MOTION IN FORM by arav kumar

AR2A010 Architectural History Thesis by Arav Kumar,4738268

A.Kumar-6@student.tudelft.nl +31 6 20267338

Tutor: Catja Edens

TU Delft, June,2018

On the cover: Manuel Dominguez’s “Very Large Structure”

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“All these buildings will disappear but writing is forever “ - Kisho Kurukawa

iii

MOTION IN FORM Type:

History Thesis

Author:

Arav Kumar

Title:

Summary:

Motion in Form

Its interesting to note how all the experimental architecture movement were set off around mid 20th century in a very small span of time. The Modern era produced a wealth of utopian speculation, spurred on by technological advances and political turmoil. Constant Nieuwenhuys envisioned his New Babylon; a city of pleasure, Archigram proposed mass produced instant towns, Superstudio designed Monolithic blocks uniting continents and the Situationists attempted to dissolve all this urban development. Machines, automobiles, lightweight structures, Plug-In and capsule are some of the terms used by these architects which gave birth to ideas which were invariably extreme, depicting scenes of quite rampant modernity. All the above stated architects new the importance of adaptability and change in the built environment. This thesis explores the technological and social agents involved in shaping these avant-garde thoughts and its relevance in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architecture

Keywords:

Utopian, Machine, Plug-In, Capsule, Metabolism

Mentor:

Catja Edens

Department:

Architecture

Faculty: Course:

Hand-in date: Language:

Study number:

Submitter email:

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment AR2A010 Architectural History Thesis (2017/18 Q3) 2018|06|21 English

4738268

A.Kumar-6@student.tudelft.nl

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 2. CONTEXT 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4

1914 1922 1924 1927 1957 1960

3. THE METABOLIST 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10

RESEARCH MOTIVE RESEARCH BACKGROUND- THE MACHINE AGE RESEARCH BACKGROUND- FROM THE AGE OF MACHINE TO THE AGE OF LIFE PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH RESEARCH QUESTION PIONEERS OF THE MACHINE AGE DOMINO HOUSE- LE CORBUSIER LARGE CONSTRUCTION KIT-WALTER GROPIUS RIETVELD SCHRÃ&#x2013;DER HOUSE THE DYMAXION HOUSE- BUCKMINSTER FULLER THE RISE OF THE MEGA STRUCTURES CONSTANT NIEUWENHUYS AND YONA FRIEDMAN ARCHIGRAM THE ITALIAN RADICALS THE METABOLISTS IN JAPAN

JAPAN - THE NEW TECHNOCRACY THE METABOLISTS CITY AS PROCESS -FLOATING CITIES METABOLIC CYCLE OF CELLS - THE CAPSULE ARTIFICIAL LANDS COLONIZATION UNICORE-JOINT CORE SYTEM - THE NAGAKIN CAPSULE:KURUKAWA BIG ROOF, EXPO 70, KENZO TANGE JAPAN- THE IMAGINATIVE STATE METABOLISM-THE LAST AVANT-GARDE MOVEMENT AND ITS RIPPLING EFFECTS

4. CONCLUSION

table of contents

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1. INTRODUCTION “I define architecture as a living organism. It is a place where you live and you celebrate life.” -Balkrishna Doshi, 2018 Pritzker Prize Laureate

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Motive

“ hy is architecture static?”’Every design studio has led me to this argument. Architecture has predominantly been a stable system in a more variable and fluid world. Why can’t architecture grow and change in the way human life is ever changing. The solution of these questions led me to flexible systems in architecture called Metabolism, it has shaped my design ideas over the years from proposing a womb like self-sustaining mobile structure in my third semester to creating a Plug-In system, where parts of the building can be added or removed according to the continually changing needs of the people in a proposal for future housing systems competition. My thesis was a research to understand the basic principles behind a structure of a system capable of transitioning between different formal configurations. During my studies, I grew a special interest in disciplines dealing with intelligent architectural environments regarding how spaces and objects can have the ability to gather information on user activities and anticipate what users might do in the future. Users who can manipulate objects, move sporadically, and can operate under a wide range of environment. This adaptability function is what makes us efficient. Similarly in order to make the structure efficient it’s important for the built environment to behave and operate in resemblance to a machine and performing tasks and adapt if needed and not just be a passive shelter. Looking back this concept of mobility in the built environment had been proposed in the second half of the 20th century by a couple of futuristic groups. Around the mid 1950’s many architectural movements started questioning the basic definition of building or spaces driving them to theorize ‘avant-garde’ solutions based on mobility and flexibility. Proponents of this idea included groups such as Archigram, Archi-zoom and Superstudio in Europe, the Metabolists in Japan, and the international Team X (an offshoot of CIAM). Their purpose, other than pushing the limits of what architecture could be, was to be a catalyst for change, and hoping to instil a new philosophy in urbanist theory, and in that respect, they were a success. However most of these theories remained unbuilt and the few which were didn’t remain true to their theories. I’m fascinated by this architectural style of mutating self adjusting adaptive system and the reasoning behind its inception. This thesis explores the technological and social agents involved in shaping these avant-garde thoughts and its relevance in today’s architecture.

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1.2 Research Background - The machine age Architects in their attempt to transcend to a kinetic state which could offer more variations to the consumers have throughout the course of architectural history tried absorbing technology into architecture. The idea of fusing technology with architecture was born during the turn of the century with the advent of industrialization and rapid growth in technology during the war. The end of the war resulted with cities in ruins and large increase in population. Scores of existing dwellings were rendered unfit for habitation and led to a housing crises in Europe. Architects sought technology as an answer to improve the situation. The hyper-functionalism of the post-war years gave thrust to new materials and tools which were lighter, standardized and quick to fabricate. Assembly line production summarised the new architecture. Architects were inspired by the new industrial techniques of fabrication of the car industry which was at that time a pinnacle of automation and rationalisation of manufacturing. Post war there was more interest in this quick and efficient mobile and temporary solution to provide infrastructure to the people in need1. Le Corbusier was among the The lesson of the airplane lies in the logic -which first architects to embrace the governed the statement of the problem and its realmachine age and use the standardized isation. The problem of the house has not yet been modules as seen in his housing stated. Nevertheless there do exist standards for project ‘Maison Domino’. The house the dwelling-house . Machinery contains in itself the intended for mass production was factor of economy , which makes for selection. flexible with none of its walls load The house is a machine for living in.a -Le Corbusier bearing, hence the interior could be rearranged as the occupant wished. His standardized housing Maison Citrohan was a play of words suggesting that the methods of mass production of the automobile industry were adapted to the production of houses . Central to his design was the idea of the house as a “machine for living.”. He believed that architecture in its smallest sense i.e. the unit of dwelling is behavioural - the capacity to act upon people and society, to shape their tendencies and moods. Richard Buckminster Fuller is another architect whose innovative and futuristic proposals in this theme would guide a generation of architects to follow. He strived to duplicate the way in which nature ‘builds itself’ so as to adapt architecture to the multiple requirements of the modern day society, in order for it to be self sufficient. He envisaged production of houses like automobiles which culminated in his proposal for Dymaxion House based on his principles of ‘dynamics, maximum, and tension.’ The house was an example of self sufficiency which could be assembled in weeks and transported by air or water and also had the possibility to be moved later on. 1 a

Mobile: the art of portable architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.p, 19 Le Corbusier,Towards a New Architecture,Courier Corporation,2013, pg-107

1. INTRODUCTION

Its important to take note here how both these architects were inspired by automobile industry and fabrication methods of manufacturing industry in order to provide a more clean and efficient space to the people however it was clear that this modernist style was quite rigid in application and expected the built environment to shape the individuals.

1.3 From the age of machine to the age of life

The early 1960’s saw a shift To be a consumer is to make choices: to decide in the consumer society towards what you want, to consider how to spend your the US model which forged a new money to get it […]. ‘Consumer souvereignty’ is relationship between individuals an extremely compelling image of freedom: […] and emerging automation and it provides one of the few tangible and mundane communication technologies. With experiences of freedom which feels personally the economy stabilizing wages significant to modern subjects.b increased as a result commodities were now accessible to a larger section of the society which led to a shift from large scale production and mass market appeal to a system where a diversified workforce create products specifically for smaller sub groups of consumers in a way asserting ones identity to a particular group and class. Architecture was now more than just function and form sharing its aesthetics with the aesthetics of space travel, comic books, sci-fi, barbarella, dada, fluxus, and whole many of other pop culture references2. Social concerns were put above all expanding and exploring social interaction both inside and outside the built environment with designers transforming their role of designing commodities to designing for new behaviour in search of a more meaningful relationship between man and the built environment. The modernist housing was considered out of tune compared to the rising Consumerism,technological change and freedom represented by pop culture .It gave rise to a new wave of architects challenging the values of modernism by questioning the basic definition of a building, its functionalist nature of living or working spaces, rejecting the modernist housing models on the grounds that it doesn’t reflect peoples individualism. They explored concepts enabling individuality,people participating in housing development and self realization of society. The groups operating during this time thought of the city as a living organism flexible mobile and expandable. Each one of them embraced technology as a way to making life better. The goal was to liberate men from capitalism and mass culture. They turned the modernist model upside down getting rid of the concept of total control while keeping everything open and flexible. 2 b

Marcatrè, 26/29, (December 1966), and Ulm 19/20 (August 1967), pp. 35-37 Slater, D. (1997).Consumer culture and Modernity.Cambridge: Polity Press. pg-27

