Page 28 - JCAU-5-1

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

Most of his buildings in Japan are to be found in smaller (1962 – 1966), bear strong influences from Le Corbusier,
cities, such as Mito, Kyoto, Nara, Oita, Kitakyushu, and Louis I. Kahn, and Kenzo Tange. Isozaki belongs to the
Fukuoka, or dotted around Tokyo’s outskirts. same generation of other Japanese architects, such as
Fumihiko Maki (born 1928), Kisho Kurokawa (1934 –
2. Education, early influences, and 2007), and Kiyonori Kikutake (1928 – 2011), as well as
formative years to the era of the Metabolism Movement. Japan’s rapidly
Arata Isozaki grew up in Oita where his father was a expanding cities needed further urban densification, and
prominent businessperson who wrote haiku poetry. The “Metabolist” ideas suggested that cellular biological growth
Second World War had an important influence on his early provided a model for architecture. Nakagin Capsule Tower
vision of architecture. In 1945, when he was 14 years old, by Kisho Kurokawa became the icon of Metabolism, and its
he witnessed the destruction of Hiroshima on the shore recent demolition (in 2022) is a symbol of the movement’s
opposite his hometown. Three days later, southwest of apparent failures (Mack, 2022).
Oita, the city of Nagasaki was bombed. While he was sympathetic to the Metabolist ideas and
Isozaki studied architecture and engineering at the theories for new forms of cities, Isozaki never joined the
University of Tokyo, graduating in 1954 before completing Metabolist group, preferring to follow his own avant-garde
a doctoral program at the same university in 1961. He path. Isozaki positioned himself early as a member of an
maintained that his path to architecture was deeply avant-garde that practiced outside architectural convention.
influenced by the destruction he witnessed earlier in the He first captured international attention with “City in the
nuclear bombings. “My first experience of architecture was Air,” a theoretical proposal for tree-like megastructures
the void of architecture, and I began to consider how people branching like a forest canopy over Tokyo, cantilevering
might rebuild their homes and cities,” Isozaki said during to the limits of practicable engineering. When “City in
his Pritzker Prize acceptance speech in 2019 (Isozaki, the Air” was proposed, Tokyo had limited the maximum
2019). “Air bombardment had destroyed many of the height of construction to 31 m. Isozaki wrote about this in
cities, buildings had vanished, and there was only rubble 1961: “Tokyo is hopeless… I am leaving everything below
on the ground,” he wrote. “However, Japan had already 30 meters to others. If they think they can unravel the mess
assimilated Western modernization by that time. The only in this city, let them try. I will think about architecture and
possible choice I had was to start from the ruins – the the city above 30 meters. An empty lot of 10 square meters
degree zero where nothing remained.” Isozaki explained is all I need on the ground. I will erect a column there, and
that due to the political and economic uncertainty of the that column will be both a structural column and a channel
period, he “could not dwell upon a single style.” He noted, for vertical circulation” (Figure 5).
“As a result, change became constant. Paradoxically, this It was the beginning of the maturation process
came to be my own style.” of Japanese architecture, which would continue for
several decades. Not only the widespread devastation of
In his formative years to become an architect, in the Japanese post-war cities brought an urgent need for new
1950s, the ongoing austerity meant he had to be resourceful. affordable housing but the economic boom also allowed
After graduation, Isozaki went straight to apprentice with for architectural experimentation and the realization of
the eminent Kenzo Tange (1913 – 2005), the father of post- innovative and unrestricted ideas. As a result, Japanese
war Japanese modern architecture, before establishing his architecture since 1960 has consistently produced some
own firm in Tokyo, Isozaki Atelier (later: Arata Isozaki of the most influential and groundbreaking examples of
and Associates), in 1963. He continued to work for 9 years modern design in the world. Throughout his long career,
with his mentor, Tange, and even after leaving Tange’s Isozaki always maintained an interest in visionary forms
firm in 1963; he continued working with him throughout of cities and utopian concepts, especially in the radical
the 1970s, when he was invited to be the chief architect urbanistic ideas between the 1920s and the 1930s. In 1960,
alongside Tange of Osaka’s 1970 EXPO. While Tange he created an ironic photomontage with the title “Future
still operated within the legacy of a modernity imported City,” in which he placed a Metabolist megastructure
through foreign paradigms, Isozaki was the first Japanese within a field of classical ruins of Rome. Regarding this
architect to break free from these paradigms, to establish montage, Schalk notes “the image pictures the city as
an independent, unique Japanese architecture with its the place where many life cycles of various cultures rise,
own deviating principles (Bognar, 1985; Curtis, 1986; overlap, and decline. In this juxtaposition of the already
Frampton, 2007). declined (Western classical architecture) with the visionary
His early Japanese projects, such as “City in the Air” (Japanese Metabolist architecture) and its future (parts of
(1960 – 1961, unbuilt) and the Oita Prefectural Library the new scheme already collapsed), historical time appears

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.353