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KISHO KUROKAWA
 
 
 
 
  Name   Kisho Kurokawa (黒川 紀章)
       
  Born   April 8, 1934
       
  Died   October 12, 2007
       
  Nationality   Japan
       
  School    
       
  Official website   www.kisho.co.jp
     
 
BIOGRAPHY        
   

Kisho Kurokawa is one of Japan's leading designers known for his theory of symbiosis. According to Kurokawa, "symbiosis" is an alternative conceptual model for Japanese architecture that simultaneously embodies seemingly conflicting ideas, such as universal principles and regional differences, Western and Eastern sensibilities, history and future, small and large scales, or cultural identity and modern technology. His large-scale architectural projects, both built and unbuilt, parallel his theoretical writing regarding architecture in the Postmodern era and reflect his attempt to define an essential character of Japanese architecture.

Kurokawa's early career was shaped largely by his experiences as one of the founders of the so-called Metabolist movement during the early 1960s, whose members included other well-known Japanese architects, such as Fumihiko Maki and Kiyonori Kikutake. Rejecting modernism's functionalist approach, the Metabolists proposed large-scale urban projects that used biological concepts and structures as models for ways in which architecture could address practical and sociological issues, such as population increase and the need for structures that could adapt to the changing demands of their inhabitants. Kurokawa first gained recognition outside Japan in 1962 for his design of the Agricultural City Plan, exhibited in the "Visionary Architecture" show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the same period, he was invited by Peter Smithson and Aldo van Eyck to participate in Team X meetings, the largely Netherlandish group of young architects who rejected strict functionalism in order to promote individual concepts of architectural and social identity. However, although the urban agendas of Team X and the Metabolists were similar, the Metabolist experiments with biological metaphors gave them a distinct identity.

For example, Kurokawa's urban proposals were formally based on structures that incorporated the possibility for constant growth and change. The Helix City Plan for Tokyo (1961) was literally derived from the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule. This abstract model expressed the concept of both vertical and horizontal urban expansion, potentially infinite. Building projects such as the Nagakin Capsule Tower (Tokyo, Japan, 1972) embodied Kurokawa's urban concepts of mutable, modular forms and references to cellular structure. Built between 1970 and 1972, the tower consists of prefabricated living units that were lifted into place by a crane. The modules provided what Kurokawa referred to as "spatial equipment" that could be operated by its inhabitants. In addition, by providing hotel-like amenities in the most efficient way possible, he attempted to encourage the development of residential buildings for commuters within the city center during a time when many city dwellers were moving to the outlying suburbs.

Kurokawa's interests in modular form and possibilities for three-dimensional expansion were explored at the scale of the structural component in the Toshiba THI Pavilion at Expo 1970 in Osaka. The circular, domed, 500-seat theater provided Kurokawa with the opportunity to experiment with a metal space frame of tetrahedral units that could be expanded in 14 different ways. "The first aim," stated Kurokawa, "was to introduce this regenerating process into architecture and city planning, the name being expressive of the conviction that a work of architecture should not be frozen once it is completed but should be apprehended instead as a thing—or as a process—that evolves from past to present and from present to future."

Metabolism could be seen as a reaction to the practical concerns about the growing population crisis in Japan's cities and as a challenge to the so-called machine age that operates without consideration of human history. Kurokawa and the Metabolists shared similarities with, and may have been influenced by, other architectural styles, such as Team X and the British Archigram group, but Kurokawa was also motivated by his strong reaction against the rigid International Style, which had been an influential force in Japanese architecture during the first half of the century. The perceived Eurocentrism and homogeneity of International Style buildings were heavily criticized by Kurokawa as a form of colonialism. In particular, he objected to the notion devised by European architects Bruno Taut and Walter Gropius during their visit to the Katsura Palace in Japan that the simple, spare forms of the building anticipated modernist principles and represented Japanese architecture as a whole; rather, Kurokawa believed that the Katsura Palace represented only part of the country's architectural tradition.

