private tour of Love House in Yokohama with owner and architect Takeshi Hosaka was revealing. Designed for a couple on 33 square metres, the house has a frontage of 3.3 metres and a depth of 10, Hosaka described the project as a "house with all of the basic elements of the earth, it's not inside, and it's not the outside".

Our final visit for the day was to the practice of Riken Yamamoto and Field Shop where he spoke of his desire to help communities connect and that his buildings should facilitate social connection and opportunities for spontaneous encounters.

Upon reflection, I'm excited to see more done within regional Australian communities to strengthen and maintain community connections. While also considering how we might build in better community feedback loops over the lifetime of projects be they multi-residential social housing or community centres/halls.

The possibility of post-occupancy evaluation as a standard for state and territory government housing and community projects, where the design team is actively part of this process, would be a positive start.

Flynn Carr is a generalist architect based out of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Northern Territory.