Reiko Hayama (architect)

{{Short description|Japanese architect (1933–2025)}}

{{For|the Japanese actress|Reiko Hayama}}

Reiko Hayama ({{Langx|ja|早間玲子|Hayama Reiko}}; November 9, 1933 – January 20, 2025) was a Japanese architect. She became the first architect from Japan to work in France.

Biography

Reiko Hayama was born in Tokyo in 1933.{{Cite web |title=HAYAMA Reiko |url=https://deces.matchid.io/id/7yxMrpitFqw4 |access-date=2025-04-21 |website=État civil sur le fichier des personnes décédées en France depuis 1970 |language=fr}} She attended Yokohama National University from 1952 to 1958.{{Cite journal |last=Chevroulet |first=Irène Vogel |last2=Zenno |first2=Yasushi |date=December 2014 |title=Reiko Hayama, Between the Acts: Legacies from Le Corbusier and Kunio Maekawa |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2649290205 |journal=Dearq |language=English |volume=15 |pages=62–83 |doi=10.18389/dearq15.2014.06 |id={{ProQuest|264929025}}|doi-access=free }}

From 1959 to 1965, she worked for Kunio Maekawa, who had collaborated with the Swiss French architect Le Corbusier.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKHj9Mb4qSU |title=Témoignage de Reiko Hayama |date=2012-08-31 |last= |type=Video |language=fr |publisher=Ville De Nancy |access-date=2025-04-21 |via=YouTube}}

Hayama left Japan in 1966 and moved to Paris thanks to a Franco-Japanese collaboration scholarship issued by the French government. She became the first Japanese architect authorized by the French state to work in France.{{Cite web |date=2012-02-28 |title=Remise des insignes de l'Ordre du Soleil Levant, Rayons d'Or avec Rosette, à Madame Reiko Hayama à la Résidence de l'Ambassadeur le 28 février 2012 |url=https://www.fr.emb-japan.go.jp/actualite_ambassade/2012/decoration_hayama.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201085916/https://www.fr.emb-japan.go.jp/actualite_ambassade/2012/decoration_hayama.html |archive-date=2023-02-01 |website=Ambassade du Japon en France |language=fr}}{{Cite web |date=2025-02-08 |title=Deuils - Reiko HAYAMA |url=https://carnetdujour.lefigaro.fr/deces/annonces/552613622/ |access-date=2025-04-21 |website=Le Figaro |language=fr}}

In France, she spent three years collaborating with Charlotte Perriand, then spent 1969–1976 working with Jean Prouvé. The latter encouraged her to add a French degree to her Japanese credential, which she obtained.

In 1975, Hayama was named a member of the French {{Interlanguage link|Order of Architects (France)|lt=Order of Architects|fr|Ordre des architectes (France)}}. From 1976 to 2013, she ran her own architecture studio, Hayama & Associates. She often designed factories and offices for Japanese companies operating in France.

France named her a knight of both the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Legion of Honour. In 2011, she was named 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette, in the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun.

Hayama died in Paris in 2025 at age 91.

Major projects

References