Chance encounters shape people. The journey that created Tsuyoshi Tane, an architect who is gaining worldwide attention.

Vintage items that Tsuyoshi Tane has collected from all over the world. What is the reason he is fascinated by items that have a history?

Time cannot create anything. The absolute charm of things with history

JAL: So you value chance encounters in both travel and life. Have you ever come across anything memorable while traveling?

Tane: I like buying vintage items when I travel, and recently when I visited Nara, I bought a small vase made around 200 BC at an antique shop. I think it has passed through many hands over its history, and it's interesting to think that it ended up in my hands through a series of coincidences.

JAL: 200 BC is over 2,000 years ago. Why are you interested in old things?
Tane: Time can't be converted into money, can it? I think it's amazing that you can get a long time that you could never catch up with in your lifetime through something. If something from 1,000 years ago costs 10,000 yen, that works out to 10 yen per year. Of course, value isn't determined so simply, but to me, having something from 1,000 years ago worth 10 yen per year seems cheap.

JAL: Does this mean that there is value in the time that an item lasts?

Tane: I think there is value in "time itself," but I think of it as drawing to ourselves "things that can only be created over a long period of time." We can create things that will remain in the present and future, but we cannot go back in time and create things.
Things with history are things that can never be reproduced. And they have a texture that comes from the passage of time. When you look into this vase, it's pitch black, but it's a different kind of "black that draws you in" from other things. That kind of texture is interesting.

JAL: Are there any other things you collect?

Tane: It's become a habit for me to go into antique shops in my travels and buy something I like. I feel bad for the item because I have to take it away from the place and bring it back to where I live... But it's also a memento of my travels, and I keep it in my collection at home.

Travel experiences that go beyond your imagination. People grow by being there.

JAL: From your talk about old things, I sense a strong respect for history and things that have been created over a long period of time. Many of your architectural works are designed with past history in mind.

Tane: I'm always conscious of not only connecting the past and the present, but also preserving it for the future. Connecting memories and stories that are in danger of being forgotten is something I place great importance on in my work.

JAL: The Estonian National Museum, which opened in October 2016, is also located on land that was once a military runway during the Soviet occupation. Taking this fact into account, the museum was designed to make use of the shape of the runway.

Tane: Not just for the Estonian National Museum, but for any land, such as its war history, dark memories are forgotten over time. However, I don't think it's okay to forget about them so easily. How to preserve them over a long timeline and convey them to future generations was a major point in my design.
Even if it is a bitter historical memory or a fact that one would like to turn away from, preserving its meaning will also serve as a message to those who visit the place and encounter this architecture in the future.

JAL: That may also lead to creating a "future" for those who visit the museum. What do you think is the appeal of traveling, Mr. Tane?
Tane: You get to experience things beyond what you imagined. When you travel to a new place for the first time, it's unlikely that all of your memories will end up as good ones. Feelings like "pain" or "loneliness" arise because you're in a different culture.
JAL: So that's the appeal of traveling, even the bad experiences.

Tane: Yes, I think experiences are what nourish us in life and help us grow as people. There are things you can only experience in a place different from your own life, like being deceived or meeting people fighting while traveling. You can't know what you feel by putting yourself in a certain place unless you travel.

For example, even when choosing a small path, I think that it only becomes your experience when you use your intuition on the spot to think about why you chose that path or why you are attracted to that place. It's boring if it's within the realm of imagination. I want to continue visiting unknown places in search of experiences that go beyond my imagination.

Estonian National Museum

Estonia is the northernmost of the three Baltic states. The Estonian National Museum, located in the cultural and academic city of Tartu, about 180 km south of the capital, Tallinn, opened on October 1, 2016. Tane Tsuyoshi, who was in charge of the museum's design, talks about its appeal, saying, "The pleasant summer climate of the northern countries is great, but I would definitely recommend visiting the Estonian Museum in the middle of winter. In winter, the earth, the trees, the architecture, everything turns white. The fact is that the Estonian people have lived in this frozen landscape. I want people to feel the significance of this through the architecture."

Tsuyoshi Tane
Born in Tokyo in 1979. Architect. Based in Paris, France since 2006. After 10 years at DGT., he established ATELIER TSUYOSHI TANE ARCHITECTS in 2017. His representative works include the Estonian National Museum, A House for OISO, Toraya Paris, and LIGHT is TIME. His Kofun Stadium was selected as a finalist in the 2012 international design competition for the New National Stadium, attracting international attention. He has received numerous awards, including the French Ministry of Culture's Young Architect Award, the Grand Prix of the French Overseas Architecture Awards, the French Academy of Architecture New Face Award, and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists (2017). He has been teaching at Columbia University's GSAPP since 2012.
www.at-ta.fr