Pictures of the Floating Microcosm: New Representations of Japanese Architecture by Olivier Meystre
Park Books, 2017
Hardcover, 240 pages

It's hard to deny the appeal of drawings by Japanese architects. I've succumbed, for instance, to the intricate perspective sections and plans of Atelier Bow-Wow and "Architectural Ethnography," the Japanese exhibition at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, which was co-curated by one-half of Atelier Bow-Wow and focused on drawings by architects and non-architects alike. The two-dimensional output of Japanese architects in the last two decades is evident through their high level of detail, lack of hierarchy in lines, abundance of white space, and sometimes cartoonish qualities. But why is it like this and what are these drawings trying to express" These and other questions are addressed by Olivier Meystre in his analytical, accessible, and lavishly illustrated study on drawings and models produced by well-known Japanese architects over the last few decades.
The cover of Pictures of the Floating Microcosm is graced with a drawing (by Junya Ishigami) that would appear to embrace the qualities I describe above. But it does more than that, at least when we find the drawing in the book's first chapter (shown above). Here, the drawing is seen overlaid onto a photo of a minimal model with just a couple walls forming a corner and some furniture, itself placed near a real wall in the architect's studio. What appears to b...