An exhibition titled “Green, Green and Tropical – Woodified Architecture in Southeast Asia” was held at ARCHI-DEPOT MUSEUM, Tokyo, February-May 2019. It focuses on the new tendency of wooden architecture and design appearing in Southeast Asia and Japan in recent years. The exhibition highlights the works of architects and designers who are working in Southeast Asia and acts as a foreground to a series of dialogues between participating architects and designers.

This region has been known as one of the most productive regions of wood resource in the world although it is facing serious problems of deforestation. Recent tendency of wood use in the northern countries is also shared in Southeast Asia, but there are a number of hurdles to clears; such as unbalanced timber trade between the Southeast and the North. low awareness of the locals to wooden housing, limited interests of professionals vis-à-vis wood use and innovation. The exhibition gathered the various initiatives by experts and citizens who face different types of task in terms of wood use and forest conservation.

As advocates of “woodification” and green architecture, works of the participating architects and designers are lined up according to the categories of Vernacular / Conventional, Recycle Materials and Emergency Response. Their works could be interpreted depending on their activity fields and approaches:

(1) Innovative approach for wood construction by Andra Matin, Eleena Jamil, Ryuichi Ashizawa, and Yuusuke Karasawa,
(2) Green housing design by Adi Purnomo, Ahmad Djuhara, and Ling Hao,
(3) New construction systems by Andry Widyowijatnoko and Hiromasa Shirai + Takuo Nagai + Takeo Matsuoka
(4) Emergency response housing design by Shigeru Ban + VAN, Danilo V. Ravina, and Alexander Eriksson Furunes
(5) Furniture design by Alvin Tjitrowirjo and Kenneth Cobonpue,

Photos of exhibiton by Jan Vranovsky