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

immense discipline and a strong work ethic, Isozaki was
able to complete an astonishing number of projects and an
almost unbelievable number of design proposals spread
over five continents (see Arata Isozaki and Associates’
website for a complete list of projects: www.isozaki.co.jp).
Working as an architect as much as an urban designer, with
many innovative large-scale urban proposals to his name,
the challenge for any interpretation of Isozaki’s diverse
body of work is that he refused to restrict himself to any
single signature style – unlike Richard Meier, for instance,
who always resisted a singular stylistic brand. As a result,
Isozaki’s designs defy simple categorization, embracing
the avant-garde and frequently challenging the status quo,
constantly evolving, and always remaining fresh in his
Figure 8. Group photo taken in 1996 in New York at Philip Johnson’s approach. With each of his buildings being unique, Isozaki
90 birthday. It shows the who-is-who in architecture; Isozaki is seated never repeated himself. “To find the most appropriate way
th
next to Johnson.
to solve these problems, I could not dwell upon a single
architectural culture in Japan. In 1988, he was appointed as style. Change became constant. Paradoxically, this came to
the artistic director of the Kumamoto Artpolis, a position be my own style,” he noted in 2019.
he handed over to Toyo Ito 10 years later. In 1989, he Nevertheless, I will take the risk to suggest that one
developed the masterplan for Nexus World, a large housing might separate Isozaki’s oeuvre into four distinctly different
exhibition in Fukuoka, Japan: on the 8-hectare site, projects phases, each of them wholly original.
by Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas, Mark Mack, and Christian 5.1. Phase I (1959 – 1973): Post-structuralism, design
de Portzamparc were realized at his invitation; these were
their first projects in Japan. for a Postwar World
In 1990, he curated the “Osaka Follies” program for the He established Arata Isozaki and Associates in 1963 after
International Garden and Greenery Exposition in Osaka. the Allied occupation had ended and Japan had regained
Twelve architectural firms built pavilions, including Bolles its sovereignty and was seeking physical rebuilding amidst
+ Wilson, Zaha Hadid, Ryoji Suzuki, Coop Himmelb(l)au, political, economic, and cultural uncertainty from the
Daniel Libeskind, and MacDonald + Salter. Between 1994 decimation of the Second World War. For nearly two
and 2001, Isozaki was responsible for master planning a large decades, Isozaki built only in Japan, primarily on the
housing development in Gifu, for which he commissioned southern island of Kyushu, where he was born. His work
only female architects, including Elizabeth Diller, Kazuyo began locally, with buildings in his hometown Oita and in
Sejima, and the landscape architect Martha Schwartz. Fukuoka, and quickly expanded to Gunma and Tsukuba.
Like Kenzo Tange or Kunio Maekawa, Isozaki benefited
In 1983, he published the book “Katsura Villa: Space and from the reconstruction programs and realized, among
Form,” effectively elevating the imperial retreat in Japan other things, Oita’s Prefectural Library (1966; now Oita Art
to the status of the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome and Plaza), an ingenious structure made of exposed concrete,
the Parthenon in Athens. As a theorist and author, Isozaki in which the supporting structures and spatial sequences
published a compilation of his writings in 2006, which interpenetrate in a highly expressive way. At this time,
frequently dealt with the Japanese architectural tradition, he was strongly influenced by his European experiences
under the English title “Japan-ness in Architecture.” They with a style mixing “Western Brutalism” and “Japanese
are the result of his many years of exploring the question Metabolist Architecture,” such as the radical Oita Medical
of what is specifically Japanese about the building culture. Hall (1959 – 1960), as noted by Banham (1976). In 1959,

5. Four distinctive phases in the work of Le Corbusier built the National Museum of Western Art
in Tokyo, which was an important influence on Japanese
Isozaki, spanning seven decades architects. The highly expressive language of Brutalism was
In 2020, Isozaki moved from Tokyo to Okinawa to reduce particularly influential and well received in Japan. The early
his direct involvement in the operation of the practice. By Brutalist phase of Isozaki’s work had so much more feeling
then, he could look back on a long, diverse, and productive of space than others’ Brutalist work in the UK, Brazil, or
career spanning seven decades, during which he re-invented Japan, which needed only to be on “chunky” pilotis and
himself every 15 years – not unlike Le Corbusier. With expose some rough concrete texture.

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.353