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In a way the new architecture didn’t revolt against modernists but carried forward the basic ideas and intensified it : more automation more freedom . The Situationist (Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys), Yona Friedman, Archigram, the Italian Radical Avant-garde groups Superstudio and Archizoom,the Japanese metabolists and the early work of the Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld emerged as protagonists engaging in this discourse with the hope of technology to create an architectural image of this philosophy/ideology. The base for designing radical utopian environments was set at the second CIAM congress in Frankfurt 1929,as it pushed the practice to find experimental solutions on social cultural change, housing crises and typology , technology and economic efficiency3. The architects further aligned with the new technological and material advancements post world war 1 to advance their thoughts. One such idea which originated was that of the megastructures. From Constant Nieuwenhuys and Yona Friedman, Archigram to the metabolists all found in the megastructure a system of open flexible framework or planning to house their desires and boundaries4. Constant Nieuwenhuys in his take on the megastructure stressed to liberate the worker against capitalism and its ethnic and economic boundaries. He wanted to unleash the people and pursue their creative pursuits He looked at the city as an unlimited public space composed of spaces which are under continuous change quite similar to Yona Friedman’s space cities which comply to the principle of mobility. He suggested large suspended structures over the existing figure ground that would be flexible and give total control to the dwellers to modify it according to their requirement. This spatial urbanism influenced the emerging groups of architects later in the second half of the 20th century which would come to be known as the age of the mega-structure. Instead of the architect as a creator he saw their part as mere inventors. He believed mobility was the answer to keep up with society’s changing fluctuating character. Archigram took forward this theory of adaptability and mega structures and came up with the Plug-In concept. Their projects stressed on mobility and flexibility and experimented with interchangeability of parts which led to their questioning - ‘should buildings be fixed all together’? In 1964 Peter Cook-, co-founder of the collective, presented his project the ‘Plug-in City’-a mega-structure with a rigid core in which components could be plugged in or out. Peter cook argues that in the 20th century “there have been several occasions when science, technology and human emancipation have coincided in a way that has caused architecture to explode.” The early plug-in capsule unit were inspired by the ongoing space capsule experiment. 3

Risselada, van den Heuvel, 2005; Williams Goldhagen, Legault, 2000

Dominique Rouillard, Superarchitecture: le Future de l’Architecture, 1950-1970 (Paris: de la Villette, 2004)

1. INTRODUCTION

Similar to Archigram the “The fundamental characteristics of futuristic capsule concept is used in Japan architecture will be expendability and transience. in answer to the urgent need for Our house will last less time than we do, every housing. The architects wanted generation must make its own city” c-Archigram to synchronize the traditionally organized society with the modern speed of prosperity Japan experienced in the latter half of 20th century. In Japan during this time there was a shift from production oriented to service oriented industry. The service intellectuals were replacing the producing labourers, hence the Metabolist thought that the city must evolve to accommodate them. This ‘Metabolist Movement’ as they called themselves declared: “contemporary architecture must be changeable, moveable and capable of meeting the changing requirements of the contemporary age. In order to reflect dynamic reality, what is needed is not a fixed, static function, but rather one, which is capable of undergoing metabolic changes. We must stop thinking in terms of function and form, and think instead in terms of space and changeable function.” Architect Kenzo Tange argued that the movement that the automobile introduced into urban life had changed peoples’ perception of space, and that this required a new spatial order for the city in the form of the megastructure with capsules attached to it. Its a shift towards temporary living/ nomadic living where people lose their desire for land and big house but would ultimately want small transportable houses which would be convenient for free movement. They saw a shift from the seasonal workers using mobile houses to white collar class. Within these ‘Capsules’ as architect Kisho Kurokawa states in his ‘Capsule Declaration’, man can construct his own micro-climate. Perhaps the aims of the metabolist is best described In the Words of Kisho Kurokawa (1934–2007):

“Industrial society was the ideal of Modern Architecture. The steam engine, the train, the

automobile, and the airplane freed humanity from labor and permitted it to begin its journey into the realm of unknown....The age of the machine valued models, norms, and ideals. ...The age of the machine was the age of the European spirit, the age of universality. We can say, then, that the twentieth century, the age of the machine, has been an age of Eurocentrism and logos-centrism. Logos-centrism posits that there is only one ultimate truth for all the world....In contrast to the age of the machine, I call the twenty-first century the age of life.....I found the Metabolism movement in 1959. I consciously selected the terms and key concepts of metabolism, metamorphosis, and because they were the vocabulary of life principles. Machines do not grow, change, or metabolize of their accord. “Metabolism” was indeed an excellent choice for a key word to announce the beginning of the age of life....I have chosen metabolism, metamorphosis, and symbiosis as key terms and concepts to express the principle of life.”5

5 c

Kisho Kurukawa, Each One a Hero: The Philosophy of Symbiosis, Kodansha Amer Inc; 3rd edition (August 1, 1997), Beyond Archigram:The Structure of Circulation, Routledge, 2013,pg-102

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1.4 Purpose and significance of the research Its interesting to note how all the experimental architecture movement were set off around mid 20th century in a very small span of time. The Modern era produced a wealth of utopian speculation, spurred on by technological advances and political turmoil. Constant Nieuwenhuys envisioned his New Babylon; a city of pleasure, Archigram proposed mass produced instant towns, Superstudio designed Monolithic blocks uniting continents and the Situationists attempted to dissolve all this urban development. Machines, automobiles, lightweight structures, Plug-In and capsule are some of the terms used by these architects which gave birth to ideas which were invariably extreme, depicting scenes of quite rampant modernity. All the above stated architects new the importance of adaptability and change in the built environment. Today we strive to make our projects sustainable and efficient, yet these projects show us that in order to be truly efficient the built environment should mould itself according to our need. It should open modulate its facade according to climate, it should change the function of the space according to our needs. Society has changed drastically in the way it uses a space. Specially in this age as society shifts from the machine age to the information and digital age. The family configurations have changed, the new start-up culture has changed the way we now use an office or how we use our homes as office. The increasingly frequent freak weather conditions show that we are in need of a more smart facade system and not just a stationary system which is supposed to be structurally stable for a 100 years but is redundant when it comes to adjusting to its contextual needs.

1.5 Research Question The thesis attempts in analysing these theories from the late modernist to early post modernist period specially the metabolist theories as they are the only group who successfully realized these projects so as answer the following questions How did this movement came to be and What lessons can metabolism, as a movement offer us for a collective vision as we move forward into the digitalization age ? The secondary questions which would help me formulate my primary question are Why did such valiant expressions in metabolism fail and have been left redundant over the years? Did they un-account dynamism of the human user resulting in an unyielding design approach?

1. INTRODUCTION

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2.CONTEXT “When you start a movement, it’s like a crime: you have to have a motive. And the more compelling the motive, the more successful the crime or the movement. So I think that it was a brilliant choice by the Metabolists to take the metaphor of metabolism as the motive, because it gives the sense of a biological inevitability..” -Rem Koolhaas ( Project Japan Metabolism Talks...)

2.CONTEXT

2.1

Pioneers of the Machine age

The war had led to dramatic transitions in cities politically, aesthetically and economically. New technological advances ushered in the first machine age which saw the application of technology into the home6.Post war in late 1920’s CIAM stressed for greater mobility and were one of the first collective to push for prefabrication. The modern architects saw the importance of mechanized and standardized architectural production to overcome the huge housing deficit and improve the living conditions.7 2.1.1

1914-15: Domino House- Le Corbusier

Domino was born out of crises, a global housing deficit. It was meant to be a quick deployment of structure, one without any articulation or decorative feature. A total abandonment of design. Domino,a concrete standardized skeletal construction system which could accommodate 3 different types of dwellings that were in need after the ravages left from world war in France. The construction comprises of columns,foundation, floor fields and a staircase. The columns are on a square grid 4x 4 m, which is expandable in one direction. This grid can be interrupted through a narrow zone of 2 m wide,in which stairs and toilets are accommodated. Domino was designed such that people could fill in the space in whichever manner they required.8 Fig:1 Domino house by Le Corbusier

“ By slow degrees the building sites will become industrialized, and the incorporation of machines into the building industry will lead to the introduction of standard components;house designs will change, a new economy will be established; the standard components will ensure unity of detail and unity of detail is an indispensable condition of architectural beauty…Our towns will lose the look of chaos which disfigures them today. Order will reign and the network of new roads, from an architectural point of view, will provide us with splendid views. Thanks to the machine, thanks to standard com ponents, thanks to selectivity, a new style will assert itself.”9--Le Corbusier, l’Esprit Nouveau

Whiteley N. (2002). Reyner Banham: Historian of the Immediate Future. Cambridge: MIT Press. pg-53

7 8

Design and Analysis, Bernard Leupe, 010 publishers rotterdam, 1997, pg-113 Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen,The museum of modern art,2008, pg-50

Essential le Corbusier: L’Esprit Nouveau Articles, Architectural Press (October 5, 1998)

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2.1.2

1922:Large Construction Kit-Walter Gropius

The large building kit is a system of prefabricated construction techniques by Gropius where parameters like the number of occupants and their relative needs where considered to put together different living machine - “a house of variable elements that are manufactured in advance and can be combined and joined together much in the manner of a large construction kit”. He envisioned building elements that can be assembled in a dry construction process quite alike the assembly line in automation industry.10 The Kit comprised of basic blocks to make up two to three storey houses Fig:2 Baukasten im Großen, Walter Gropius, by variably building them up. The kit and Adolf Meyer, Weimar, 1922 was mass produced and standardization was maintained with units. This concept was meant to expand akin to a bee hive construction, adding units when in need. These elements were termed as “Baukasten im Großen”or large scale building blocks in reference to children’s building blocks. The main attempt was to bring flexibility into design and give choice of variable arrangement for tenants, yet keeping the construction process easy for industrialized serial production.11 2.1.3

1924:Rietveld Schröder House

Rietveld was commissioned in 1924 by Truss Schröder to design a house that could reflect the modern liberated way of living, a home that instead of imposing a specific lifestyle, could change with her- develop and satisfy her craving for independence. The house was one large space with its non structural walls able to move freely or entirely hidden away. Rietveld designed furnitures for the house which could fold away, the outcome of which was the first floor to be used as one giant living room12.

