bookshelf      info       instagram

Keisuke Toyoda



Keisuke Toyoda’s NOIZ architects explores the intersections of technology, architecture, art, and fashion. Toyoda is also a professor at the University of Tokyo and came to CMU in Fall 2022 to lecture. His work with AI, smart cities, and the “common ground” encourages us to explore ways our physical and digital world forming new relationships, and what that means for the future of architects.


Graana Khan 

A project I found of interest in particular was the 3D digital archive project, specifically because it was dealing with buildings being demolished. Thinking about your computational background, what does the physical action of demolishing mean today when we start to enter this world of digital preservation?


Keisuke Toyoda 

Let’s say the definition of the word architecture or building is about the 3D structure, like columns and beams. But at the same time, through this practice of preserving the digital archive of the building, which is not physically existing anymore, the definition or meaning of an architectural building is much wider and expanded like the shared memory of whoever used that building or a local pride if it’s a symbol of your area. Now, with digital technology, we can subdivide the [architecture] and then extract a certain quality or improvement. We can manage it and then either preserve or provide it to the open platform so that the people can start playing with it, and change the scale or change the design, which wasn’t possible before. The demolition of the building doesn’t mean that we lose everything.


Graana Khan

You talked a little bit in your lecture about the tatami mats that you’re working with and it made me think about how Japan is well known for their craftsmanship. Do you feel in any way that entering this digital realm is demolishing, in a way, these practices that have thrived so much on the tangible for so long?


Keisuke Toyoda

We have [had] more and more opportunities to collaborate with the more traditional and conventional kind of skills and craftsmanship, so their weaknesses and our strengths, and our weaknesses and their strengths match very well. But it has to have a certain translation and some mindset [while] being fine tuned, but once that happens those tend to be a very, very good combination and open up the value. Let’s say the tatami mat as I mentioned. It has very local [roots] due to the physical limitation. The master has to go to the room and they have to guarantee by measuring [the room], but now with scanning, anybody in this room could [scan] and that could be coordinated with your skills. The architect doesn’t need to be aware of how to weave the Tamami mat, it could be some digital skill.



Graana Khan

So it’s a dialogue or dance between both the Craftsman and the people working in digital interfaces, rather than one taking over the sphere of the other?


Keisuke Toyoda

Right, you just need to know the skill of translation. The craftsman’s issue is not normally described in a digital language, but you must have an eye to withdraw it and analyze, and then translate it into a digital issue and what could be applied. That translation ability of the physical issue and digital issue is a new skill set that could be very well-trained in architecture school.


Graana Khan

You also presented your Thematic Pavilion and mentioned how it will be available to interact with digitally. So, in a way, it almost goes through its own demolition and rebuilding through that digital interaction. What was your main intention or goal by making it available digitally?


Keisuke Toyoda

I’m not really sure what’s going to be the end result, but we’re trying to make it happen just so we can experience and then discover through the process. We are trying to push the threshold of what’s possible in reality and then how much of that kind of combination would have an effect on the, let’s say, VR translation. So we don’t know the limit yet. But just by applying it, especially in such a foundation like the World Expo, the amount of people who use this is on a completely different level which might be a good opportunity to see the frustrations of it and what unexpected creation emerges out of it.



Graana Khan

It feels that architectural explorations through digital means have a lot more freedom than it would be if we were to build something physical, and have to consider all the environmental or social impacts that it has. Do you feel like doing your research and experimentation through digital means has opened up what architecture can do?


Keisuke Toyoda

I believe so. You know the architect used to be, and still is, responsible and then also privileged to be able to define every single detail of the final form. You have to actually design what the edge will be, and what the details will be. That’s the role and the beauty, and also the special skill of the architect. But at the same time, we provide powerful or valuable DNA to the market and let people edit it. That could be the role and power of an architect left as a new territory, so in that sense we don’t need to be the only one to give the final form. Actually, our value could lie in providing better tools to the people. The end result is left to the user, so [being] the architect doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the giver of the final form. So, it’s a choice but we feel like we are training ourselves to get used to that new concept that we still feel awkward with. We’re not giving a final form and that might be a new value and open some kind of new possibility.



Graana Khan

Talking about some of your research and ideas of the common ground, one thing you were talking about was, for example, if you don’t define this table in front of us to a robot, it won’t exist to them. It made me think that it’s a little intimidating to see how people can become responsible for the erasure or creation of things in the physical world, whereas humans can’t ignore a table if it’s physically there in our world. So how are we to assume responsibility for what exists in the digital format? And how do we decide what doesn’t exist?


