Master of Architecture Thesis Rice University 
arakawa gins l 1936-2010 l 1941-2014

[f9]
Screen-Valve 
Arakawa Gins, 1985-1987, 
graphite and acrylic on paper, 30”x22.5”
[f10]
Reversible Destiny Lofts
2005, Mitaka, Tokyo. 

Apartment complex consisting of nine units designed using the sphere, the cube, and a tube.
[f11]
Bioscleave House (Lifespan Extending Villa)
2008, East Hampton, New York. 

A single-family residence built as a addition to a pre-existing house.
[f12]
“Container of Perceiving” 
by Arakawa Gins, 1984, 
watercolor, graphite,  and acrylic on paper, 42.5”x72.75”.
Madeline Gins and Shusaku Arakawa met in New York in 1962, and a year later they started their journey of attempting to visualize a more optimistic world through writing, art, painting, and eventually architecture. Both were born relative to World War Two, which naturally influenced their outlook on life. While Arakawa was studying at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, his interest and affiliation with Neo-Dadaist organizers took root. He moved to New York in 1961 and was developing diagrammatic paintings and drawings which aided in his expression and exploration of human perception. A year later, as Arakawa joined forces with Gins, they continued to research and diagram the expected behaviors of human senses and perception together through a variety of mediums. They were adamant on challenging the accepted norms of everyday life. Once they began to work architecturally in the 1980s, their work pivoted critically, activating a new dimension. Individuals could finally interact spatially and be physically affected by their work, aside from visual and psychological pondering. A true test and experimentation stage surfaced, allowing them to develop their mantra, reversible destiny.

Their concept of reversible destiny was defined through designing architectural spaces to help escape death, which was rooted in designing conditions that demanded the users’ attention. They played with bright colors, and unusual spatial conditions, claiming that if humans were constantly aware of their body, and the way they move about a space, there would be no sinking into habits and letting go. “Most people, in choosing a new home, look for comfort … Nonsense. People, particularly old people, shouldn’t relax and sit back to help them decline.” Gins also stated, “We don’t have to be passive. We can reverse the usual downhill course of things.”(5) Although there is no explicit proof of the partners taking inspiration from Benjamin’s discussion around attention and distraction, their architectural explorations are easily in conversation with Benjamin’s concern of the distracted digestion of architecture.

Their latest work is a permanent installation titled “Biotopological Scale - Juggling Escalator” in view at Dover Street Market New York since 2013.

Their largest building project is the Reversible Destiny Lofts-Mitaka built in Mitaka, Tokyo which they have dedicated in the memory of Helen Keller as they described her as someone who practiced ‘reversible destiny’ in her own lifetime. This project is designed through the philosophy of ‘procedural architecture’ as they define it to challenge and stimulate the senses.





(5) Ellen Peirson, “Arakawa (1936-2010) and Gins (1941-2014),” The Architectural Review, July 9, 2021

Feyza Mutlu
Master of Architecture Thesis
Rice University School of Architecture linkedin.com/in/feyza-mutlu
fnmutlu1@gmail.com
@fnmutlu1