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

beginning of trend setting and celebrity culture in
architecture. Due to the international nature of his work,
his more conservative Japanese colleagues started to call
Isozaki “non-Japanese” and a foreigner (Muschamp, 1993;
GA Document, 2004). To overcome this perception,
Isozaki consciously emphasized the image of his Japanese
nationality in public by frequently wearing kimonos in
ceremonies and official portraits.
During the 1990s, Isozaki Atelier had become a busy
place with commissions arriving from all over the world;
about 12 projects were on the drawing boards or under
construction at any given time. In addition, much of the
extra work was for large-scale design competitions and
curatorial works, such as exhibitions and stage designs.
A creative force and an intuitive genius, Isozaki has always Figure 1. Sketch for Mito Art Tower, 1986.
remained a soft-spoken, thoughtful, and charismatic
figure, charming and polite, despite the pressures of
the construction business. “Originality of ideas is not
important,” he told London’s Observer newspaper in 1991.
“We can borrow anything.”
Isozaki was able to visualize his ideas convincingly with
beautiful hand-drawn sketches that have become collectors’
items. Meetings about projects would usually follow a strict
ritual, in which Isozaki would sit on one side of the large
table; without much talking, he would spend most of the
time sketching different spatial ideas with an ink pen on Figure 2. Sketch for Nara Centennial Convention Hall, 1992.
thin yellow tracing paper. Regularity and irregularity were
recurring themes when it came to sketching interior spaces,
wall claddings, and suspended ceilings. The elaborate
design of the ceiling was an important recurring theme
that allowed the expression of the nobility and meaning of
specific spaces or sequences of rooms. Stacks of exquisite
drawings, often abstract, elegant hand sketches combined
with urban diagrams, were produced in long meetings, in
which he would work on ideas repeatedly, testing different
solutions. It was then our task to “translate” those freehand
drawings into more concrete line drawings that could
become the basis for construction documents.
Besides hand sketching, Arata Isozaki was a pioneer
of architectural representation through the medium of
silkscreen prints. Figures 1–5 showcase a selection of
typical hand sketches: made on thin tracing; these are Figure 3. Sketch for Atea Bilbao Twin Towers, 1999. Source: Courtesy of
exquisitely atmospheric and expressive sketches; while Arata Isozaki and Associates.
Figure 6A and B illustrate the use of silkscreen prints.
Figure 7A and B show Arata Isozaki in his office sketching so on – were equally important to him. Over the years, he
on thin yellow tracing paper. took on numerous other roles besides his busy practice.
Here, he displayed great generosity in an otherwise often
4.2. The many other roles, including curatorial roles egoistic profession. As an ambassador between cultures
that Isozaki took on and disciplines, Arata Isozaki became an international
His non-building work – curation, stage designs, power broker in his field, recognized for his support for
collaborations with artists, writing, furniture design, and young architects. Fostering young talent, he mentored

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.353