Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement Book

Seven young Japanese architects and designers, pursuing a new approach to urbanism, founded an avant-garde group in 1960 and published its manifesto Metabolism. Numerous futuristic urban visions, along with experimental architectural practices, meant that the Metabolist movement became the emblem of Japan's post-war cultural resurgence. At the root of the Metabolist urban utopias was a particular notion of the city as an organic process. It moved away from the Modernist paradigm of urbanism and led to such radical design concepts as artificial land, marine civilization, metabolic cycle, megastructure, and group form, which embodied the Metabolists' ideals of social change.The first full-length critical account of the Metabolist movement focusing on its urbanism and utopianism, this book situates Metabolism in the context of Japan's mass urban reconstruction, economic miracle, and socio-political reorientation. It traces the evolution of Metabolism from its inception at the 1960 World Design Conference to its grand swansong at Osaka Expo 1970, and examines the works of Kenzo Tange, Kisho Kurokawa, Fumihiko Maki, Kiyonori Kikutake, Noboru Kawazoe, Masato Otaka, and Arata Isozaki, who have profoundly influenced contemporary architecture and urbanism in the world. Elaborating on Metabolism's design and social ideas, this study will be of interest to architects, planners, historians, and any one interested in avant-garde design or Japanese architecture.Read More