Retrospective Event with Ryuichi Watanabe 2012–2026. Tokyo (JP)

Over the past weekend, the exhibition – a tribute to our partner and colleague Ryuichi Watanabe – attracted a large number of visitors. It was heart-warming to see that Ryuichi had gathered a large community of like-minded people around him. Clients, contractors, builders and users came to watch to the projects, publications, films and add their own personal image to the ‘interactive mandala’. The mandala is a concept through which Ryuichi described his approach as a designer. It reflected a conviction that everything is interconnected: respect for the client’s brief, an understanding of the site where construction takes place, collaboration with the craftsman who brings a design to life and the craftsman who builds the infrastructure on site.  But he also had in mind the user of today and of 100 years’ time. Despite contradictions, difficulties or a lack of understanding, every process involved in every project is one of human and intellectual challenges that contributes to the culture of building that Ney & Partners – and Ryuichi in particular – stand for.