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Team Zoo.
Japanese cooperative of small architectural offices founded in 1971. Members included Atelier Zo, established in 1971 by Koichi Otake (1938–83), Hiroyasu Higuchi (b 1939) and Reiko Tomita (b 1938); Atelier Mobile, founded in 1970 by Kinya Maruyama (b 1939); Atelier Iruka, led by Tsutomu Shigemura (b 1946); Atelier Gaii; Atelier Garuda; Atelier Hoenkan; and other small studios. All members of Team Zoo were graduates of Waseda University, Tokyo, and were strongly influenced by their mentor, Takamasa Yoshizaka. Atelier Zo, the most active studio, is noted for its unconventional designs and explicit aversion to theory and intellectualizing about architecture. Its work reflects the robust expressionism of Yoshizaka as well as a playful, often ritualistic quality and a close affinity with vernacular architecture. The group’s original zoological metaphors are expressed, for example, in the angled wooden structure of Atelier Zo’s Domo Cerakanto (1974) in Kamakura, conceived in the shape of a huge mythical fish or coelacanth; and the rounded ‘Art Nouveau’ form of Domo Arabeska (1974), Tokyo, decorated with leaves, was described by Atelier Zo as ‘a flower that has become a stone’. The works of Team Zoo, built in many regions of the country, also reveal a great interest in indigenous architecture and thus respond as much as possible to regional features and local climatic and site conditions. For instance, the Village Community Centre (1975) at Nakijin and the Town Hall (1981) at Nago, both in Okinawa, made use of locally available materials, incorporated the high pitched roofs of the region and were planned with shady areas and natural ventilation to avoid the use of technology such as air-conditioning, even in a subtropical climate. Other outstanding examples of Team Zoo’s architecture include the Municipal Community Centre (1981) and Kasahara Elementary School (1982) in Miyashiro, Saitama Prefecture, the Tokiwa Nursery School (1983) in Mizusawa, Iwate Prefecture, and the facilities of the Traditional Architecture Workshop in Kuma High School of Industry in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture (1991).
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