Japanese Modern Architecture 1920-2015 E-Book

Ari Seligmann

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Japanese Modern Architecture 1920-2015 uses a series of thematic lenses to explain the rich history of Japanese architectural developments from the 1920s foundation of modern architecture to contemporary permutations of modern and post-modern architecture. The book introduces the diversity of Japanese architecture and traces the evolution of Japanese architecture in the context of domestic and international developments. It examines the relationship between architecture and nature, and explores various approaches to craft and material. Finally, this new book considers tensions between refinement and ostentation in architectural expression. Of interest to students of architecture, and anyone with an interest in Japanese post-war culture and superbly illustrated with 95 colour images.

Leseprobe

JAPANESE MODERN ARCHITECTURE 1920–2015

Developments and Dialogues

Ari Seligmann

First published in 2016 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

© Ari Seligmann 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 249 6

Frontispiece: Umbrella House interior. (Courtesy of Shinichi Okuyama, photo by Osamu Murai)

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1  Incorporating International Influences

Chapter 2  Drawing from Domestic Developments

Chapter 3  Constructing Relations between Building and Nature

Chapter 4  Developing Dialogues with Materials

Chapter 5  Abstraction and Reduction, or Listening to the Sound of One Hand Clapping

Chapter 6  Afterword: Expanding Dialogues and Developments

Index

Acknowledgements

LIKE ARCHITECTURE, PUBLICATIONS RESULT from multiple contributions and influences that are too voluminous to acknowledge individually. Therefore, I have elected to recognize some general clusters encompassing diverse people and a few select individuals. Without them all, the book would not have been possible. I would like to thank Crowood for the invitation and opportunity to prepare this book, which emerges from over twenty-five years of engagement with Japanese architecture as a designer, a historian and a critic. I am grateful to the broad range of architects and scholars who have influenced my approaches and understandings over the years. I am particularly indebted to Richard Wilson for helping me find this path and to Terunobu Fujimori for continually providing support in the journey along it. I am also grateful to David Stewart, Botond Bognar, Jonathan Reynolds and Ken Oshima, who sowed seeds for the fertile field of English-language scholarship on Japanese architectural developments. I am most appreciative of the vital contributions of all the architects and their offices: they provided content as well as context for illuminating the rich panoply of architectural developments. I am particularly grateful to Itsuko Hasegawa, Toyo Ito and Ryoji Suzuki for their continued support and influence. I would also like to acknowledge all of the architectural photographers, who play a critical role in how we see Japanese architecture. Most importantly, words cannot express my appreciation of my partner Shimako Iwasaki and her unwavering support. Finally, I am sincerely thankful for the academic and financial support provided by the Monash University Faculty of Art Design and Architecture, and for the efforts of my Japan Project students at Monash, who helped formalize the synoptic diagrams within this volume and were a sounding board for the book. I sincerely hope that it will resonate and contribute to further dialogues on Japanese architecture.

Introduction

THIS BOOK TRACES ALMOST 100 YEARS OF architectural production, outlining and exemplifying ongoing issues and concerns influencing architecture in Japan. Setting a context for subsequent considerations, the introduction examines the key categories composing the title and articulates the aims of the book. The following identifies aspects of ‘Japanese’ and ‘modern’ that combine in the construction and curation of Japanese modern architecture.

What Constitutes Japanese Architecture?

Is Japanese architecture something from the built environment of Japan? Is it a building designed by someone born in Japan or to Japanese parents regardless of location? Is it composed of projects that represent national identities or ideals? Does it represent particular techniques or sensibilities? While Japanese architecture may include all of these, and more, with increasing globalization and transnational exchanges simple national, ethnic and geographical categorizations have become increasingly complicated.

Although the contemporary contours of Japanese architecture may be less clear, the origin of architecture in Japan can be clearly identified. Architecture began in Japan in the Meiji period (1868–1912) as a foreign practice intimately connected to modernization. The profession of architecture, which institutionalized a division between architect and builder/craftsmen, was established in 1876 when Josiah Conder, who was a government-sponsored oyatoi (honourable alien employee) from London, founded the Architecture Department within the Engineering School at Tokyo Imperial University. Conder had a large influence on shaping architecture in Japan. His multifaceted appointment involved imparting theories and skills to Japanese students to enable them to produce Western-style buildings and producing commemorative buildings for the government, concretizing the ideals of Meiji modernization in built form.