TOKYO-2019 Architecture / Interiors

Do Not Sit Down

  • Prize
    Silver in Architecture/Interiors
  • Photographer
    Inês D'Orey
  • Agency / Studio
    Inês D'orey
  • Technical Info
    Digital Color Photography
  • Photo Date
    May 2018

There is a wide belief in Tokyo that any house over 30 years is obsolete and most buildings in the city are replaced as soon as their usefulness or contemporaneity is challenged, a practice influenced by the country’s history of earthquakes, tsunamis and widespread destruction during WWII. Inês d'Orey set out to find those rare mid-20th century buildings in Tokyo that have somehow escaped this relentless cycle of renewal. Her quest, which was inspired by the praise of shadows by author J. Tanizaki, evolved into a series of photographs of preserved interiors, which are slowly disappearing.