Nobel Prize winner’s equations add hype to hotel

OKAYAMA — Climate change research equations used by this year’s physics Nobel laureate Syukuro Manabe that adorn the exterior walls of an Okayama hotel have created quite a buzz for the establishment.

A&A Liam Fuji — a collaborative project of Liam Gillick, a New York-based contemporary artist, and Masahiro Harada, a professor at the Shibaura Institute of Technology and an architect who established Mount Fuji Architects Studio in Tokyo — opened in 2019 under the management of the Okayama-based Ishikawa Foundation in a historical and cultural zone near the Okayama Korakuen garden.

According to Harada, Gillick was fascinated by Manabe’s research and made the suggestion to incorporate the equations into the walls’ design.

Gillick wrote on the hotel’s website, “His contribution to the science of climate change is extraordinary and extremely important for contemporary understanding and analysis of what is taking place.”

“The equations teach us about the problem of global warming in a way that is scientifically understandable, rather than in some abstract way,” Harada said. “I hope that when people stay here, it will become an opportunity for them to give thought to the global environment.”