The Anexact: Delimitating Operations in the work of Sejima and Nishizawa

Abstract

The notion of the “anexact” is introduced as a conceptual framework for the study of the generative systems operating in a set of
recurring formal families in the work of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. Those formal families are, on the one hand, oriented towards the demarcation of a physical territory and, on the other hand, articulated as continuous, closed lines that describe boundaries whose shapes are not defined by means of abstract, idealised geometries (i.e. circles, arcs or squares). In order to methodologically approach the analysis of the development, intentions and outcomes of the geometric operations deployed by Sejima and Nishizawa as part of their design process, the theoretical works of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky concerning the nature of line and its spatial value are used as a supporting scaffold. Finally, their geometric operations are assimilated to Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of “territory” as a modality of spatial demarcation that is simultaneously anexact and rigorous.