• Arata Isozaki (draughtsman)
• Arata Isozaki (architect)

Sketch of a grouping of trees for the Clusters in the Air Project, Tokyo

between 1960-1962

- This drawing is one of four drawings by Arata Isozaki for the "City in the Air" schemes of 1960-1963. Three of these drawings are studies for the "Clusters in the Air" project of 1960-1962: a sketch showing a general view of the project, DR1987:0117, a more finished version of the same view, DR1987:0062, and a three-stage sketch showing trees becoming a forest, DR1987:0116. The sketch of trees demonstrates the principal idea behind the "Clusters in the Air" project; enormous supports (trunks) support passageways (branches) to which living units (leaves) are gradually added. The trees develope side by side, with branches of different trees joining up, creating a "forest" (Isozaki 1992, 20-23, 29). The subject of the fourth drawing, DR1987:0061, is unclear although it is possibly a conceptual drawing for the Marunouchi Project of 1963, a proposal for a "City in the Air" in the central business district of Tokyo (Isozaki 1992, 27, 29). All four drawings are executed on sheets perforated with square holes for insertion into a spiral notebook.

• conceptual drawing

Black ball-point pen

sheet: 25.8 x 18.2 cm

DR1987:0116

• sketch

• pictorial drawing

- The l. edge of the sheet is perforated with square holes for insertion into a spiral notebook. Verso has white cloth hinges at t. and yellowing at edges from old glue.

signed - by the draughtsman, in black ball-point pen, b.: "Arata Isozaki" numbered - by the dealer, in graphite, verso, l.l.: "AI86.118" [gallery inventory number] numbered - by an unknown hand, in graphite, verso, l.r.: "X-1"

• architecture

© Arata Isozaki