Page 35 - JCAU-5-1

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

These early buildings made a feature of their rough • Nakayama House (1964), Ōita, Japan
concrete structure and looked like machines; an • Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (1972 – 1974),
architecture of repetition and components, which revealed Fukuoka, Japan
how they were made and assembled. The elegant Gunma • The Gunma Museum of Modern Art (1971 – 1974;
Art Museum (1974), Isozaki’s most notable early project, refurbished in 1997 and 2006), Gunma, Japan
gained international attention and confirmed him as an • Fujimi Country Clubhouse (1973 – 1974), Ōita,
original force, securing a place for him on the global circuit. Japan
Gunma’s system of abstract cubes and gridded frames was 5.2. Phase II (1974 – 1989): High Postmodernism:
based on his concept of the “art gallery as void.” His ideas The symbolic, playful, and ironic in architecture
about urban mega-structures (especially “City in the Air”
and “City in the Sky,” 1960 – 1962) with their references In 1974, the architect bade farewell to his Brutalist
to organic biological growth and modular flexibility beginnings and increasingly turned to play with sometimes-
were similar to the theoretical position expressed in the ironic references, which made him the most influential
Metabolism manifesto (published in 1960). It was also a representative of postmodernism in Japan. With the
reference to Russian Constructivism and El Lissitzky’s barrel roofs of the library by Kitakyushu (1974), he quoted
“Wolkenbuegel,” a utopian project from 1924 for Moscow. Étienne-Louis Boullée’s vision of a Bibliothèque Nationale:
the tunnel-like space of the library was inspired by Boullée’s
I was always fascinated by the cultural relevance of some proposed design for the French National Library (1785),
of his early works. “City in the Air” was envisioned as a organized in two neoclassical vaulted volumes made of
futuristic plan for Shinjuku consisting of elevated layers of precast concrete. In the large Tsukuba Center Building
buildings, residences, and transportation suspended above (1983), a new science city built from scratch north of Tokyo,
the aging city below, in response to the rapid rate of Tokyo’s he integrated a replica of the Capitol Square in Rome. It
urbanization. The concept was never realized but looking was a project full of contradictions. The Tsukuba Center
at the images of this futuristic city in the sky, they could was meant to represent the country’s high-tech future; yet,
very much be a vision of today. Isozaki was clearly ahead Isozaki depicted the buildings in drawings as instant ruins.
of his time. The structure of the “City in the Air” resembles
a tree, with a large structural trunk that contains vertical During this second phase, Isozaki made such a dramatic
circulation and services, which allowed building this “new impact on the world architectural stage that Charles Jencks
wrote: “Isozaki has taken the Post-Modernism of the
city above the existing city” (Isozaki), only requiring a West one step further” (Jencks, 1984, p. 236). His designs
small plot of land at the ground level, suggesting that most
of the land remained public space. became more inventive with daring geometry, at a time
when architecture had to radically reinvent itself. Trust
The hypothetical projects ranged from floating cities on in technology had waned and the oil crisis showed the
the oceans or on reclaimed land (work in which Isozaki was limits of growth. Isozaki’s new approach to design emerged
involved with Kenzo Tange, including the Tokyo Bay Plan as a reaction against the perceived shortcomings of the
of 1960) to modular plug-in capsule towers (not dissimilar 1960s and 1970s, with its lack of reference to the history
to Archigram’s Walking City and Plug-in City, 1964; or Yona of architecture and ignorance of local culture. Isozaki
Friedman’s Spatial City, 1963). The 1968 Electric Labyrinth now worked closely alongside his third wife, the Japanese
installation portrayed a “Re-ruined Hiroshima” at the Milan sculptor Aiko Miyawaki.
Triennale. His formal approach continued to evolve with Pioneering the introduction of Japanese architecture
buildings such as the Fujimi Country Club (1973 – 1974) overseas during this phase, Isozaki was able to realize a series
and Kitakyushu Central Library (1973 – 1974), a building of key projects in the US, including MOCA in Los Angeles
that already introduced the following phase of his oeuvre. and Team Disney in Florida, both of which were important
Isozaki would always respond to significant changes in buildings that introduced him to the US market. The
the world’s situation with an equally significant shift in his MOCA, Los Angeles was the architect’s first international
approach to design. In 1974, he commented that the era of commission outside Japan. MOCA is still considered one
technological optimism ended with Tokyo’s “failed EXPO of Isozaki’s masterworks: visitors to MOCA enter through
1970” and the world energy crisis; a new phase had begun. a sunken red sandstone courtyard that is reminiscent of
the Tsukuba Center in Japan. Large pyramidal skylights
Typical works from this phase include:
illuminate the serene galleries below. The first gallery space
• City in the Air (1960 – 1961, unbuilt), Tokyo, Japan – voluminous, meditative, and visually still – introduced an
• Ōita Prefectural Library (1962 – 1966; now Oita Art emptiness full of possibilities. “That gallery space was worth
Plaza), Ōita, Japan the whole building,” Frank Gehry said at its opening. The

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 10 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.353