Nika Japaridze

‘Material differences of Singularity’

A lecture by Nikoloz Japaridze

Recent architecture and urban developments in Georgia
“After the brief civil war in 1991, newly independent Georgia survived over a
decade of rationing, with limited hours of gas, power, and water daily. Georgians responded to this state of crisis by implementing alternative systems of supply, and, in turn an architectural vernacular emerged.”

Projects by Architects of Invention
“In my own work as an architect in Georgia, I have directly experienced the ways in which the rush to produce a new architecture has collided with disorganization, lack of regulation, and crumbling infrastructure to produce chaos. The encounters with real construction in Georgia gave me chances to experiment and comprehend the direction to go. As a Georgian architect, partly educated in Moscow and now living in London, I have to carry out a coherent principal which allows ideas to be applied in these divergent places, dealing with notions like nostalgia and multi-faced hybridisation are complex tasks to carry out, specifically having been bred on Soviet heritage as I have.”

The comparison of Soviet and Western architectural influences
“There is a strange phenomenon whereby inherited Soviet architecture has discreetly cross-bred with traditions from without its borders, both Western and Eastern. It is hard to define beginnings of the threads that interweave architectural inspirations. But whether conscious or unconscious, it is always interesting to witness a dialogue between radically different cultures and their architects.”

Theory of “Singularity in Architecture” which shaped our vision as a multinational practice based in London, Moscow and Tbilisi
“Singularity in architecture is the principle by which we design now. The singularity I’m referring to points to essential and ultimate ways of living. It is the creating of singular solutions for multiple functions, forms and purposes.”

 

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Nikoloz Japaridze is the founder of Architects of Invention. Former Senior Architect at OMA, he studied architecture at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and completed his PhD at the Moscow Architecture Institute. His Moscow studio was called amc (architecture, music, cinematography). He moved to London to work with two UK based architecture companies KPF and EPR. He is currently director at AI in London, Moscow, Tbilisi and Vilnius.