Fig:3

Rietveld Schröder House

Components and Systems: Modular Construction – Design, Structure, New Technologies, Gerald Staib, Andreas Dörrhöfer, Markus Rosenthal, Walter de Gruyter, 2008, pg-25

Architecture and capitalism 1845 to present,Peggy Deamer,Routledge,2014,pg-75-78

Disabling Domesticity, Michael Rembis, Springer, 2016, pg-63

2.CONTEXT

2.1.4

1927:The Dymaxion House- Buckminster Fuller

Staying true to modernists values Buckminster Fuller rallied behind prefabrication and standardization. But perhaps he was the one who came closest to the modernist fascination with automobile fabrication system- Mass production and Mobility. No architect before had so extensively exploited technology, both in terms of construction procedures and material application. Buckminter Fuller saw in the changing social structure an increasingly emergent group who would be independent and mobile. He devised a home which would be lightweight and mobile resulting in his Dymaxion House. The difference he bought was the use of new lightweight materials like aluminium for the central mast housing the main services which supported the walls and rubber floorings. The house was meant to be mass produced and easily transported to the final site. The mast worked like a structural column for more units to be stacked on top of it, making up a tall housing tower13. Instead of prefabricated certain elements of the house he envisioned the complete house to be produced in a factory. Extracting the material pallet of a car to keep the weight to a minimum and ensuring ease of shipment and assembly. For him home building should no longer be limited to architects and builders but to the machines. With this he hoped to fuel the autonomous way of Fig:4 Dymaxion House by Buckminster life he found viable and practical in an increasingly industrial economy14. Describing his adaptable innovation Buckminster Fuller states “In architecture, a form is a noun, in the industry a verb. I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process —an integral function of the universe”15. 13 14

Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future, Joseph J. Corn, Brian Horrigan, JHU Press, 1984, pg-67-69 Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen, Peter Hewitt Christensen, Ken Oshima, The Museum of Modern Art, 2008,pg-58

R. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon, Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, 2000, pg-41

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Fuller

2.2

The rise of the Mega structures

It was important to understand the works and relation of these architects with technology in order to be clear how they formed a framework for the utopian avant-garde ideas and thoughts which culminated later in the second half of the century. Some key takeaways from these four projects• Functional solutions were emphasized stripping away all unnecessary ornamentation of the previous era. • The architects emphasized on space utilisation and keeping the houses to a minimum size. The main objective here was standardization of the smallest unit so that they come together to form a complete neighbourhood. • They promoted standardization, prefabrication, mass production and industrialization of architectural construction. • All of them were at some level influenced by the automobile industry and its assembly systems while advocating more mobility in architecture. • Light weight material technology paved the way for new panellized systems. • The middle class strata gave way to a new theory of individualism in design as Le corbusier states “The various classes of workers in society today no longer have dwellings adapted to their needs: neither the artisan nor the intellectual.”16 These architects can be referred to as members of modernism avant-garde. Avant-garde originates form military strategy of a small force leading the charge of a whole battalion. Their effectiveness depends on the individuals and their focus on the common objective. The modernists vision was to combine the industrial process with architecture to achieve their goals. During the middle half of the century there were many comprehensive plans for cities in Great Britain, France which were destroyed during the war,urban renewal in America, and other grand schemes — which were big mistakes and defied logic. In response the younger generation of architects - Archigram in london, The Metabolists in Japan and the radicals in Italy disregarded the modernists values. Many of these designers were unconvinced by the strict process of modernism masters like Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe and held their designs as socially unresponsive. The group was more interested in the architects such as Buckminster Fuller whose Dymaxion House and transportable/mobile structures held promise and inspiration for their own developing theories17. 16 17

Towards an Architecture,Le Corbusier, Getty Publications, 2007,pg-269 The Changing of the Avant-garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman Collection, Terence Riley, Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), The Museum of Modern Art, 2002,pg-12

2.CONTEXT

Modernism’s affiliation to modern technology and their works did create a base for the avant-garde groups to pick up. These group criticized the postwar architecture and urbanism but in doing so took note of the technological strategies adopted by the modernists as can be seen in archigrams and metabolists works and transformed those vision to even bigger scale and brought about the megastructure movement. They saw in megastructures the solutions for transformations of culture. From Constant Nieuwenhuys and Yona Friedman, Archigram to the Metabolists all found in the megastructure a system of open flexible framework and planning to house their desires and boundaries18. 2.2.1

1957 -Constant Nieuwenhuys and Yona Friedman

Constant Nieuwenhuys was part of the group Situationist International (“ SI” for short) which was active between 1957 and 1972.The group was against the forceful nature of the rationalist grid adapted by the modernists. The Rigid grid was devoid of any type of playful expression and surrealist tendencies in architecture. “under the pretext of putting a little order and discipline back into architectural expression,” Le Corbusier and his allies had instituted an architecture o f “right angles” and “cadaverous rigidity19”. The SI believed that the functional environment opposed the very core basis of the modernist ideas. Rather that the machine liberating the common man, it was burying him as a component of the functionalist society. They explain this by stating that ‘We have been given the machine for living in, where very often nothing is sacrificed to the only truly human parts of life, to poetry and to dream. There is worse: for our intransigent rationalists, a residential building can be nothing other than the superimposition of four, ten, any number of linked machines for living in. . . . The ambiance is overwhelming: at the end of his day, man quits his factory for working in for his factory for eating and sleeping in20 .” -Michel Colle Constant Nieuwenhuys envisioned freedom of the common man from factories and strived for total automation in his utopian world, so that the common man would be free for creative and social play. He introduced concepts of play, nomadism and flexibility in his new design for a new city which he termed as the ‘New Babylon’. The new design strived to answer questions like, “To what extent can we freely build the framework of a social life in which we can be guided by our aspirations and not by our instincts?,”

18 19

Dominique (Paris: de Michel Col (Brussels,

The Situationist City, Simon Sadler, MIT Press, 1998,pg-7

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Rouillard, Superarchitecture: le Future de l’Architecture, 1950-1970 la Villette, 2004) le, “Vers une architecture symbolique,” in Cobra, no. 1 1948), pp. 21-23.

The design was his effort to go beyond the grid, the harsh right angled functionalist layouts and advocating free forms and mixed use patterns to create a new sense of relationship between the human and social needs. He came up with a megastructure design that would encompass multiple functions that was previously housed individually in the functionalist city. Fig:5 New Babylon Model This city was hoisted above the existing city. Unlike the strict segregation of city into districts based on their programs, New Babylon had no predetermined program and was left to decide and discover by the humans using the city. This city was similar to the one proposed by Yona Friedman who was the founder of GEAM— Groupe d’Etudes d’Architecture Mobile (Mobile Architecture Study Group) in 1957. Both of them proposed a complex web frame supporting the functions raised on pilotis (a grid of supporting columns)21.

“ The ground remains free for motorized transport and agriculture, wild nature and historical monuments,” Constant explained. New Babylon sectors, floating“ 16 metres above the ground,” would “ represent a sort of extension of the Earth’s surface, a new skin that covers the earth and multiplies its living space.22”

For both Yona Friedman and Constant Nieuwenhuys the megastructure was a mobile and flexible formation of technology instead of the permanence nature of modernist designs. For them the giant concrete block of Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation was based on obsolete ideas of material housing and society. Unlike this the framework for both the cities was flexible creating transitory spaces. Within this structure the inhabitant Fig:6 Spatial City project, Perspective could build their own cell and let their imaginations run wild in building a playful environment of their own. The fixed structural framework composed of movable partition and lightweight materials like titanium floors and nylon pavements and partitions23.

The Situationist City, Simon Sadler, MIT Press, 1998,pg-127-129

22 Constant, (Art and architecture in the Netherlands), H. van Haaren, Meulenhoff (1966),pg-8 23 The Situationist City, Simon Sadler, MIT Press, 1998,pg-130-133

2.CONTEXT

The ideas of both these designers though revolutionary was not taken seriously by their contemporaries as they failed to understand the structural and economic feasibility of the proposed model. There was few details for the massive structure and the whole model was based on the heightened utopianism of non commodity socialism , a scientific utopia where scarcity and suffering were confined to history. 2.2.2

“ The effects of machine-production are leading slowly to a reduction in human labour, and we can state already with certainty, that we will enter a new era, in which production-labour will be automatic. For the first time in history, mankind will be able to establish an affluent society in which nobody will have to waste his forces, and in which everybody will be able to use his entire energy for the development of his creative capacities.” Questions about fiscal economy were no longer valid. “The question,” Constant insisted,“is how the free man of the future will use his unlimited energies24.” 1960-Archigram

Peter Cook, David Greene, Mike Webb, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron formed the collective Archigram in 1960. “Archigram” was the combination of ‘architecture’ and ‘telegram’,in a sense of conveying the urgency of their message in their pamphlet. The first archigram which was published in 1961 was a tirade against the systematic trash being constructed in London which followed the well mannered but gutless architecture which epitomized the early Modernist designs25. The group was inspired by the likes of Buckminster Fuller, Constant Nieuwenhuys and the American space programme. They tried to combine Fuller’s idea of flexibility and mobility, Constant’s idea of the megastructure and Space Programme’s Capsule which was the epitome of Hightech, designed to move and respond to unpredictable conditions26. Over the years there works became increasingly nomadic and portable. Their ideas stress the importance of the infusion of behavioural freedom in architecture which probably stems from the ideology of liberation, Fig:7 Walking City Project, Archigram freedom and pleasure that seeped into Europe post war27. 24

Constant Nieuwenhuys, “New Babylon/An Urbanism of the Future.”

25 26

A Guide to Archigram 196 - 74, Dennis Crompton, Princeton Architectural Press, 2012, pg-25 A Guide to Archigram 196 - 74, Dennis Crompton, Princeton Architectural Press, 2012, pg-40

Chalk, W. (1966). Hardware of a new world.Stoos, T. editor (1994). A Guide to Archigram:1961-74. London: Academy Editions.170. pg-173

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The collective was influenced by the late ideas of the modernists and the likes of Constant Nieuwenhuis and Yona Friedman and this can be seen in their two best known works- the Walking city and the Plug-in city. Plug-In city heavily takes its cue from the megastructure ideas with its interconnected circulation,scrambled mixed use programme and collective Fig:8 Plug in City,Schematic Sections living. It took elements from Constants new babylon,Karl Ehn’s Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna (1927) and Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles (1947-1953)- principle of connectivity and flexible and interchangeable units. Plug-in city consisted of a mega service core with removable use specific units not only to plug into the structure but allow linkages to other structures to form a city. The Plug-In City could adapt by removing and replacing components. The ability of a city to change, in space and time, was at the center of Archigram’s work. In 1964 Ron Herron conceived the idea of walking cities for a post-apocalyptic world .The idea was to replicate the increasing mobility of humans as “traveler-workers” as one rendering suggest. The structure could change its position based on climate. Various walking cities could interconnect with each other to form larger ‘walking metropolises’28. In 1966, an avant garde symposium was brewing in the quaint little Italian town of Pistoia, exhibiting works of both Superstudio and Archizoom. This was the beginning of these two collectives of architects who had recently graduated from The architecture of Florence University.Both of them worked towards questioning the modernist dogmas.29These students who made up the groups came from architecture school of milan turin and rome during a period of extreme politicization amongst students and faculty members. This shook up the existing study process with more focus on the architect as an apparatus to induce social changes than on building objects or buildings itself. Designing the structure wasn’t important anymore but of designing the environment and behaviour generated by these structures. It was more important to synthesize the relation between the structure and the user with an end goal to re-establish cultural relationship along with an economic one.30

2.2.3

The Italian Radicals

28 Archigram: Architecture Without Architecture, Simon Sadler, MIT Press, 2005, pg-14 29 Megastructure Reloaded: Visionary Architecture and Urban Design of the Sixties Reflected by Contemporary Artists, edited bySabrina van der Ley and Markus Richter (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2008), 278-279. 30 Casabella-continuità, 287 (May 1964), in which the student protests, the students’ demands, and the partially introduced reforms are meticulously documented.

