OMA sent us an absolutely fascinating book that tells the history of the Japanese architecture movement known as Metabolism. “Between 2005 and 2011, architect Rem Koolhaas and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist interviewed the surviving members of Metabolism, together with dozens of their mentors, collaborators, rivals, critics, proteges, and families. The result is a vivid documentary of the last avant-garde movement and the last moment that architecture was a public rather than a private affair…” You can see a few of the iconic buildings from the Metabolism movement here on ArchDaily: works by Kenzo Tange and Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower.
If you are not familiar with Japan’s architectural history during the 1930s then the beginning of this book is eye-opening. Architects, including the future leaders of the Metabolism movement, had their eyes on designing utopias in the newly conquered lands of China, Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, the Philippines, and Indonesia. They envisioned their designs arising out of a tabula rasa. Ironically, it would be the wholesale destruction of Japan during World War II that would provide these architects with that “tabula rasa”. Interestingly, when Koolhaas interviews Arata Isozaki, you discover that Kenzo Tange never spoke of the two competitions he won during the war years and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
Contents
007 Acknowledgments
011 Rem Koolhaas Movement (1)
017 Hans Ulrich Brist Movement (2)
022 Note on the text
024 Arata Isozaki
056 Tabula Rasa
084 Toshiko Kato
102 Tange Lab
128 Kiyonori Kikutake
174 Birth of a Movement
206 Metabolism 1960
222 Noboru Kawazoe
266 Tokyo Bay
294 Fumihiko Maki
334 On the Land, on the Sea, in the Air
372 Kisho Kurokawa
440 Media Architects
474 Kenji Ekuan
506 Expo ’70
550 Takako Tange Noritaka Tange
590 Expansion/Exile
638 Atsushi Shimokobe
660 Project Japan
696 Postscript: Toyo Ito
699 Project Japan 1940-1985: Timeline
706 Image Credits
710 Index
717 Cast of Characters
Paperback: 684 pages
Publisher: Taschen (October 28, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3836525089
ISBN-13: 978-3836525084
The book really is a fascinating read – especially since most of my architectural education has focused on the development of architecture in the West; having the opportunity to read a kind of, comprehensive retrospective by modern architects on the ideas that were developing in the East during the twentieth century was really enlightening, and 650 pages later it had alot to teach.
I really enjoyed the interview format of the text as well. You get to hear thoughts by architects on their own work – in some cases 60 or 70 years after the ideas had first hit paper – and they come across as real characters, not just disembodied architectural philosophies.
I’d reccomend it to anyone who sees it on the shelf and finds themselves interested enough to pop it open and read the forward. My only gripes with it are that there are some really bizzare graphic choices in terms of the text in some cases (No margins; tiny flourescent text on white backdrops that is impossible to read).
A great book – theres a whole collection of information brought together here that you wont find anywhere else!
“A great book – theres a whole collection of information brought together here that you wont find anywhere else!”-YOU WILL FIND IN JAPANESE BOOKS, IT HAD TO BE ONLY TRANSLATED FROM KANJI AND SIGNED BY HIM…..