Takero Shimazaki is a founding director of the London-based architecture practice t-sa.
Emigrating from Japan with his family at the age of 13, he studied at the University of Wales and The Bartlett School of Architecture before working for Itsuko Hasegawa, Richard Rogers and Peter Smithson. Shimazaki co-founded t-sa with Yuli Toh in 1996, currently runs Diploma Unit 8 at London Met, and has taught at the Architectural Association. Between 2006 and 2018 he also organised an independent school called t-sa forum.
In his interview for Scaffold, Shimazaki reflects on his early experiences in Japan and the influence that his cultural hybridity has had on his approach to design, as well as his his long-standing focus on the reuse of existing buildings, and the paradoxical liberation that emerges in recognising architecture's limits in addressing contemporary issues.
"You can’t control everything as an architect. You can’t dictate everything – that’s not the point. Instead it’s quite exciting to be liberating, to let things be in a way. I'm interested in the discrepancies that exist between imagined ideals and the realities of tolerance and conflict. In these kinds of chaotic and raw situations, how does architecture survive?" – Takero Shimazaki
Scaffold is a podcast series featuring interviews with architects, artists and designers. Hosted by Matthew Blunderfield and produced by the Architecture Foundation, it is available on Apple Pocasts, Spotify, and most major podcast streaming platforms.
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