2.CONTEXT

Its interesting to note how so many If design is merely an inducement to concollective came together in Italy. An sume,then we must reject design; if architecarchitect in post war Italy had limited ture is merely the codifying of the bourgeois options. There was a huge division between models of ownership and society, then we the elites who were fuelling the economic must reject architecture; if architecture and boom and the poor. Working with the elites town planning [are] merely the formalization would mean siding with the capitalists of present unjust social divisions, then we who were the reason for the large part of must reject town planning and its cities … population suffering in poverty. Even if until all design activities are aimed towards the architect would work on housings for meeting primary needs. Until then, design the working class, the real estate would must disappear. We can live without archiopen up that area for Italy’s predatory tecture - Adolfo Natalini (Defying the Avant-Garde Logic: housing speculators, thus playing into the Architecture, Populism, and Mass Culture, Spring 2011, pp. 59-76.) same capitalist system they sought to reject. Hence Archizoom and Superstudio chose complete abstinence from architecture. As they stated ‘[One] type of action is that of refusing all participation, staying isolated and apart, while continuing to produce ideas and objects so intentionally different that they are unusable by the system without becoming involved in fierce self criticism. For us, architecture is always opposed to building31’. This mutiny was first received by critics as an attempt to revive the mega-structure32 like Archigram .However there strategies closely resembled those of Dada and surrealism. The group worked towards a logical conclusion to the modernist morals that they stated as a nightmare of the 20th century architecture. Although pro consumerist Archigram is almost always associated with Archizoom and Superstudio, the collectives work instead questioned the boundless faith of Archigram on technology and automation. This is confirmed by Peter Cook reflecting on their work ‘If these things be happening simultaneously in painting, music, engineering and the rest, if Buckminster Fuller lived, then what were we doing with neatly dimensioned metal windows? Such a reaction, and the energy of the corporate audacity enabled even the shyest (Toraldo di Francia ofSuperstudio) to come out of the Expressionistic closet .’33 The Radicals, like many of their younger contemporaries were frustrated by the trivial attention to detail displayed by the modernists, specially in the post war era of youthfulness and exciting pop culture. These young pioneers instead admired the likes of Robert Venturi who insisted that architecture should resemble Disney World,which was a playground of aesthetics34. 31 32 33 34

Defying the Avant-Garde Logic: Architecture, Populism, and Mass Culture, Delft school of design journal, Volume 5 number 1, pg-60 William W Braham , Rethinking Technology A reader in architectural theory 1968 Super studio (London Routledge,2007) pp 174-183 (p 175) Peter Cook, ‘N atalini Superstudio ‘, The Architectural Review , 171 ( 1971 ), 48-51 (p48) Nigel Coates , Narrative architecture : Superstudio (New Jersey John VV1Iey & Sons, 2012),pp. 40-43 (p. 4 1)

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However irrespective of this clash of thoughts the radicals didn’t simply follow the likes of Archigram, Constant Nieuwenhuis and Yona Friedman. Instead they dismissed their particular fascination with megastructures and instead argued that architecture could solve human problems if and only the world desired nothing or through a process they termed as ‘Anti-Design’35. Archizoom proposed the No-Stop City, a theoretical project published for the first time in Casabella magazine in 1970 under the title: “City, assembly line of social issues, ideology and theory of the metropolis.” It was based on the idea that technology would overcome a centralized modern city. The plan illustrates a grid like structure subdivided by partial lines symbolizing walls that can Fig:9 No Stop City be extended infinitely through the addition of homogenous elements adapted to a variety of uses. Residential units and free-form organic shapes representing parks are placed over the grid structure, allowing for a large degree of freedom within a regulated system. It called for free space to live for everyone as campers. Superstudio in 1969 published their work the Continuous Movement which focuses on a utopian idea of a near future in which all architecture will be created with a single act, from a single design, a grid that circulates the entire globe. The resultant architecture emerges from a single continuous environment encased uniformly by technology & culture. This massive monolithic block which is superimposed over New York in the image would ultimately provide shelter for all population and the rest of the environment, built before this would remain as a material base reabsorbed by nature as a landscape. The imposing imagery was seen by the architects as a way to introduce human reasoning and communicative participation. The repetitiveness of the design is a kind of parody against the mass produced steel and glass modernist boxes all over the globe leading to loss of local culture. For Superstudio imagery was a tool to engage with the fellow architects around the world and mass culture. They preferred new mechanical equipment of the mass media: photography, film, advertising, publicity, publications, over steel glass and concrete. They sought these democratic actions to challenge the Fig:10 The Continuous Movement conservative institutions36. 35

Design Museum Touring Exhibition.

Defying the Avant-Garde Logic: Architecture, Populism, and Mass Culture, Delft school of design journal, Volume 5 number 1, pg-64-66

2.CONTEXT

2.2.4

The Metabolists in Japan

Japan went through huge economic growth and rampant urbanization between 1050s and 1960. Although it was almost burned to the ground during the war it revived dramatically. Population soared from three million to ten million in fifteen years. Large urban districts replaced the agricultural lands37.Although Tokyo went through massive development,the complicated urban pattern and labyrinth-like street system was representation of the previous old-fashioned feudal system. The city was still governed by old inadequate systems and layouts, which was low rise high density neighbourhoods and numerous zigzag alleys. The new generation of architects dreamt of a new improved city for the industrial society1. The manifesto ‘Metabolism: the Proposals for New Urbanism’ marked the arrival of The metabolist in 1960 at he World Design Conference in Tokyo. The manifesto were filled with futuristic cities which would take the space above the existing mess in the sky and spilled onto the oceans. These sky and water cities were inspired by the megastructure theory. They viewed the existing urban systems of Tokyo as cancers of the society. The metabolists believed in the notion of “city as process,”which doesn’t superimpose any grid as a structure like the modernists did but instead follows the existing city natural patterns and contours. The city instead of being a machine was viewed as an organism with different metabolical cycles. For its continuous growth some parts needed to be replaced and regenerated. For this they looked into transformable technologies like prefabrication components. The new contemporary city would have the capacity to engage in ceaseless transformations, just like any organism in the nature. These concepts were in stark contrast to conventional urban design methods which generally would have a final plan, a stable city with different zones. However the metabolist suggested that the planning shouldn’t be governed by any final destination as the city would continue to grow and evolve. Due to this continuous change in the city planning the metabolists introduced time as a fourth dimension. Their cities instead of being static and complete like in the past were open ended and fluid1. These ideas saw the culmination of many theoretical city concepts like the Marine city in 1959 and City in the air in 1961, but perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the metabolists was the realization of these concepts in concrete from like Nakagin Capsule Tower(1972), Capsule House-k(1972), Sony Tower(1975) and many others. The Metabolists almost perfectly amalgamated various thoughts and ideas which drove the avant-garde theorists in the early and mid 20th century. 37

Metabolism: Restructuring the Modern City, ZHONGJIE LIN University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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2.2.5

Chapter-Reflection

The chapter weaves through the works of the avant-garde movements of early to mid 20th century in its aim to track the development of adaptable free moving architecture throughout this period. The works of the modernists though disregarded and criticized by the avant-garde groups, seems rational and the need of that situation. The beginning of war meant that utopian experiments took a back step,while major concern shifted to availability of simple, fast and efficient liveable space for the effected people. The need of efficient structures and the technological advancements due to war, spurred the industrialized concepts of prefabrication and standardization. Although even after the war they stuck to their concept of “existenz-minimum” (minimum living),which was later widely disregarded by the avant-garde groups and architects. While they did criticize the architecture style, in my opinion they were merely adapting to the prevalent scenario of consumer society around mid 20th century. This period of the society bought about quite a lot of changes to the society,as summarised in the book 1959: The Year Everything Changed by Fred Kaplan. It was a year which was the formation of groups like Archigram and Metabolism, saw the onset of space race, microchips, computers, birth control, pop art, the new journalism, the generation gap happening and where people started asserting their needs. Based on their individual needs people wanted more choice and variable elements and not the modernist designs were all the houses had same plans and interiors. The new generation of architects broke free from this concept and spurred by the technological advancements started proposing futuristic projects while disregarding the existing city conditions, with most of these projects either hovering in space or not meant to be built at all in the case of Superstudio. Constant Nieuwenhuis and Archigram were the only ones who worked to transform their projects into reality. Both Archigrm and Constant Nieuwenhuis responded similarly through megastructures. Archigrams work was more market based whereas New Babylon was a theoretical and imaginative project. This is seen by the fact that Archigrams proposal were full of fabrication details and resembled a building kit where all the different element came together to form the megastructure. Compared to that Constant Niewenhuis project lacked details and was more of a combination of sketches and concept models like that of Superstudio and Archizoom. Both of these projects while disregarding the modernists dogma, inherited their technological elements like the interchangeability units, prefabrication techniques and the famed pilotis already used by modernists like Corbusier in his project of Unité d’habitation.

2.CONTEXT

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3.THE METABOLISTS “At a moment when the connection between architects and their ‘own’ culture has dwindled to insignificance, and the market has dissolved any connective tissue between colleagues, it seemed urgent to listen to the survivors of a group of architects who saw their country and its transformation as a project, who changed their fatherland with new tools recognizably derived from its traditions, who worked together in a strategic alliance to achieve greater prominence and credibility, in a sustained intellectual effort that mobilized a vast range of other disciplines.” -Rem Koolhaas ( Project Japan Metabolism Talks...)

