Tsuyoshi Tane is a Japanese architect born in 1979 in Tokyo and based in Paris, where he founded ATTA – Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects in 2006. Working across cultural, institutional, and landscape-related projects, Tane has developed an architectural approach that positions memory as a fundamental design driver. In his interview with Louisiana Channel, filmed in his Paris studio, Tane reflects on architecture as a discipline of observation and thought, arguing that meaningful design emerges from carefully reading the traces embedded within a site. For him, architecture is not produced on a blank slate but begins with an inquiry into what already exists, physically, culturally, and emotionally, beneath the surface of a place.
I think an architect is a profession of the thinker. We think a lot for different levels of understanding to observe our daily life, but also a good architect has a good sense of observation and also a sense of creation, which can connect between what you see and what you create.
Central to Tane's practice is what he defines as the Archaeology of the Future, a methodology that looks backward in order to project forward. Critiquing modern planning strategies that treat sites as neutral and interchangeable, he emphasizes that every place holds layers of memory shaped by past lives, cultures, and transformations. Drawing parallels with archaeological excavation, Tane describes design as a process of digging, sometimes literally, often conceptually, to uncover what has not been written or formally recorded. This research-based approach combines historical, scientific, and cultural analysis with visual references, allowing architecture to emerge from the accumulated memory of a site rather than from predetermined formal agendas.
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Throughout the interview, Tane distinguishes between space and place, describing space as infinitely reproducible, while place is singular and irreplaceable. He argues that much of 20th-century architecture succeeded in producing space but often failed to create a sense of place, resulting in environments that feel anonymous and detached from lived experience. By contrast, his work seeks to restore sensitivity to place by engaging with collective memory, an accumulation of human experience transmitted across generations. In this framework, memory is not abstract; it informs structure, materiality, function, and emotional resonance, shaping architecture as both a cultural and temporal construct.
I'm much more interested in is memorable of future, that future always been memorable, and then future becomes memory and memory becomes the future, and this continuous loop of coming back to create the future.
Looking toward the future, Tane challenges the discipline's fixation on novelty, proposing the idea of a "memorable future." Rather than constantly pursuing the new, he advocates for architecture that can endure by becoming part of a continuous loop in which future buildings transform into shared memory. Through this lens, architecture becomes a medium that carries time forward, grounding contemporary life in deeper cultural continuity. Tane's projects, including the Estonian National Museum (2016), Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art (2020), The Tane Garden House (2023), and the Imperial Hotel Tokyo New Main Building, scheduled for completion in 2036, illustrate this philosophy. His research-driven approach has been recognized through numerous awards and honors, such as the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres awarded by the French Ministry of Culture in 2022, the Jean-Dejean Prize of the French Academy of Architecture, and the Estonian Cultural Endowment Grand Prix, among others, and has been further articulated through publications including TSUYOSHI TANE: Archaeology of the Future by TOTO Publications.
Other recent Louisiana Channel interviews in the field of architecture include, Chinese architect Zhu Pei describing architecture as an artistic discipline that, like poetry, relies on openness, imagination, and the creation of new experiences and Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto on the social role of architecture, emphasizing the inseparable bond between housing and context, and the need to create spaces that foster visible, meaningful relationships.
