ABSTRACT
The elusive qualities of surface tension and tactility have been a consistent feature of Japanese architecture. Planar two-dimensionality is the inextricable component of this appeal, which Togo Murano designed in 1931 and can now be seen to be the progenitor of many contemporary buildings in cities throughout the archipelago. Weathering steel seems to have been adopted by many young Japanese architects as the ideal contemporary material to convey the spirit of tactility and aging so central to the illusive Zen concept of wabi-sabi. Endo's Tsunami Disaster Preventive Control Center in Minamiawaji City is elevated at the end of a dock in Fukura port to provide clear sightlines toward the water and the floodgates beyond, and remain above Tsunami waves. Keiichiro Sako and Takeshi Ishizaka of SAKO Architects have departed from this patterned, perforated metal trend in their Beijing Shop for the Romanticism chain, which has other locations throughout China.