3.The Metabolists

3.1 Japan - The new technocracy

Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history can be roughly divided into four generations till mid 1900s. The first period saw the advent of modernization and westernisation. This was during the Meiji Period when Japan opened its door to the west. Meiji revolution freed Japan from the clutches of the unequal Samurai oligarchy class ruling. Universities and industries came up during this time. Modern education system replaced the old apprentice system of carpenters. The architects during this time saw the use of western style as the only way to introduce modernization in Japan and hence ended up copying Baroque,Renaissance, and other European architectural styles. The second generation saw the advent of old liberalism of Taisho Democracy( 1912-1916), the war and finally the defeat. Architects now tried to incorporate traditional styles into western ones. The third generation post war saw the likes of Kenzo Tange and Arata Isozaki responding to the changes brought about due to war and doing some creative work not seen before. Kenzo Tange never did any work before the war but after the war he suddenly became quite active and ushered in the modern architecture in the 1950s. These architects also tried to introduce the theories of CIAM and Le Corbusier but this was opposed by the next generation and seen as a conflict. The fourth generation architects are some who were born during the destruction and chaos of the war. Japan was restructuring and opening its market to the west led to massive export and manufacturing boom. Japan shifted from being a primarily agrarian society to industrial one. This is when the new post-war education system was introduced and most of the pages of old textbooks depicting the classical European architecture gave way for new theories as they were deemed no longer suitable. This generation of architects was influenced by the teachings of Buddhism. The old Japanese institutions paved way for mass oriented society. Previously oppressed order broke out of their shell and revolted against the existing norms. As Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy improved the government worked to improve the value of its product in the global market. In order to become a part of the modern international culture they started drafting architects to boost the infrastructure and Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s problematic postwar urban growth.

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Kenzo Tange was one of the prominent architects working with the government. Describing the situation he writes-

“When we saw our national land turned into scorched earth in which nothing remained but a sparse scattering of burnt concrete structures. We had a dream and hope of drawing a new city as if on a blank white sheet. But we soon learned that there is a thick opaque layer of political, economic, and social realities beneath the scorched earth of each city. In fact, the cities were reconstructed not according to an urban plan but political realities.38”

Kenzo Tange collaborated with some of his students and in a way provided a platform for what would become a movement like none other seen in the east. 3.2 The Metabolists

Metabolism was founded by Kisho Kurokawa, Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, Noboru Kawazoe and Kenji Ekuan in 1960. In Greek metabole means a “change”. The Metabolists viewed technology as a natural extension to the human beings and hence played a vital role in the natural process. The metabolists in 1960 at the World Design Conference presented their ideas through their manifesto-Metabolism 1960—a Proposal for a New Urbanism. The concepts and ideas of these architects are best understood by this passage

We regard human society as a vital process, a continuous development from atom to nebula. The reason why we use the biological word metabolism is that we believe design and technology should denote human vitality. We do not believe that metabolism indicates only acceptance of a natural, historical process, but we are trying to encourage the active metabolic development of our society through our proposals39.

This part stresses that human society is a part of one continuous entity that encompasses animals and plants and technology is an extension of it that plays a vital role in all natural mechanism. This was in contrast to the western thinking that modernization was repetition of a conflict between technology and humanity. The Metabolist ideologies were in response to a changing social scenario Japan underwent through the years. There were many different conditions that shaped the ideas of the Metabolists. The social changes were fuelled by the incredible possible explosion in the 20th century which saw Japans population jump three times form 1875 to 1960s to reach 105 million. 38 39

Japan-ness in Architecture, Isozaki, Arata, and David B. Stewart, MA: MIT, 2006. Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; 1st Ed. edition (May 19, 1977), pg-27

3.The Metabolists

This growth effected the nature of cities, spaces and residential modules. The most important issue for every architect was to provide 1.6 million dwelling units at minimal cost. This was seen as a direct result of the technological advancement by the Metabolists and hence they strived to help the people master these new technology so that the population themselves could bring about a change as result of their judgement as Kisho Kirokawa said,

The architect’s job is not to propose ideal models for society, but to devise spatial equipment that the citizens themselves can operate40.

The second important social characteristic was ‘mobility’. Mobility had always been an intrinsic part of the Japanese culture as seen in a number of examples like The capital of Japan which had moved for number of times between Nara, Kyoto, Kamakura and Tokyo. Another example is that of the clan lords who would move with their household every alternate year to the capital city. In the 1900s agricultural farmers migrated to city for a few months when labour is not needed during some seasons in the villages. The third Important issue that drove their ideologies was geography of Japan. Out of a total of thirty-seven million hectares of land, only one-fifth is flat. Taking out agricultural lands, rivers, rail roads only two million hectare is left for 105 million people population in 1950s. This condition was important to know to grasp the ideas of marine city and sky city. The last important aspect was the use of wood as opposed to stones in the west. The old shrines in Japan like the Ise Shrine was made out of wood, since wood rots easily it was imperative to replace the old structure with a new one every twenty years. The Japanese have never felt that a structure should be synonymous with eternity like the west did in fact they believed “form as an intermediary conveying that spirit and philosophy to human beings” 41.

“We have in Japan an aesthetic of death, whereas you have an aesthetic of eternity. The Ise shrines are rebuilt every twenty years in the same form, or spirit; whereas (in the West) you try to preserve the actual Greek Temple, the original material, as if it could last for eternity… I can be Buddha (continually reincarnated), but you can’t be Christ (resurrected and eternal).42”

40 ibid,pg-28 41 Rethinking Technology: A Reader in Architectural Theory, William W. Braham, Jonathan A. Hale, John Stanislav Sadar, Routledge, 2007, pg-218 42

Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture – pg 10

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Combining all these issues and ideas the metabolists came up with their manifesto, at the root of which was their notion of city as an organic process. It details out ideas based on city as process, marine architecture,metabolical cycle and megastruture. The metabolists work in megastructural concept borrows heavily from the west, from the structures of Yona Friedman who was in touch with the metabolists since 1950 via Otaka 43 , Constant Niewenhuys and Fun palace project of Cedric price, although here it was a work in parallel. The metabolists work can be divided into a number of conceptual theories. Some of these works were built while others remained on the drawing board. Its important to organize these projects according to these theories to understand in depth their approach to flexible architecture. 3.3 City as Process -Floating cities In the 1950s Tokyo went through massive population boom and development. Irrespective of this the city was still governed by old inadequate systems and layouts, which was low rise high density neighbourhoods and numerous zigzag alleys. After the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, the height limit of the city was set at 31 meters. Even Fig:11 City in the Air after the war no measures were taken to improve the layout of the city which was still based on medieval concepts of complicated urban pattern and labyrinth-like streets. Arata Isozaki one of the pioneer architects of this period describe this situation as-

“Tokyo is hopeless. I am no longer going to consider architecture that is below 30-meters in height. … I am leaving everything below 30 meters to others. If they think they can unravel the mess in this city, let them try. I will think about the architecture and the city in the air above 30 meters. An empty lot of about 10 square meters is all I need on the ground. I will erect a column there, and that column will be both a structural column and a channel for vertical circulation.44”

Based on this thought Isozaki conceived the scheme “City in the Air”. While leaving the existing city as it is he planned to erect several structural cores with units attaching to it above the thirty one meter limit. The units would spread like trees ultimately attaching to different cores if needed. 43 44

Project Japan: Metabolism Talks..., Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Kayoko Ota, Taschen, 2011, pg-21 Teiji Itoh, “Moratorium and Invisibility,” in David Stewart ed., Arata Isozaki: Architecture 1960/1990, exhibition catalogue of “Arata Isozaki: Architecture 1960/1990” (Tokyo, 1991), 90.

3.The Metabolists

Fig:12 Marine City

Fig:13 Helix City

Degenerated capsules would be replaced by new ones 45.Such drastic uncompromising attitude was coherent amongst the metabolists in light of diminished usable land which took a hit during the war and rendered large parcels of land useless, add to it the consistent natural calamities. Similar to Isozaki’s scheme was Kikutake’s Marine city with the exception that it would spill over to the sea. Kikutake claimed that his Marine City could accommodate any future external growth and internal regenerations 46. Kurukawaa also came up with a simialar project- The helix city. All three projects shared the same framework of a structural core that increase to accommodate the growing population while there would be a continuous cycle of self renewal at cell level with old cells giving way for new ones and when there is no more need for a particular program those cells would be replaced by some other type of cells. The new cities in a way were open ended, incomplete and fluid in structure. This theory of city planning is unique to Japan as Kawazoe states -

“Movements within the city of Tokyo are rapid and drastic. Buildings that were here yesterday are gone today, and the morrow will surely bring more. There is probably no other city in the world where the rate of change is so startling. Within this movement exist the excitement, the joy, and the sadness of the city. And from this movement will doubtless spring the buds of a new culture47”.

45 Metabolism: Restructuring the Modern City, ZHONGJIE LIN University of North Carolina at Charlotte 46 Isozaki Arata, Arata Isozaki: Four Decades of Architecture 1998), 19. 47 Noboru Kawazoe, “A New Tokyo: In, on, or above the Sea?” in This is Japan 9 (1962): 65.

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3.4 Metabolic Cycle of cells - The capsule Once the Metabolists had devised a framework for their cities it was time to zoom into the unit level and establish a system where the cell can have flexibility of growth. Here they came up with different cycles of a city stating it the “metabolic cycles”. They divided the framework into two cycle i.e. one was stable called ‘permanent unit’ which consisted of urban infrastructure like highways, dams and harbours where as the other one was susceptible to frequent changes called the ‘transient unit’ like houses, shops and leisure items. The main objective was to use different methods of construction process for both of them. Whereas the permanent unit could be constructed in site the transient units were to be prefabricated and installed such that they could be moved and replaced whenever needed. This system was successfully employed later by Kurukawa in his Nakagin Building. SKY HOUSE, Kiyonori Kikutake: Kiyonori Kikutake hanged 3 capsules called move-nets on the underbelly eventually to remove them when the children outgrow them. The kitchen and bathroom units were both movable and replaceable. Throughout its lifetime the house changed 7 times. eg - when there was a children’s room plugged underneath the basic structure but when the children grew up and went away it was removed. The plan of the sky house was open plan system with sliding doors and windows to transform a space when needed 48. BOX TYPE APARTMENT, Kisho Kurukawa: Kisho Kurukawa conceptual design was inspired after his visit to the prefab housing factories in Leningrad, Moscow. It consists of four kinds of capsules which the occupants can vary according to their taste and need. This project was one of the first by Kurukawa where he explored prefabrication and the study from here culminated into Nakagin Housing 49. 48 49

Fig:14 Sky House

Fig:15 Box type Apartments

Project Japan: Metabolism Talks...pg-336 Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture – pg 92-93

3.The Metabolists

PUMPKIN HOUSE and CRAB CAPSULE,kenji ekuan: Kenji Ekuah followed his design principle of “democratization” of goods and beauty,with the aim of ease of accessibility. The pumpkin house has capsules that swivels around a central core a room could be added when the couple has a child. The Crab Capsule was a mobile house Perched on a hillside. It had the mobility to be linked to a truck to be towed anywhere 50.

