Page 39 - JCAU-5-1

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

• Isozaki Atea residential twin towers (1999 – 2009), entirely automatic. I came to realize that the idea
Bilbao, Spain of “planning,” which I had embraced and which I
• Qatar National Library (2002 – 2007), Doha, Qatar had thought until then applicable to everything –
• Sohn’s Retreat, Joshua Tree National Park (2005), the state, the economy, society, architecture, and
California, USA the city – was bankrupt. I began to doubt the very
• Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts idea of architectural planning. I became more
(2003 – 2008), Beijing, China interested in the automatic generation of forms.
• Shanghai Symphony Hall (2008 – 2014), Shanghai, That is, I came to believe that basic forms existed
China a priori and that “planning” meant anticipating
• New Concert Hall Building (2003 – 2010), their self-generation. I sought determinants of
Thessaloniki, Greece form in pure geometrical configurations. This
• Zendai Himalayas Art Center (2003 – 2010), Shanghai, was very different from the way I had approached
China the design of the earlier library. The idea was
• Diamond Island and Metropolis Thao Dien (high-rise based on superficial functionalism, that content
building cluster; 2006 – 2012), Ho-Chi-Minh City, (function) should correspond to form – the idea
Vietnam of honesty of expression – was turned on its head.
• Coliseum da Coruña (1990 – 1991), A Coruña, Spain Form (expression) was now allowed to generate
• Qatar National Convention Center and Ceremonial content (function). The building type was still the
Court, Education City (2004 – 2011), Doha, Qatar same, but I took an entirely different approach to
• CityLife ‘Allianz Tower’ office high-rise (2003 – 2012), its design (Isozaki, 2006b).
Milan, Italy
• The University of Central Asia’s three campuses 7. The legacy of a prolific lifelong
(2014 – 2016), in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan dedication to visionary architecture

6. On changing his design method Arata Isozaki’s architectural position as a controversial
artist–architect–writer was often polemical and, I believe,
Arata Isozaki reflected on and self-analyzed his evolving
design methodology. Why did he design the way he did? is still highly relevant today. His activities were not
He fundamentally changed his design method around limited to architecture but included writing, criticism,
1973, which was a key moment for him, moving away from the judging of architectural competitions, collaborations
functionalism toward an object-driven architecture of pure with artists (such as with British-Indian artist Anish
geometrical configurations. He compared the two different Kapoor), exhibitions, and some teaching. His buildings,
conceptual approaches, in which he applied to the design of written works, exhibitions, and lectures had a deep impact
Oita Prefectural Library (1962 – 1966) and to Toyonokuni on the discipline across both the East and the West, and
Library for Cultural Resources (1991 – 1995); both libraries he is often cited as the first Japanese architect to forge a
are located in Oita, but were built 30 years apart. Isozaki wrote: lasting relationship between the two cultures. Chen (2022):
“Isozaki was famously hard to pin down – he had no singular
I changed the way I design in the early 1970s, style – but in his depth, breadth, and versatility of thinking,
around the time when I published an essay he was remarkably consistent. Few architects have been so
entitled “About my Method.” Earlier, I had significant to so many architectural developments over so
designed the Oita Prefectural Library by means many decades – a position of centrality that he maintained,
of what I called “process planning.” In accordance in large measure, through his insistence on staying on the
with an orthodox, functionalist interpretation of periphery. He was fiercely, even stubbornly independent.”
modern architecture, I took the volumes required
by the program and determined their functional In major structures in a dozen countries, Isozaki
relationships. Next, taking into account the absorbed and reinterpreted Eastern and Western traditions.
anticipated growth of those functions, I broke However, despite all his success, his childhood experience
down the volumes into sets (clusters) of rooms, in war-torn Japan underpinned his work and repeatedly
that is, containers. I assumed that there was a one- broke new ground in the depiction of his buildings as
to-one correspondence between form (container) ruins, such as the Tsukuba Center Building. In the 1962
and content (function). I was searching for a dystopian vision “Incubation Process,” he stated: “The
form that was responsive to changes in function cities of the future are also ruins. Our contemporary cities
as time passed. However, as my theory of process are born to live for a fleeting moment. Then, they lose their
planning had indicated, the process could not be energy and turn back into inert matter.”

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 14 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.353