ABSTRACT

Contemporary Japanese Architecture presents a clear and comprehensive overview of the historical and cultural framework that informs the work of all Japanese architects, as an introduction to an in-depth investigation of the challenges now occupying the contemporary designers who will be the leaders of the next generation. It separates out the young generation of Japanese architects from the crowded, distinguished, multi-generational field they seek to join, and investigates the topics that absorb them, and the critical issues they face within the new economic reality of Japan and a shifting global order. Salient points in the text are illustrated by beautiful, descriptive images provided by the architects and from the extensive collection of the author. By combining illustrations with timelines and graphics to explain complex ideas, the book is accessible to any student seeking to understand contemporary Japanese architecture.

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

The (dis)continuities of Japanese architecture

part I|33 pages

An enduring cultural framework

chapter 1|10 pages

The land and its people

chapter 2|12 pages

History and religion

chapter 3|9 pages

Paroxysm and change

part II|29 pages

From modernity to Modernism: 1868–1940

part III|80 pages

From re-birth to economic collapse

chapter 7|12 pages

The Le Corbusier syndrome

chapter 8|14 pages

Metabolism revisited

chapter 9|10 pages

Expo ’70

A joyful vision of a new world

chapter 10|8 pages

The Shinohara School

chapter 11|12 pages

Postmodernism

Apostasy or prophesy?

chapter 12|10 pages

A decade of excess

Life inside the bubble

part IV|47 pages

Transitional figures

chapter 13|12 pages

Witness to war

Fumihiko Maki, Yoshio Tanaguchi and Arata Isozaki

chapter 14|22 pages

Conflicting identities

Tadao Ando, Itsuko Hasagawa, Toyo Ito, Riken Yamamoto, Chiaki Arai and Shin Takamatsu

chapter 15|11 pages

Relief and rebuilding

Kazuo Sejima, Kengo Kuma and Jun Aoki

part V|66 pages

The next generation

chapter 16|6 pages

Doing more with less

chapter 17|12 pages

On the surface

chapter 18|10 pages

Interstitial space

The new engawa

chapter 19|18 pages

Reinventing Modernism

chapter 20|10 pages

Technology as nature

chapter 21|8 pages

Searching for the sublime