A+U 647 - OMA Shohei Shigematsu

+u’s August issue features Shohei Shigematsu, the lead at OMA New York since 2006, whose architectural works include projects from educational facilities, art museums, and exhibition designs to high-rise commercial complexes, all of which are “open-ended” and “absorb and reflect society in the moment.” Toranomon Hills Station Tower, completed in Tokyo in 2023, where the subway concourse connects to a large atrium flooded with natural light, provides continuous access from the basement of the tower to the very top. Buffalo AKG Art Museum has an undefined space wrapped around the building. Shigematsu adds an element “playful in the matter of construction” to the program’s structure by manipulating the cross section and use of materials, creating architecture that conveys fluidity. The 2021 monograph OMA NY: Search Term is an obsessive archival compilation that uses a vast collection of images to chart the evolution of the firm’s design principles. With carefully curated images, this issue captures architecture that demonstrates the “rational box and soft form can coexist,” as embodied in the contemporary public realm. Along with 34 projects and a text by Shohei Shigematsu are 4 essays and artworks that represent architecture of 2 major cities: New York and Tokyo.