This is Monocle on Design Extra.
It's a short show to accompany our weekly program where we discuss everything from architecture
and craft to furniture and graphics.
I'm Maelie Evans.
Today we head to the Architectural association or the AA in London's Bedford Square.
Their Distillation of Architecture is on show,
an exhibition that brings together architects and makers from Japan to explore the concept of refinement.
I went along to find out more.
By its process of filtering and reducing things into core essential element,
it's kind of forgotten by design process sometimes.
That's Shin Igashira,
head of the Koshirakura Landscape Workshop visiting School and one of the diploma unit tutors here at the aa.
He's also lead curator on the exhibition Distillation of Architecture where I'm getting a preview
as the show's installation is in full swing across the AA gallery
and front members room.
Architects, assistants and their family in tow add those last finishing touches.
In fact, you might even hear a small baby chime in throughout this report.
The showcase is part of a long running collaboration between the Architectural association
and the construction company the Maida Corporation.
For 30 years the two institutions have had a productive partnership bringing two different facets of the design industry together.