ABSTRACT
The relationship between Japan and the rest of the world has been observed based on the view that they oppose each other. Claude Lévi-Strauss speaks of the existence of a symmetry. In the case of architecture, that idea is clarified further by Ryue Nishizawa, when he says that the architecture of the eastern islands, including Japan, is a “verb” and that the architecture of the west is a “noun”. Creation in architecture is intertwined with the idea of metamorphosis. However, in Japanese architecture, the idea of symmetry makes it possible to understand architectural creation based on an idea of (a)metamorphosis. That possibility is strengthened by the singularity of Japanese architecture, to which the country´s insularity and the fact that its architecture is based on the reiteration of long-standing conceptual and building principles and the relationship between humans and nature all contribute. As a “verb”, Japanese architecture has no form and is accordingly alien to the possibility of metamorphosis.
This paper seeks to explore the consequences of the crossing of the principle of architecture as a verb proposed by Nishizawa with the idea of the dissolution of boundaries between architecture and the environment, linking both said principle and that idea with the condition of Japan’s insularity. For Japanese architecture, (a)metamorphosis is an act of creation.