Fig:16 Pumpkin House

CAPSULE HOUSE ‘K’,Kisho Kurukawa: Kisho Kurukawa’s summer house had 4 capsules with standardized dimensions similar to Nakagin capsule tower. Concrete prefab capsules are connected with high tension bolts to the core. The house had the flexibility for spatial change by attaching different capsules to the core 51. Fig:17 Capsule House ‘K’

3.5 Artificial Lands These projects arise due to Japans lands scarcity as Noboru Kawazoe states in 1960 in the manifesto that due to scarcity of basic stability and available space in Japan the metabolist will adapt and build its own ground! They advocated use of Pilotis to hoist these artificial ground-Liberate the ground! AGRICULTURAL CITY,Kisho Kurukawa: A grid system of pilotis over flood prone field allowing for agriculture and life to exist in case of disasters like the Ise bay typhoon which destroyed many villages 52. The project not only addresses the Fig:18 Agricultural City issue of floods but is also an attempt to incorporate sustainable ecology concept by freeing up scarce land in Japan for farming. By making the whole plan on pillar an artificial land is created leaving the ground free. 50 Project Japan: Metabolism Talks...pg-338 51 Ibid,pg-339 52 Ibid,pg-341

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3.6 Colonization These kind of buildings exhibit important design concepts of symbiosis: adding modules as a response to unpredictable economic needs in a exponentially growing framework, disappearing and reappearing on demand NITTO FOOD CANNERY, Kisho Kurukawa: This purely functional space driven by economics fits in this typology die to its additive growth. The corners are fitted with extruding steel flaps, ready to plug into newer modules 53. ODAKYU DRIVE IN RESTAURANT,Kisho Kurukawa: In this project capsule and space frame is combined as a ground hugging structure. Kurukawa replaced the columns with space frame explaining that a space frame can be extremely flexible with extension joints that plug capsules to it 54.

Fig:19 Nitto Food Cannery

Fig:20 Odakyu Drive in restaurant

TAKARA BEAUTILLION, EXPO 70,Kisho Kurukawa: The Pavilion was designed by Kurukawa for the Expo,70. A cubic space frame is fabricated using 200 prefabricated six pointed crosses. The units of the structures had open ended system which could be plugged together making it possible to have variable configurations. Once the desired grid is assembled by assembling the steel units the capsules and outer panels are attached at the interstices joined together by high tension bolts. This was one of the first time Kurukawa explored the open joint system on a four storey building. The assembly process was quite easy taking roughly 6 days to assemble the whole structure at site. The buildings open ended facade reflected the main concepts of metabolism 55.

Fig:21 Takara Beautillion

Fig:22 Takara, Site assembly

53 Ibid,pg-346 54 Ibid,pg-347 55 Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pg 102

3.The Metabolists

Robyn boyd, Australian architect while visiting the pavilion says, “Before opening day,the builders have long left it. But is it finished ? It seems so, yet it certainly looks unfinished, and this, for a Metabolist building, is the most extravagant praise” 56.

Fig:23 Takara Beautillion, Section

3.7

UNICORE-JOINT CORE SYTEM -THE NAGAKIN CAPSULE,Kisho Kurukawa

Kurukawa was one of the most celebrated architects amongst the metabolists. He conceived the term capsule architecture in 1970 while working on the design of the Takara Beautilion for 1970 world exposition in Osaka. The building was a web of steel pipe with stainless steel prefabricated cubic capsules plugged into the framework. The framework was open ended giving the building a look of incompleteness. The structure uses pre fabricated components allowing ease of assembly and installation of capsules with the whole structure Fig:24 Nakagin Capsule Tower assembled on site within six days. Nakagin building was conceptualised as a development targeting business owners and high-level employees who wanted a studio space for overnight stay as Kurukawa states

“The Capsules are housing for homo movens: people on the move.57”

Further describing his project as 1. “The new concept is aimed at abolishing the housing unit centred on the married couple or parents and children and establishing a new idea of a household which attaches importance to the encounter of spaces for individuals.58” 2. “Architecture is nothing more nor less than an aggregate of countless functions (therefore, capsules) and may be defined as a group which comes into being when a number of capsules encounter each other. Accordingly, an architectural 56 Ibid,pg 102 57 Jin Hidaka, “Nakagin Capsule Tower Building,” UIA 2011 Tokyo (International Union of Architects 2011 Congress in Tokyo) circular, 2008. 58 Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture – pg 80

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structure can be dissolved into many spaces each with different functions59. · “It is my opinion that flexibility and change hold the key to quality in massproduced building. As long as the whole structure is constituted of many units of different lengths of durability, it may still be destroyed when the individual parts of the shortest durability give out ... It also frequently happens that the capacity of the structure becomes ineffective through social changes such as a change in living standard, family structure, organizational structure and production system. The separation of units in the mass-produced structure makes it possible to match the changes and to effect an improvement.60”

The building is divided into three basic components according to their metabolic cycles- the permanent structure (two ferro concrete shafts), the moveable element (144 capsules), and service equipment (utilities).The main shaft was designed to last 60 years were as the capsules were due for replacement in 25-30 years. This was a social reasoning rather that a mechanical one looking at changing needs of the user 61. The capsules are arranged in a random pattern around the towers to suggest an ongoing open ended Fig:25 Unit Prefabrication process. The capsules were built with welded light-weight steel frames like the shipping container frames. They were tied to concrete cores using 4 high tension bolts. The interior was designed using industrial technologies with pre fitted components. Each capsule was sold at about 12300$-14500$ which was roughly the cost of a car at that time 62. The construction was two fold. One was on-site which included constructing the towers and utilities while the capsule was prefabricated and assembled in factories. Fig:26 Capsules being lifted They were hoisted up by cranes and bolted to the cores. The entire construction of the complex took a year. Although revolutionary but the Nagakin tower is due to be demolished. Its capsules which were meant to be changed every 25 years were never replaced. The tower has its share of ills, in order to stay true to its concept of each capsule

by crane

59 Ibid– pg 85 60 Ibid– pg 86 61 Noriaki Kurokawa, “Challenge to the Capsule: Nakagin Capsule Tower Building,” Japan Architect 47 (Oct. 1972), 17. 62 Kiyonori Kikutake et al, Metabolism: the Proposals for New Urbanism (Tokyo: Bijutsu shūpansha, 1960).

3.The Metabolists

being a representation of an individual,the buildings floor area ratio are way below average market standards which forced the developers to go on with the demolition for monetary gains. Agreed that the practicality of recyclable capsules were not met but the construction cycles of the building had led to conscious use of material and industrial technology. While capsule living environment inspired architects around the world in improving living conditions in high density environment. In a recent poll architects around the world voted for replacing the capsules so as to test the extent of modularization plus it provides a precedent for sustainable architecture 63. Nakagin being one of the few metabolist projects realised was far ahead in its time from its variable usability down to the unique construction system followed •

It was the worlds first capsule tower creating a new building type the capsule hotel with minimum space and supplies. It was an innovative response to urban sprawl. It also brought into international spotlight the principle of micro-living.

• The interior of the capsule was the highlight as never before had such pre-fitted components been use in practice like the integrated bathroom which made its way into industrial products. • Kurukawa used prototypical construction process, collaborating with manufacturers of shipping containers. He worked to achieve low cost solutions so that one capsule would be as cheap as a car. He introduced mobility in all sphere of he design including the construction process, transporting and transforming the modular units to the site • Collaborating with the manufacturers led him to application of welded steel frame enclosed in an insulating jacket over the more cumbersome pre cast concrete units.

Fig:27 Fixing Details of the Unit 63

“Nakagin Tower WAN Poll Result,” in http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com (Sep. 23,2005),

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3.8

BIG ROOF, EXPO 70, Kenzo Tange

Amongst the many feats and innovation of the Metabolist, the big roof was another project which the world had never seen the likes of before. At the time of execution the big roof was considered the largest single structure worldwide 64. The roof was assembled on ground and then lifted on pneumatic jacks, a feat which was never attempted before on such a grand scale. Fig:28 Big Roof, Expo70 This system of construction proved efficient and helped in reducing the cost. The roof is supported by 6 pin point structures(columns). The primary function of this big roof was to house the visitors for the expo and provide shade and shelter. It could at any given time accommodate 5000 people 65. 3.9

Japan- The Imaginative State

In his book Project Japan Metabolism Talks... Rem Koolhaas devotes a chapter explaining the importance of the imaginative state. “I believe that the last time the government and architects managed to work together was the period of the Metabolists. So I was interested in looking at where we are now compared to that time when the situation was fundamentally different. 66” After the war the Japanese government worked to project a positive image of the state so as to increase their foreign trade. To accomplish this the state took a number of initiative in the construction sector. They put up special agendas for the building industry to thrive. The government put the industry in the primary role to elevate its gross national product, with an aim to achieve a set goal of- Income doubling plan which was introduced in 1960. During this time the construction industry accounted for about 30 percent of the total gross expenditure of Japan thereby being one of the foundation of Japan’s economic boost. The Metabolist profited from this activist state due to close ties with the bureaucrat Atsushi Shimokobe , joining hands with them. The combination of utopian imagination and the government 64 65 66

Zhongjie Lin, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, 2010, pg-214-222 CAITLIN LATIMER-JONES, TOKYO: THE URBAN LABORATORY, pg-50 Project Japan: Metabolism Talks...pg-660-680

3.The Metabolists

involvement was a crucial spark to their success. The merging of architecture and bureaucracy was a huge development, Rem Koolhaas explains that the public sector is the one with vision which we haven’t had for a long time now. Comparing to the utopian idea in London of Archigram they were never realized while the industrial culture of Asia believed in them and made them possible. The Metabolists so to say was truly an amalgamation of artists, architects, bureaucrats and intellectuals. Koolhaas further explains that this was probably last moment when these two ere working together because it is impossible to find any other movement or collective working together with the state in such coherence is difficult to capture 67. In the contemporary times the client is no longer public, its private. What we need back is the vigour of the sate activism. The market economy is now the sole arbiter of almost every value which has left architecture separated from the important agenda of the public good and helps serving the private agenda and interests. Here we need to again believe in another kind of creativity, the kind where bureaucracy went hand in hand with imagination.

