ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the utopian planning concepts of Metabolism, placing them within the evolution of utopianism in the modern society. Tange and Metabolists were influenced by revolutionary ideas of city design by Le Corbusier and the Soviet architects and planners. Their projects were also informed by the leftist movement, then rising in postwar Japan that advocated such political propagandas as building a communal society and integrating city and country. These Japanese architects responded with futuristic urban forms characterized by marine civilization, city as growing organism, metabolic cycle, megastructure, and cell as well as artificial land. Their technocratic proposals of megastructure, however, were also countered by alternative approaches to the city exemplified by Fumihiko Maki’s group form, influenced by studies of vernacular settlements, and Arata Isozaki’s dystopian notion of ruins. These demonstrated that Metabolism was a sophisticated movement encompassing diverse political and social ideas.
