Takeover #11 Eric Wong
Draw, Speculate!
When I was a kid I used to go play at a friend’s house in the neighborhood. He had pay-tv (Tele+) and sometimes, while we were playing, movies were on repeat on his television. I distinctly remember when one day I had to stop playing with Legos because I was absolutely mesmerized by what was happening on screen: Digimon The Movie (2000) was on and three characters were fighting in a virtual world. At the time I didn’t knew that the director of that chunk of the movie was Mamoru Hosoda, today one of the most acclaimed anime directors alive. What I knew was that the virtual world he imagined was good, and I wanted more.
10 years later Hosoda implemente his vision of a virtual world with Summer Wars (2009), a beautiful film that shared many features with the Digimon movie. Another 10 years pass and Hosoda goes back to a virtual world in Belle (2021) but giving it a sharper and more architectonic look. He does that thanks to Eric Wong, practicing architect and today’s takeover guest.
Only for the Takeovers my text will be in italic, just to distinguish it from the guest’s. My name is Federico and welcome to Representations of Architecture #33.
Intro
I already stole a lot of space to today’s guest, so let’s cut to the chase. Eric Wong is a practicing architect and university tutor, but he is also one of the most interesting image-producers on the scene. His digital representations combine acid colors, fine lines, superflat sensibility and bold views in spectacular deptictions of virtual worlds. His work is the perfect sum of modern influences becoming something completely new; and his collaboration with Hosoda marks a cornerstone step for the interdisciplinareity between architecture and japanese animation.
Insights
Graphic influences largely depend on the premise of the design thesis. More specifically to the project ‘Cohesion’ which suggests a blueprint for the United Kingdom, graphic influences were borrowed from famous British creatives who depicted a sort of romanticised and alternative urban utopia. The spirit of Heath Robinson’s absurd yet insightful inventions through to his ingenious sense of wit helped to inform the graphic setting and design endeavour in this specific proposal.
Colour plays a significant role in creating atmosphere, character and place. Colour influences come from a variety of disciplines and creative professions from cinematography, graphic novels, illustrations, paintings through to photographers. Chris Doyle, Wes Anderson, L.S Lowry and Henrik Spohler utilises colour in very specific and different ways – The use of colour thus became a tool to develop the architecture and design thesis.
For example, in ‘Cohesion’, the romanticised urban landscapes and industrial districts characterised in L.S. Lowry’s paintings are interpreted into the ‘Swan Settlements’ drawing. The colour specific settings of mood, time of day, season and materials successfully created by Chris Doyle and Wes Anderson is translated in the red brick buildings of the ‘Home Street Home’.
The ‘Chandelier High Street’ for example, respects the density and parameters of the image in a purposeful and precise way. It is largely composed of the Chandelier tectonics and how it is used (foreground), the high street, surrounding houses and context in which it sits (midground) and the horizon (background).
Foreground: Built in the image of Leed’s Town Hall, UK’s largest town hall and one of the earliest civic infrastructures to help assess local needs, the chandelier hubs provide public platforms where freedom of speech is welcomed. This is demonstrated and highlighted by the different densities of people surrounding each speaker to suggest democracy of different views.
Midground: The density of the high street not only aims to accentuate its grandeur and length, but also the idea that it is a constantly active 24 hour lit high street. This is contrasted and broken up by the lights from each surrounding suburban house window.
Background: The moon becomes an integral parameter to this image. As the Chandelier tectonics are important sustainable infrastructures in the city that collects solar energy, the difference in artificial and natural light is demonstrated. The calmness of the background in contrast with the more active foreground demonstrates the inhabitation and festivities in the city Cohesion.
Very beautiful links
Andreas Gursky’s beautiful compositions.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Magical realisations.
The Poetically powerful Art Biotopo Water Garden by Junya Ishigami.
Sweet IG pages
Criminally under-followed:
Stunning use of graphic and geometric forms:
Beautiful minimalist compositions:
“Keep learning and have fun!” - Eric Wong
Thanks Eric for your time and your precious insights.
Belle by Mamoru Hosoda was released last summer in Japan, and it is now gradually been released in Europe and the rest of the world. You might wanna check it out when it hits the theater 🎞️.
Another week is gone. See you next week with a mixed salad full of sweet things.
CIAO
Federico