[JAPAN LIBRARY] Contemporary Japanese Architects Profiles in Design

Presented by Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture (JPIC)

Architects play an essential role in contemporary society, helping to shape the environment in which we live and work. This book explores how architects in Japan have responded to the demands of their times and how they continue to engage with new economic realities and the shifting global order.

The moving image of Japanese society is reflected in the work of theinternationally acclaimed architects profiled in this book. Award-winning architectural historian Igarashi Taro presents the work of architects from the generation rising from the ashes of postwar Japan through the postwar economic boom (Tange Kenzō, Kurokawa Kishō, Isozaki Arata), to the generation that quietly gathered strength during the recession of the 1970s (Andō Tadao, Itō Toyoo, Sakamoto Kazunari, Fujimori Terunobu, Iijima Naoki); from the generation that debuted in the bubble economy of the 1980s (SANAA, Sejima Kazuyo, Nishizawa Ryūe, Kuma Kengo) to the generation that began their work after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1995) and the collapse of the bubble economy (Atelier Bow-Wow, Abe Hitoshi, Tezuka Architects, Endō Shūhei); and finally, after decades of economic stagnation, to the generation that has come to the fore since the beginning of the twenty-first century (Fujimoto Sou, Ishigami Jun’ya, and others).

Contemporary Japanese architects have pioneered developments in sustainability and introduced engineering innovations that have changed not only the look of modern buildings but the ways in which they can be constructed. Japanese design concepts, realized in major public buildings around the world, communicate with a global audience and contribute toward shaping our shared future.

Contemporary Japanese Architects: Profiles in Design begins with the devastation following World War II and ends with what is considered the greatest crisis of the postwar era—the Great East Japan Earthquake—a disaster that plunged Japan into a larger narrative for the first time in many years. Even if this does not immediately change everything about architecture, there is no doubt that when we look back on this time, it will prove to have been a turning point.(From ‘In Conclusion: Architecture after March 2011’ by the author)

About the Author

Igarashi Taro, architectural historian and critic, is a professor in the Graduate School of Engineering at Tōhoku University. He served as commissioner for the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2008. Publications include Kenchiku wa ika ni shakai to kairo o tsunagu no ka [How Does Architecture Connect with Society?] (2010); Shinpen: Shin shūkyō to kyodai kenchiku [New Edition: The New Religions and Monumental Architecture] (2007); Gendai kenchiku ni kansuru 16-shō [Sixteen Chapters on Contemporary Architecture] (2006); Gendai kenchiku no pāsupekutibu [Perspectives on Contemporary Architecture] (2005); Kabōbi toshi [The Overprotected City] (2004); and Sensō to kenchiku [War and Architecture] (2003).

Contents Introduction

Part I Rising from the Ashes:

The Prewar Generation

Tange Kenzō: A National Architect in the Era of Greater East Asia
Kurokawa Kishō: Buddhism and Metabolism
Isozaki Arata: An Architect Torn Between Fiction and Reality

Part II Breaking Out of the Box:

The Generation Born in the 1940s

Andō Tadao: Geometries of Concrete, Reflecting the Environment
Itō Toyoo: A New Architecture for the Information Age
Sakamoto Kazunari: Free Architecture, or the Construction of Overlapping Systems
Fujimori Terunobu: The Incomparable Architect(ural) Historian
Iijima Naoki: At the Boundaries of Interior Design

Part III A Light and Transparent Architecture:

The Generation Born in the 1950s