Natural High

The soaring imagination of this Sydney-based architect has seen him build a global reputation for his original, organic structures on a grand scale.

AS I DRIVE PAST the nearly completed Infinity apartment development by Koichi Takada Architects in Sydney’s Green Square, I notice how the scale and sweep of this aerodynamic structure in glass and metal sets it distinctly apart, redefining the skyline. For one thing, it has an enormous void at its centre and the sinuous form is sculpted to bring daylight into the heart of the building and limit overshadowing of its surroundings. “It was Rem Koolhaas who taught me to think big,” says Koichi, a man of many mentors, each providing a significant contribution to the architect he is today.

He acknowledges his parents: his mother for her artistic sensibility and his father for his business acumen. “I watched how he grew a business from nothing during the boom time of Japan in the 1980s,” recalls Koichi. But he also noticed how his childhood playground, the beautiful rice paddies, and creek of the Tama River behind his Tokyo home, gradually gave way to development. “It was seen as progress but it shocked me that over a 10-year period the natural landscape of my childhood was disappearing,” he says.