During his urban walks to discover forgotten architecture, Fujimori came to know Genpei Akasegawa, Shinbo Minami, Joji Hayashi, Tetsuo Matsuda and others who were ‘collecting’ intriguing properties around the town from a similar perspective. This encounter led to the establishment of the ROJO Society in 1986.After devoting himself to his architectural history research and writings for so long, Fujimori made a debut as an architect in 1991 at the age of 44 when he created the Jinchokan Moriya Historical Museum under commission from his hometown, Chino City in Nagano.Fujimori’s architecture took a completely untried approach, enveloping a reinforced concrete structure with local stones, earth, and hand-cut planking.
Ghillie suits are an intersection of landscape and clothing that allow soldiers to become their background – a cloaking of the body by environment. The derivation of ghillie, is the Scots Gaelic for « boy » – and its English usage specifically referred to servants assisting in deer stalking, hunting or fly fishing expeditions in the Scottish Highlands. Perhaps here servants become part of landscape design – a suit to disguise aspects of ownership, control and management. One might think of it as a picturesque device in the manner of a Ha-Ha – a stepped wall in the landscape which visually allowed the boundary of property to be erased suggesting ownership all the way to the horizon. Both allow the aristocrat to exist in an image of naturalness by hiding the means by which that natural-ness is constructed.
VULGARE IS WRITTEN BY THOMAS BARBEY IN COLLABORATION WITH OLIVIER CAZIN. CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE A LANDSCAPE PROJECT, A LINK SUGGESTION OR JUST TO SAY HELLO : TOMBARBEY@GMAIL.COM