“We did nothing but long-term, deficit-making projects. This is today almost entirely denied. I see no one presenting such a vision. It’s deplorable how human beings are only interested in profit making projects... I tell you that once a planner begins to think about profit, the plan can never be good. Think of the great wall of China, think of the 16th-century Japanese castles. These things would never out of profit calculation. 68”- Atsushi Shimokobe

Under Atsushi Shimokobe the government shapes a number Comprehensive National Development Plans which called for inclusion of experts like Metabolists. The state and the industry joined together to oversee large scale ‘visions’ and deeply researched projects all publicly funded. The government worked relentlessly in 1961 for the plan for Tokyo expansion which led to creation of satellite cities. In 1963 the thirty one meter height restriction limit over cities was lifted. Large scale events were hosted between this time i.e.-the 1964 Olympic games and the 1970 expo. In the current climate condition this type of serious activist state nature is needed. There are a couple of projects in recent times which show how the association with the state can be a boon for the industry and for the people alike. Its important to take notice how Two of the last three Pritzker winners were praised by the jury for their work with the government for low cost sustainable housing. In 2016, Alejandro Aravena was recognized for his work Quinta – Monroy. Along with the government and the people in active 67 Ibid 68 Project Japan: Metabolism Talks...pg-660

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participation the architect designed low cost solutions for the residents of squatters. The plan was to build half of the house in the beginning and leave the rest for the people to build as their needs would arise. The structure was porous so as to allow for future expansion of the units. Alejandro Aravenahad also made his plans and details for this project public, so that anyone could refer them and make their own housing 69. The second case is that of the 2018 laureate Balakrishna. V. Doshi. His project with the government, Aranya Low Cost Housing accommodates over 80,000 residents. The project is an amalgamation of variable unit sizes around a series of courtyard and a labyrinth of internal pathways.

Fig:29 Quinta Monroy

3.10

Fig:30 Aranya Low Cost Housing

METABOLISM-The last Avant-Garde Movement and its Rippling Effects

The Metabolists launched their manifesto more than fifty years ago. The movement ended in the early 1970â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s with the oil crises of 1973/74 and later with the advent of Privatization of the construction industry. Though they did a lot of work in the sole decade they were together they could manage to build only a couple of their lofty visions. Though from the surface it feels that the collective as a group failed to achieve their vision, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still a lot that could be learnt from them. Both from their success and their mistakes. In fact just like how the metabolists criticized the modernists and learnt and added their knowledge to their failures, similarly there is a lot more to learn from metabolists mistakes and shortcomings. Even today the issues on design are similar to what metabolists faced-land scarcity, inequality, weakening infrastructure and political issues in planning systems. The metabolists used these issues as the backdrop of their futuristic organic proposals for their ideal city. Most of their proposals did not take into account the conditions of the existing city. They thought that adding infrastructure to 69 https://www.archdaily.com/10775/quinta-monroy-elemental

3.The Metabolists

the current mode would be meaningless and instead dedicated their time into a colossal organism-the megastructure that would incorporate all services and infrastructure while housing people. Even after years of research and multiple proposals this idea of the transformable megastructure never really took off. On the surface it seams that is was too futuristic for its time and the technology required was not yet there. Though that may be correct, there was one other thing that led to this failure. Metabolist over the time distanced themselves from their initial ideas of social intent and gave prominence to technology and industrial power. Metabolisms folly was not to look at the context . They did try to connect with their past traditions and their country’s context but so much was their anger towards the prevalent urban system that they chose to banish and disregard the existing and thought of building new avenues inn the sky and the sea. Sustainable Urbanist, Jonathan Smales, holds a similar belief “Random towers, no thought given to the way they meet the ground and so kill the street life ... the truly public realm - on the ground - is where society Jives and thrives. And we need society.” 70 There seemed to be no balance between the high rise and the immediate context where they merged and no conscious effort was done to figure out the friction between them, thus having no relation to existing urban fabric hence resulting in an inhumane design. The systems approach that the metabolists undertook strived to merge all in one but down the line they failed to merge ecology and social structure and a more comprehensive connection to the urban fabric. The design at the capsule level was to idealistic. The individual was enslaved in their capsules with no functions but only solitary living. This can be seen in the example of Nakagin Tower. Nakagin building has gone through decay with its unrealistic expansion scheme and maintenance problems. The building was devoid of any public space for the users the uneven stack of cube provides opportunity for break out spaces but wasn’t exploited due to the strict mass produces standard unit types. Instead of a vision for the city combining landscape, urban design, transportation and architecture the later works of Metabolists specially the expo 70 was a picture of disillusion. The structures propagated commercial concerns exploring the extent of technology in order to give a positive image of the manufacturing industry.

CAITLIN LATIMER-JONES, TOKYO: THE URBAN LABORATORY, pg-57

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The expo was a gap between idealism and consumerism there were social agendas being trumped by commercial propagandas. The belief that technology was greater and would push humans society to greater heights was the folly. It was a show of technology rather than any real local agenda. What was needed was a design of a city and not just singular megastructures. Yona Friedman describes this saying

“Cities are always beautiful. Architecture is not. Because a city is a living thing, with the variety and so on. A city has no facade, no elevation. You have only an inside. There is no object that is preponderant”. 71

In the present context, there seems to be a learning from these mistakes of handling the megastructures in projects like The Shanghai Tower by Gensler. It is an example of successful realization of a megastructure catering to high density environments. It is comprised of 9 vertical zones. Each zone is encompassed by public activities. This vertical segregation of zones acts like vertical neighbourhood creating a sense of communal identity being part of smaller zones in a big megastruture 72. Another project were the architects came up with a solution to avoid the alienation of the individual in a big colossal megastructure is the RÃ¸dovre Skyscraper in Copenhagenby MVRDV Architects. Opposite two these project types is the project undertaken by Atelier bow wow in Tokyo. They created a movement called void metabolism where the architects exploit the void and see a greater change and growth.

“Metabolists are the most important reference. Our work can be a critique of Metabolism. The situation is really different ...now the power and capital of making the city is not concentrated in one part; it is segregated and dispersed. It is very important to use this fragmented energy to make the city and bring the meaningful production of urban space.” 73

Fig:31 Shanghai Tower

Fig:32 RÃ¸dovre

Skyscraper

The project is focused in the empty spaces of the city instead of the megastructural core and capsule system, breaking down barriers that before where created by these colossal structures between private and shared public spaces. 71 Martin van Schaik, Otakar Máčel, Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations, 1956-76, IHAAU-TU, 2005, pg-34 72 CAITLIN LATIMER-JONES, TOKYO: THE URBAN LABORATORY, pg-64 73 Ibid, pg-74-75

3.The Metabolists

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4.CONCLUSION “I will never forget when we arrived for the first time in Kurokawa’s house he pointed at the skyline of Tokyo and he said it could all be gone tomorrow”. -Rem Koolhaas ( Project Japan Metabolism Talks...)

4.CONCLUSION

Japan went to war with China during the World War II and conquered Manchuria. There was a profound effect on the architects who were forced by the Japanese regime to design new cities in Manchuria. Such was the effect of being greeted by wide open spaces in comparison to the wrinkled landscape in Japan that it kick started a series of utopian speculation. Although the Metabolists formed after the World War II, the impulse and reason had already started from Manchuria. Metabolism was not a random Avant-Garde inventing with its own inspiration certain stories but an orchestrated and coherent attempt to transform a country. The manifesto from Japan looks quite relevant to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crises with rising sea water and rapid urbanization and sustainability issues at the forefront. Probably the current environmental crises is what is needed to knit the architectural community and address the issues like the Metabolists did. Koolhaas suggests that

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is only by facing frontally the challenges of the most urbanised parts of the world that urbanism can become significant again and reconnect to our own cultural processesâ&#x20AC;?.71

The idea of this text is not to criticize or elevate any architectural era or group forms. The aim is to understand how architecture changed hands across different periods of architects under different circumstances and crises. There is a lot to understand and familiarize from these groups of architects in hope that it would help the current professional scenario. Three months before I was under the impression that metabolism was all about change and transformation, but its more about the process they undertook, which can open our eyes as to what all is wrong in the profession today and to learn from them. Its important to notice how six or seven architects changed the

face of Japan and its not about the technological prowess its more about the imagination. The urgency to transform the country and make it their project using new tools which was recognizably derived from their ancient roots and traditions while working in close alliance with the state giving it greater prominence and credibility and thought. It was truly a strong manifesto the likes of which has not be seen again. The contemporary profession has lost the will to work on visionary elements while trying to achieve on immediate goals,very realistic, with very few actors working on unconventional aims and trying to engineer its implementation. Visionary work takes a long time to bear results but the profession today is under a strict time line,with project going for a maximum of four years which is a typical period of a politicians power. 71

Project Japan: Metabolism Talks...pg-660

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Today The in the 21st century, the manifesto is no more seen. Architects seems to be sceptical of it. There is a sense of guardedness, intimidated by the private interests currently dictating the market. Metabolism seems to be the last moment when architecture was a public rather than a private affair. With the government supporting them devising a project in Japan was like a military campaign to deal with the vulnerabilities i.e.- earthquake, mountain, tsunami, inventing artificial ground to build on in sea and finally reaching for the sky with extreme skyscrapers. The beginning of market economy in the late 1970’s saw the first appearance of the developer– the free agent in the world, the one who determines what happens– incredible this period saw the disappearance of -isms and movement in architecture. This disconnection between the state and the architect – taken away lots of dimensions. There is an urgent need of more participatory projects with the government and the people. What we learn from metabolism is that if there is an intelligent state with a clear agenda interested inn using architects as the driver to create better spaces it can lead to better and smarter cities. The other important thing to learn from the metabolists is their idea of continuity and there way of working in close associations with the profession and passing on their knowledge to the next generation. Participatory process was an important part of the metabolism’s working as seen in how the metabolist correspondent with the west and invited them to show their works be it the work of the master KenzoTange or the protégé twenty five year old Kisho kurukawa in front of masters like Louis Kahn, Herbert Bayer, Peter Smithson and Paul Rudolf among others. Tange launched his pupil kurukawa, so basically someone like Tange who was already quite prominent provided the platform for the next generation. This led to a kind of continuity that can be seen only in Japan. Ideas in Japan were cultivated and transferred to future generation. The passing on of the technology and knowledge is seen in Japanese architecture in the works of wooden houses by Kenzo tange to the more avant garde project like the sky house and on to architects like Toyo Ito and Sanaa. This continuity in Japanese architecture is evident. There is a continuity between the exterior and interior, between their ancient and advanced material. The ties between various generation of architects and masters and their students. This helps in maintaining the rhetoric ploy, between the old and the new maintained by the metabolists which they termed as their design ideology of 50 percent modern and 50 percent tradition.

