The Culture of Water is a joint research project of The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) and the Kyoto Institute of Technology (KIT). The research will reflect upon the architecture, forms of living and landscape conditions around Lake Lucerne in Switzerland and Lake Biwa in Japan. By looking at different urban scales and typologies, from an urban context and industrial developments to rural houses and fields, the project generates a thorough understanding of the singularities of each context. Ultimately its target is to develop projects that take multiple evaluations of water into account. We use architectural design and social science as a creative method of research to develop plausible solutions for contemporary positions with, on and next to the water and explore the interactions between nature and culture.

The narrative potential of water is immense; therefore it plays a distinctive role in architecture. To put water respectively lakes from two different cultures in the focus of the research means to take nature’s gentle but expressive character as a reference and (re)build the relation between architecture and nature. Thus, we start on stable and common grounds and then move on to differences and diversities. Theoretical study and design proposals establish a very specific method of research and speculation. The final goal coming out of collective studio work is a documentation of a design-by-research and research-by-design process, offering insights into designing future societies by architectural speculations.

The research project began in the autumn semester of 2018. Water and Danger (2019) was the first perspective. Floods, erosion, avalanches, snow and rain determine many different aspects of the culture of building. Thus, water determines the location and the organisation of settlements, as well as the shape of buildings - and has a major impact on construction systems. The second perspective was Water and Beauty (2020). Swiss and Japanese cultures are strongly influenced by the interpretation of water as an aesthetic agent. However, beauty is not limited to aesthetics, but represents a balance of relationships between water, culture, and nature. The third perspective Water and Commons (2021), allowed us to think fundamentally about our relationship to the world and thus how can we through architectural research bring together the common values and use architectural design as a creative problem-solving approach that leads the way to plausible visions. Water and Eternity (2022) as the fourth perspective has been built on this, on which we are currently working. Eternity led us to return to the origin of life and question ourselves on how to rebuild awareness of life and explore a sustainable future for the world.

Editorial Board of The Culture of Water
Masahiro Kinoshita (KIT), Hiroyuki Kimura (KIT), Johannes Käferstein (HSLU), Mulan Sun (HSLU)