Page 27 - JCAU-5-1

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism The life and work of Arata Isozaki

Being a former close collaborator and project partner number of invitations to participate in design competitions
of Isozaki during the 1990s allows me to draw from around the globe, including in Germany, Austria, and the
background knowledge, first-hand observations, and UK. We collaborated on large-scale design competitions
personal conversations. In this article, I comment on the for prominent sites in Berlin (our competition success
most relevant projects of the Japanese master and attempt to in 1992 resulted in two buildings at Potsdamer Platz, for
categorize the work in four different sections. I previously which we subsequently formed a partnership), Munich,
had worked as a young architect in the office of James Stuttgart, and Vienna (where we won the first prize for the
Stirling and Michael Wilford in London, but left in 1990 design of two unbuilt twin towers), and for the prestigious
to move to Japan to join Arata Isozaki in Tokyo. Originally, Tate Modern design competition in London.
I planned to stay in Tokyo to experience working there The architectural critic Herbert Muschamp noted in
for a maximum of 12 months, had not anticipated how 1993, “Arata Isozaki came of age in a country that was not
much this change in workplace and culture would affect only physically and economically in tatters but had also
my future life, and thinking about architecture. Only later been torn from its cultural moorings” (Muschamp, 1993).
did I realize that the epicenter of world architecture had However, from around the mid-1980s onward, Isozaki was
around this time relocated to Japan, and that Tokyo was building worldwide and became the first Japanese architect
“the place to be.” In the end, I stayed with Arata Isozaki for to work globally, while at the same time, being intensely
3 years before moving to Berlin to open my own practice busy in his home country: Japan’s post-war economy had
in 1993. My time in Japan gave me a good opportunity to been growing and booming continuously since 1960. It
closely observe and study the master’s oeuvre, conceptual was a period of rapid economic growth, which came to an
thinking, and working methods. abrupt end with the “bursting of the Japanese economic
My arrival in Japan, having come from Stirling’s office bubble” in 1992.
(which was at that time a relatively small firm with only Between 1960 and 1990, Japan emerged from the
12 staff and a limited number of projects), could not destruction of the Second World War and conquered global
have been a more change of pace: Isozaki Atelier, as the manufacturing, leading to an immense property boom
office was called, was a buzzing hub with a large number (the Japanese call it the bubble era). By the mid-1980s, the
of interesting projects, constant activities, and a flow of joke was that the grounds of the imperial palace in Tokyo
information. The atelier was organized with Isozaki as were worth the same as all of the state of California.
the single master, heading up a group of around 30 – 40
dedicated architects. Nobody used computers while I was Following the Japanese asset price bubble from 1985 to
at Stirling’s office; in contrast, Isozaki Atelier embraced 1991, when real estate and stock market prices were greatly
and represented the future of architecture. The digital inflated, in 1992, this bubble burst: the Tokyo stock market
revolution was happening (Mario Carpo dated the first collapsed and property prices fell rapidly. Since then,
digital turn in architecture in 1992). Japan’s economy has been stagnant and it is yet to recover.
The biggest economic challenge for Japan’s economy, the
I had encountered Isozaki’s work a few years earlier as a world’s third largest, is its aging population. Wingfield-
student when visiting an exhibition in Frankfurt displaying Hayes notes “For 30 years, Japan has been struggling with a
the 1984 competition proposals for the new Museum of sluggish economy, held back by a deep resistance to change
Applied Arts; a project that was won by Richard Meier. and a strong attachment to the past. Now, its population
Isozaki’s design proposal was so different from anything else is both aging and shrinking. As a result, Japan has ended
there: He placed a giant cube in the middle of the parkland, up with the world’s largest mountain of public debt. (…)
thus minimizing the building’s footprint and impact to A rigid hierarchy determines who holds the levers of
preserve most of the beautiful surrounding parkland and power. A third of Japanese people are over 60 years old,
trees. I also admired the Museum of Contemporary Art making Japan home to the oldest population in the world.
(MOCA) in Los Angeles, which opened in 1986, and I was It is recording fewer births than ever before, and by 2050,
able to visit it. I had also seen photos of the Museum of it could lose a fifth of its current population” (Wingfield-
Modern Art in Gunma (1974), a much-published earlier Hayes, 2023).
masterpiece. It was obvious to me that Isozaki was a However, during the boom years, people were taking
refined master architect, working within his own universe charge of positive changes and young architects were
and language.
given significant responsibilities. Isozaki was well-
I came to Tokyo when Isozaki was almost 60 years old equipped to take advantage of this boom, getting his most
and had just reached the peak of his career (with branch extraordinary, and ambitious designs built. His Japanese
offices in New York and Barcelona), receiving a growing projects were, however, rarely realized in central Tokyo.

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.353