Interviewed in Zagreb, October 31st 2007

ORIS: I would like to begin with a kind of impressionist approach to your work, with some images of your architecture. I was impressed by two images – the white cloud of cherry blossom in the Cherry Blossom House, where the blossoms penetrate the house through the inclined windows. I understand the house is not built, it’s just a project. On the other side we have the heavy snow which is pressing the thick, glass walls of your Museum of Natural Science. Could we say that a great part of your architecture is devoted to senses? Is sensitivity a great element of your work?

Takaharu Tezuka: There are always architectural inventions about shapes and forms. These kinds of forms can be obsolete the next day. We are trying to make a new kind of architecture of permanence, which can make a big difference from the last style. We think architecture is a tool for creating a difference for the life of people. When you make a difference in your lifestyle, it brings a new kind of sensation. And the Cherry Blossom House is about life under the cherry blossom. In Japan, at the beginning of April, everybody goes to drink under the cherry blossom, that’s a custom. We wanted to build a house to look up to the cherry blossom, so you can see the cherry blossoms on the background of a black or a blue sky. That kind of story is behind our architecture. That’s the sensation. But also the sensation relates to the lifestyle we are passionate about.