The Design Hub Project

TOTO Ltd., perhaps most well known for manufacturing high-tech electronic toilets, such as its trademarked "Washlet," opened Gallery Ma in 1985 as a space dedicated to exhibitions on architecture. It has since attracted a number of Japan's leading designers and architects as exhibition advisers, such as Tadao Ando, and received more than 760,000 visitors.

This month, the gallery celebrates a new name - TOTO Gallery Ma - and its 25th anniversary with a show titled "Global Ends: Towards the beginning." Seven architects - Paulo David, Sean Godsell, Kerry Hill, Junya Ishigami, Tom Kundig, Smiljan Radic and RCR group - have been invited to exhibit their works under the theme of "a new beginning for architecture."

What a building should be, or represent, has been hotly debated in this brand-fixated age where architects have become stars and everything seems possible, but nothing is certain. This exhibition continues the debate by questioning architectural norms. Each architect was given a two-tatami-mat-sized platform, a video player, a display area for images and an installation space for them to freely express their philosophy on architecture.