Keisuke Toyoda

What a philosophical question. It’s going to be defined by the economy from a business point of view. It takes some time and effort, and of course money too. So, for the time being it will be defined by the market. We just need to accept it because in the transition period, it requires extra energy, and we need corporate society to invest in it. So, it’s like a feasible and realistic kind of approach that we [try to] attract those kinds of people who want to make money to invest into this and make it happen as a transition. Once that’s happened and it becomes like air or water, then there might be some space for extra creation. So, for instance, a common ground that we must have are sensors in space, which is not very economical in the beginning, but by doing it, maybe the AI installed in a building can learn the more it happens. It’s a gradual process and I’m hoping that eventually it becomes a tool for everyone.



Graana Khan

On the topic of demolition and creating the future that we envision as architects, are there any other areas in your practice or interactions with architecture that you feel need to be demolished to be reinvented? We talked a little bit about the “starchitect” concept which is something my generation of architects is very interested in, as well as demolishing the idea that architecture is by an individual. So, what do you feel should be demolished as someone who has had years of experience in the practice?


Keisuke Toyoda

The architect, the job and the profession used to be enclosed or limited within the physical character and the form [of it]. That means everything has a bunch of different types of information. But we didn’t have technology to break it into pieces and extract the entity or any information by itself. That’s the demolition and the destruction. Recreation happened in the information layer, subdivided into the different points of view which can be extended out of the physical body. That could be happening on the Internet, it could be happening on the software. And then once it’s out, it can merge into some other entity which also used to be enclosed with the physical territory. Physical meaning that the object has physical means, such as within a [territory], so that information can be extracted. And this merges into something else, like I explained about the collaboration with the musician. With the digital format, we can translate between each other, which is the recreation of digital language. This seems key for the new generation.



Graana Khan

It almost feels like we’re assuming the role of the translator in some sense. And we can argue that we have been translating the needs of people into physical forms, but it’s interesting how the language continues to develop based on the media that we’re using. As an architect who does work heavily in the digital format, do you feel a sense of attachment to your creations? You talk about how while you might put out one idea for the thematic pavilion, it will take any form once it’s out there. That’s what happens when you make something accessible on a digital platform. Do you feel like your notions of ownership or approaches to projects have changed?


Keisuke Toyoda

Big time. The purpose and fun part of doing this by ourselves through the experiment of this concept, is approaching change. The goal of our interests is how are we going to change perspective and how are we going to be able to contribute to society. In terms of understanding society and the profession, every half a year I’m lecturing something and then they’re taking out previous lectures from a year ago, two years ago, and it looks so different. That point of view is very interesting. They come up with their own kind of standard methodology and they then become stuck in their own territory. It’s a good thing you can build up skill levels but at the same time you’re going to be stuck. The territory won’t change with this kind of point of view which allows you to continuously change, and that’s very refreshing and fun too.


Graana Khan

I feel when we talk about physical demolition it’s because the field currently is so attached to physical form, and it makes me think a lot about sustainability and the permanence of certain decisions in a certain time period. How does this affect or translate into the future social and economic conditions? Can the digital format become a more sustainable approach to architecture because it removes the physical aspect?


Keisuke Toyoda

It used to be that the function was tied with the physical existence. So, I used the example of taxis and Uber. Taxis used to be popular but the demand has gone down, but still, the physical taxis do not diminish. Pittsburgh has like 100 taxis. It can be too many or it could be too few. So it’s more economical. That type of thing, especially associated with physicality, one-toone doesn’t make enough money. You must get some equipment and software, which needs a certain investment. That’s the reality. But to collect that money back with that particular business, from my experience, loses money. But if the same system uses sensors that could work for the business, that could work for 3, 4, or 5 different kinds of entities and then start making money. So, by itself a business doesn’t collect as much money back, but the addition of an application uses one stone to kill five birds. That’s the kind of sense that the architect needs to have to contribute to society.


Graana Khan

Yeah, because coming up with the theme [of demolition] for this semester made me think about whether this concept of demolition will even be needed 50 years in the future. Will it rather just be iteration, because when it comes with physical things, it does require more of a larger scale intervention just because of the cost and the final sensibilities of a form, versus something in a digital format where it becomes more about quick iteration than if you were to propose something in a physical space.


Keisuke Toyoda

As we’ve been living throughout history, myself is always myself. There’s never been doubt about me being a different person. Now there could be some situations in this entity where I could be changed or shared between classes, by offering the use of myself to others. For example, you could be very good at fashion and have the time between classes to go into an app and give someone advice who is currently shopping at Saks 5th Avenue who needs help with their own fashion. They give you access to share your advice and the body becomes shared. If somebody in the hospital wants to be able to go to the class, you can offer your body by taking the same class in their place and discussing the course material with them. That might be the choice. An object is not withheld by physicality anymore, and that’s a positive shift.