Project Japan. Metabolism Talks...

by Rem Koolhaas, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Kayoko Ota (Editor)

Back to the future
Visionary architecture in postwar Japan

“Once there was a nation that went to war, but after they conquered a continent their own country was destroyed by atom bombs... then the victors imposed democracy on the vanquished. For a group of apprentice architects, artists, and designers, led by a visionary, the dire situation of their country was not an obstacle but an inspiration to plan and think… although they were very different characters, the architects worked closely together to realize their dreams, staunchly supported by a super-creative bureaucracy and an activist state... after 15 years of incubation, they surprised the world with a new architecture—Metabolism—that proposed a radical makeover of the entire land... Then newspapers, magazines, and TV turned the architects into heroes: thinkers and doers, thoroughly modern men… Through sheer hard work, discipline, and the integration of all forms of creativity, their country, Japan, became a shining example... when the oil crisis initiated the end of the West, the architects of Japan spread out over the world to define the contours of a post-Western aesthetic....” —Rem Koolhaas / Hans Ulrich Obrist

Between 2005 and 2011, architect Rem Koolhaas and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist interviewed the surviving members of Metabolism—the first non-western avant-garde, launched in Tokyo in 1960, in the midst of Japan’s postwar miracle. Project Japan features hundreds of never-before-seen images—master plans from Manchuria to Tokyo, intimate snapshots of the Metabolists at work and play, architectural models, magazine excerpts, and astonishing sci-fi urban visions—telling the 20th century history of Japan through its architecture, from the tabula rasa of a colonized Manchuria in the 1930s to a devastated Japan after the war, the establishment of Metabolism at the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokoy, to the rise of Kisho Kurokawa as the first celebrity architect, to the apotheosis of Metabolism at Expo ’70 in Osaka and its expansion into the Middle East and Africa in the 1970s. The result is a vivid documentary of the last moment when architecture was a public rather than a private affair.

 

Genres: Architecture, Japan, Art, Design, Nonfiction, History, Urban

719 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

At once a compendium for post-war Japan's prime architectural movement and a eulogy for an age in which forward-thinking architecture was coterminous with advances in the public sector. One need only compare the staggering scope of Expo '70; its constellation of national vernaculars, biomorphic modularity, Utopian holism (as symbolized by Tange's "Big Roof"), with the starchitect-glazed monument to privatization that is the Hudson Yards project, that which has already descended into self-parody.

(Another reviewer noted the book's odd color schemes. It is indeed unbecoming for a design work of this pedigree to neglect how its layouts would translate from a monitor to paper + ink. Some pages are near-unreadable, and many photos are either too small or distorted to make out in adequate detail. An indispensable resource, nonetheless.)

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fashionable for young architectural hepcats to scorn Koolhaas nowadays (and as for Obrist, well...) but this is a tremendous work of research and synthesis on Japanese post-war architecture and its links to the state, big business, mass media and international development, full of exciting facts (did you know the phrase 'Metabolism' came from Engels' Dialectics of Nature? You do now) and visuals. Because of the prominence of the latter it's fair to say that AMO's editors/researchers probably deserve as much credit as the two interviewers.

[Zuzana Be · Rating 5 out of 5]

Po druhej svetovej vojne vznikla potreba znovu vybudovať zničené mestá v Japonsku. Skupina mladých architektov, dizajnérov a umelcov sa pár dní po zhodení atómovej bomby vybrala do Hiroshimy, aby na vlastné oči videli následky katastrofy. Tento zážitok ich inšpiroval k vypracovaniu plánu na obnovu Japonska modernejším spôsobom.

Približne o 15 rokov neskôr vznikla skupina Metabolizmus, zložená aj z týchto umelcov – prvý avantgardný architektonický smer mimo západných krajín. Namiesto klasických drevených domčekov priniesli betón, kapsule a podivné tvary.

Knihu tvorí séria rozhovorov s umelcami Metabolizmu (a niekoľkými ďalšími), ktoré viedli Rem Koolhaas a Hans Ulrich Obrist – obaja veľké mená vo svete umenia. Možno ste už zachytili niektoré z mien a diel metabolistov: Kenzo Tange (Hiroshima Peace Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building), Kisho Kurokawa (Nakagin Capsule Tower, Van Gogh Museum v Amsterdame, Singapore Flyer), Arata Isozaki (Allianz Tower v Miláne, Manggha Museum v Krakove), Kenji Ekuan (industriálny dizajnér: motorky Yamaha, fľaša na sójovku Kikkoman, dizajn shinkansenov) a ďalší.

Okrem toho, že rozhovory sú veľmi zaujímavé, aj grafická podoba knihy je úžasná. Zároveň ide o aktuálne čítanie na tento rok, keďže časť rozhovorov sa venuje aj výstave Expo 70 v Osake.

Dôvody, prečo som si ju vybrala, sú asi pomerne jasné (aspoň pre mňa) – a prečo by ste si ju mohli vybrať aj vy:

1. Japonsko (20. storočie)
2. architektúra
3. výstavy Expo

[Hailane Salam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Project Japan is like a special conversation about big, bold ideas. Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist explore Japan’s Metabolism movement—a group of architects who, after World War II, imagined cities that could grow and change like living things. They dreamed of cities floating on water or growing like trees.

The book is exciting because it doesn’t just tell you about these ideas; it shows you through interesting interviews and old pictures. It feels like you’re travelling back in time to meet the people who came up with these creative ideas. Even though these ideas are from the past, they still feel important today, as we think about how to build better cities.

It’s a fun way to learn about how architects can change the world with their imagination.

[Antonis Moras · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an excellent book. It is generally based on interviews conducted with participants in the group + a couple of people that were affiliated with the group. The interviews are thorough and they are accompanied by many images, charts and generally data that enhance the whole effort. This definetely revived and renewed my interest in this era. There are many information about the sociocultural, political, and economical context which also helps A LOT to understand the epoch. Excellent book

[Lorena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este es un libro magnífico tanto en contenido como el diseño editorial. Me encanta volverlo a leer

[Stefan Videnov · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Such a fascinating movement and so beautifully presented

[Danica]

I was borrowing this and had to give it back and it's expensive, but a beautiful book and more than anything is helping me to understand Japan before and just after WWII in a way that I never have before.
The layout of the book could be described as interactive since the reader is able to choose how they would like to tackle the linear history of this architectural movement and the reams of interviews that are interspersed with the story of the metabolists and accompanying illustrations and photos. Really beautiful even though I'm not a huge fan of fluorescent orange pages (or font).
Looking forward to continuing this...

[woonder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part Tange/Kurokawa biography, part history of post-war Japan, part sad story of the last architectural movement that nearly took off but didn't (I'm thankful it didn't). Then again, aren't our cities now largely metabolic? What the metabolists didn't predict is that people didn't just want to change building components, they want to change entire buildings. Best read of 2012.

[Gary Lain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edited by Rem Koolhaas (an excellent interviewer), who conducts this survey of the Metabolist architecture movement. One of those books that, every time I opened it, I learned something new and interesting. Useful to anyone researching post-war Japan, modernity, architecture, urban planning. A fascinating reference book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thing: Fluro orange and pink text on a white background? Books aren't usually black on white for no good reason.

Very interesting look at post war architecture in Japan and how it relates to their culture. Well worth a read.

[Terence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book, a collection of really in depth interviews, architectural documents and a lot of historical context for the broader history of international architecture. A great reference.

[sam! · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful in content & presentation! one of the most interesting books i have ever read! we need more books like this!