Shuhei Endo: Paramodern Architecture

Since founding his own studio nearly 15 years ago, Shuhei Endo (b. 1960) has been concerned with creating architectural spaces out of continuous strips of material - most often rolled or corrugated steel - that encompass both roof and wall, looping and coiling to enclose interior spaces while leaving much of the structure exposed. To date, his projects have been small-scale, mostly concentrated in the Kansai region: a parking structure for bicycles (Cyclestation M), a public toilet facility in an outdoor park in Hyogo (Springtecture H), a railroad station (Transtation O), a rural agricultural market (Rooftecture B).

Responding to their standardized, industrial materials, Endo`s projects carry generic names with repetitive suffixes and one-letter IDs, but their form is anything but generic - the projects resemble abstract sculpture more than they do architecture with regular geometries. Of his Springtecture H lavatory facility, Jonathan Glancey of "The Guardian" wrote: "This is a brilliant, unabashed swirl of galvanised corrugated metal, its loops and spirals derived from the structural logic of this malleable material."In addition to small-scale work, Endo has designed two larger competition entries, including an addition to an art museum in northeastern Japan (Springtecture A/Aomori project, 2000), and an addition to the headquarters of the World Intellectual Properties Organization in Geneva (Rooftecture W/Wipo Project, 2000). Endo earned a master`s degree from Kyoto City University of Art and worked at Osamu Ishii & Biken Associates in Japan before opening his own office.

He was named by Architectural Record as one of nine of the most talented emerging architects in the magazine`s "Design Vanguard 2001," and received an Architectural Review award in 2000. This book follows the format of Electa`s series on contemporary architects, showcasing 32 of Endo`s projects with concise project descriptions, excellent color photographs, plans, and drawings. It includes a complete illustrated list of projects, a biography, and bibliography.