From his early work as a Metabolist, exploring the tension between technology and culture and between global and local architecture, Kurokawa developed his cultural theory of symbiosis. He has written extensively on his theories of symbiosis, and his writings, including the 1992 publication "From Metabolism to Symbiosis," are virtually manifestos. Writing in a manner that recalls the work of French literary critics such as Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari, among others, Kurokawa draws inspiration from local tradition and culture to inform a new paradigm for Japanese architecture that continues the multicultural dynamic characteristic of Japanese culture, for example, the incorporation of Chinese elements into Japanese culture.

Beginning in the 1970s and continuing with his contemporary work, Kurokawa has explored the ways in which contemporary architecture can draw on the past and present to express regional identity. Most, if not all, of his projects contain references to the centuries-old sukiya style of Japanese architecture. Literally translated as an aesthetic of "artlessness," the sukiya style was employed in the design of teahouses, most notably during the Edo period of the early 17th through the mid-19th centuries. The Nagakin Capsule Tower employs cutting-edge technology and materials, is constructed of mass-produced units, uses high-tension connections to a central core, and addresses contemporary urban population issues; at the same time, however, the individual rooms within the tower contain references to the traditional sukiya style: 8- by-13-foot dimensions are based on the plan of the tearoom; molded plastic interiors express the simplicity, orderliness, and economy evident in the spare design of the tearoom; and passage from the street up to individual quarters could be described as conveying the sense of isolation and escape expressed by traditional tearoom design.

Many of Kurokawa's buildings are museums, a building type well suited to the exploration of culture, history, and the notion of symbiosis. For example, the Ehime Prefectural Museum of General Science (Ehime, Japan, 1995) is a complex of several buildings, each with its program and discrete form: the conical entrance, the rectangular exhibition hall, the spherical planetarium, the crescent-shaped restaurant, and the triangular parking garage. The noncentralized arrangement of the buildings, which includes a shallow pool within which the planetarium is situated, recalls the asymmetry and nonhierarchical layouts of traditional Japanese forms, from the random placement of stepping-stones in a garden to the rambling plan of the Katsura palace and gardens, another prime example of sukiya style. Through his use of pure geometry in many of these buildings, Kurokawa aims to evoke "past cosmologies and symbols of topos," an approach that he refers to as abstract symbolism. For example, in traditional Chinese architecture, the earth was often represented as square and the heavens as round, references that were incorporated by Kurokawa in his spherical planetarium and rectangular exhibition hall. However, the crescent-shaped buildings and slightly tilted walls of the rectangle are examples of how pure geometry, while referring to the past, may be distorted to create new forms. The cone, frequently used in many of his projects, contains multiple references, including the European tower and the roof of the traditional Chinese palace. In the Ehime Prefectural Museum of General Science, references to traditional forms are juxtaposed with contemporary construction materials of aluminum, glass, and concrete to create a synthesis of past and present.

 

Catherine Moy

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
TIMELINE        
    Born in Nagoya, Japan, 8 April 1934. Attended Kyoto Univer- sity, Department of Architecture; bachelor’s degree in architec- ture 19575 studied under Kenzo Tange, Tokyo University, De-

partment of Architecture; master’s degree in architecture 1964. Married Sumie Tsuchiya in 1959, had children; divorced; mar- ried Ayako Wakao in 1984, Founder, Kisho Kurokawa and Asso- ciates, Tokyo 1962-68; president, K.K, Architect and Associ- ates, Tokyo from 1968; principal, Institute for Social Engineering, Tokyo from 1969; adviser to the Japanese National Railways from 1970; analyst for the Japan Broadcasting Corpo- ration from 1974; adviser to the International Design Confer- ence, Aspen, Colorado, from 1974; general overseer, 1998 World Architecture Exposition Triennale. Honorary fellow, American Institute of Architects 1982; honorary member,

Union of Architects of Bulgaria 1982; life fellow, Royal Society of Art, London,

 
 
 
 
 
 
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