Architecture For The People

Whether it is a train station or a home, japanese architect hiroshi naito designs spaces that are warm, intimate and welcoming

- Christopher Dewolf

Hiroshi Naito is a quietly acclaimed architect known for a large body of work that spans everything from intimate dwellings to vast train stations and museums. His work is understated—and so is the man himself. “I have never been marked by any exceptional talent,” he wrote in the introduction to an exhibition he curated in 2014. “I thus believe that the things that I can do can be done by anybody.”

During his Body & Soul of Architecture talk held in November at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Naito explains that the same humility applies to the buildings he creates. “The purpose of architecture is for the people,” he says. “I’m not very interested in the work of star architects. These appear like buildings from outer space.” Instead, he is interested in designing spaces where people can live “in a more relaxed manner.”

DRIVEN BY A PURPOSE

It’s a conviction that was reinforced by the destruction caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which—as with other architects like Kazuyo Sejima and Toyo Ito—convinced Naito that architects need to recommit themselves to improving society. But his pursuit of happiness through architecture began decades earlier. Born in Tokyo in 1950, he studied architecture at Waseda University and practised in Madrid and Tokyo for several years before founding his own firm, Naito Architects & Associates, in 1981.