I have been designing architecture for over 35 years. Even now, I continue to devote myself to my work every single day. To me, designing architecture has come to be my whole life.

The appeal of architectural design is in the scale as an object and the degree of freedom of the design. The size and freedom of design give special meaning to a place. The place where we build our architecture takes on a completely different meaning from before construction begins versus when it is complete. In other words, we are effecting change in the history of that place and that change greatly influences the surrounding area. Being able to elicit this kind of change feels euphoric.

However, this does not mean that we create our architecture with inspiration alone. Rather, I perceive an architectural project as a system and take great pains to think about how to design that system.

That, and the backbone of our architectural designs lie in traditional Japanese stylistic patterns. Our constant quest is to satisfy the richness of functionality and the subtlety of the building’s structural beauty and heritage.

We will rise to the challenges ahead. Expect to see MIKAMI Architects create more unique innovations in the future.