4.CONCLUSION

In contrast, we are lonely operators in a competitive world. Rem Koolhaas in his book Project Japan.. explains how segregated the people in the profession are now. With short term projects taking prominence architects are churning out projects every other day without putting much thought behind it. Today take for example a word like iconic – the Nakagin Tower deserves the title because of the extensive research behind it. It had a manifesto, an idea, a certain degree of madness . These were pure ideas whereas today the term ‘icon’ is bandied about and applied to things that simply don’t deserve it. The fault doesn’t solely lie on the architect though, it does on the whole system where the private players are dictating the landscape. The Metabolist were one of the first star architects of Japan. Somehow in their work system they have been successful to transfer there knowledge and maintain the continuity. So much so was their effort that rem koolhaas explains “how is it that it still means something to identify somebody as a Japanese architect and how it

has become completely meaningless to talk about a French architect, an American architect, or a Belgian architect, or a Dutch architect, and so—that—we were really baffled by that. We all participate deeply in globalization but somehow some of us have abandoned our national identity and others seem to still to derive profit from it without disqualifying themselves from that participation. It’s just my observation, I think if you look at my work, it could be French, it could be Turkish, but it could never be Japanese. It’s my own. Or it could be Russian, but it could never be Japanese. Maybe that is that ongoing, continuing connection with tradition. I mean, our countries have abandoned tradition as a kind of virtue, and I think Japan has obviously resisted doing that in a kind of very clever precaution, I think, against loss of identity”.

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5.EPILOGUE “you have come here today and listened to us talk about metabolism but please don’t think you have understood please don’t think you have ubderstood anything. Ever!!”. -Kiyonori Kikutake( Interview ,Mori Museum, Japan, September,2011 )

5.epilogue

The Metabolistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manifesto though influenced by the avantgarde groups in Europe was a step away from the prevalent mechanized architecture and was a shift more towards the bio-dynamic age and ecology. The metabolists sought to stitch together tradition, technology, nature and man, while taking into account their past and creatively assuming the future. This is what Kisho Kurukawa explained as a integrated approach. The work of metabolist and their reference to natural process relates to system thinking in biology. Similar to this in the recent times we have seen many contemporary research in this sphere taking systems thinking into account with the help of digital and fabrication technology. This theory has trickled down in the profession in the name of emergent theories which is derived from the study of biological processes in order to asses how natural patterns and systems can be integrated to architectural and urban design. Its undeniable though that technology is playing a bigger role in pushing the boundaries of sustainability. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital age the rigidity of the past has been overcome by recent developments in cad softwares and advent of fabrication tools like 3d printing. Making production process more streamlined. Now the digitally driven machinery can overcome complex forms and shapes at low cost hence establishing more variety and not limiting to standardization. In the era of the metabolists the rationality of the fabrication determined the forms and shapes which has now changed drastically with the advent of digital fabrication,which has led to mass customization instead of mass production. Today we can fabricate unique shapes without compromise on efficiency or time. The thing to learn from the metabolists is their assent towards change, uncertainty and adaptation. System planning should enhance human to human affair striving for social perfection while technology should take a step back playing the role of the supporting cast. This problem is still seen in some projects which relies to much on digitally driven forms and less on contextual derivations.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY- BOOKS • Mobile: the art of portable architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, • Le Corbusier,Towards a New Architecture,Courier Corporation,2013

• Slater, D. (1997).Consumer culture and Modernity.Cambridge: Polity Press. • Risselada, van den Heuvel, 2005; Williams Goldhagen, Legault, 2000

• Dominique Rouillard, Superarchitecture: le Future de l’Architecture, 1950-1970 (Paris: de la Villette, 2004)

• Kisho Kurukawa, Each One a Hero: The Philosophy of Symbiosis, Kodansha Amer Inc; 3rd edition (August 1, 1997)

• Beyond Archigram:The Structure of Circulation, Routledge, 2013

• Whiteley N. (2002). Reyner Banham: Historian of the Immediate Future. Cambridge: MIT Press. • Design and Analysis, Bernard Leupe, 010 publishers rotterdam, 1997

• Essential le Corbusier:L’Esprit Nouveau Articles, Architectural Press • Architecture and capitalism 1845 to present,Peggy Deamer,Routledge,2014 • Disabling Domesticity, Michael Rembis, Springer, 2016

• Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future, Joseph J. Corn, Brian Horrigan, JHU Press, 1984

• Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen, Peter Hewitt Christensen, Ken Oshima, The Museum of Modern Art, 2008

• R. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon,Estate of R.B.Fuller, 2000 • Towards an Architecture,Le Corbusier, Getty Publications, 2007

• Dominique Rouillard, Superarchitecture: le Future de l’Architecture, 1950-1970 (Paris: de la Villette, 2004)

• Michel Col le, “Vers une architecture symbolique,” in Cobra, no. 1 (Brussels, 1948) • The Situationist City, Simon Sadler, MIT Press, 1998

• Constant, (Art and architecture in the Netherlands), H. van Haaren, Meulenhoff(1966) • A Guide to Archigram 196 - 74, Dennis Crompton, Princeton Architectural Press,2012

• Chalk, W. (1966). Hardware of a new world.Stoos, T. editor (1994). A Guide to Archigram:1961-74. London: Academy Editions

• Archigram: Architecture Without Architecture, Simon Sadler, MIT Press, 2005 • Megastructure Reloaded bySabrina van der Ley and Markus Richter(2008)

• William W Braham , Rethinking Technology A reader in architectural theory 1968 Super studio (London Routledge,2007)

• Japan-ness in Architecture, Isozaki, Arata, and David B. Stewart, MA: MIT, 2006

• Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; 1st Ed. edition (May 19, 1977)

• Rethinking Technology: A Reader in Architectural Theory, William W. Braham, Jonathan A. Hale, John Stanislav Sadar, Routledge, 2007

• Project Japan: Metabolism Talks..., Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Kayoko Ota, Taschen, 2011

• Zhongjie Lin, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, 2010

• Martin van Schaik, Otakar Máčel, Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations, 1956-76, IHAAU-TU, 2005

bibliography-books

BIBLIOGRAPHY- JOURNALS+ESSAYS • Lin, Zhongjie, ‘Nakagin Capsule Tower: Revisiting the Future of the Recent Past’, Journal of Architectural Education, 65 (2011), pp.13-32

• Maki, Fumihiko, ‘Investigations in Collective Form’, 1964

• Pernice, Raffaele, ‘Images of the Future from the Past: The Metabolists and the Utopian

Planning of the 19605’, JCEA, 8 (2014), pp. 761- 71 <http:l/dx.doi.org/10.17265/1934-7359>

• Pernice, Raffaele, ‘Metabolism Reconsidered. Its Role in the Architectural Context of the

World’, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building, 3 {2004), pp. 357-63 <https://www.aca-

demia.edu/14 77295/Metabolism _ Reconsidered._lts _ Role_in the_Architectural_ Context_ of_ the_ World>

• Richards, J.M., ‘Expo 70’, Architectural Review, August 1970, p. 67 • Richthofen, Aurel von, ‘Metabolism: The 3 Ms’, Pidgin Magazine,2007

• Sasaki, Takabumi, ‘A Passage through the Dys-Topia of Expo ‘70’,Japan Architect, 1970 • Tange, Kenzo, ‘The Expo ‘70 Master Plan and Master Design’, JapanArchitect, June 1970 • Marcatrè, 26/29, (December 1966)

• Constant Nieuwenhuys, “New Babylon/An Urbanism of the Future.” • Casabella-continuità, 287 (May 1964)

• Defying the Avant-Garde Logic: Architecture, Populism, and Mass Culture, Delft school of design journal, Volume 5 number 1

• Peter Cook, ‘N atalini Superstudio ‘, The Architectural Review , 171 ( 1971 )\ • Design Museum Touring Exhibition

• Metabolism: Restructuring the Modern City, ZHONGJIE LIN University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Teiji Itoh, “Moratorium and Invisibility,” in David Stewart ed., Arata Isozaki: Architecture 1960/1990, exhibition catalogue of “Arata Isozaki: Architecture 1960/1990” (Tokyo, 1991)

• Isozaki Arata, Arata Isozaki: Four Decades of Architecture 1998

• Noboru Kawazoe, “A New Tokyo: In, on, or above the Sea?” in This is Japan 9 (1962) • Jin Hidaka, “Nakagin Capsule Tower Building,” UIA 2011 Tokyo (International Union of Architects 2011 Congress in Tokyo) circular, 2008

• Noriaki Kurokawa, “Challenge to the Capsule: Nakagin Capsule Tower Building,” Japan Architect 47 (Oct. 1972)

• Kiyonori Kikutake et al, Metabolism: the Proposals for New Urbanism (Tokyo: Bijutsu shūpansha, 1960)

• CAITLIN LATIMER-JONES, TOKYO: THE URBAN LABORATORY

• The Changing of the Avant-garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman

Collection, Terence Riley, Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), The Museum of Modern Art, 2002

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BIBLIOGRAPHY- WEBSITES/DOCUMENTARIES • “Nakagin Tower WAN Poll Result,” in http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com (Sep. 23,2005), • https://www.archdaily.com/10775/quinta-monroy-elemental • https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3225493/ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqL37AVuntA

• http://archeyes.com/plan-tokyo-1960-kenzo-tange/

• https://failedarchitecture.com/a-year-in-the-metabolist-future-of-1972/ • http://oma.eu/lectures/project-japan-metabolism-talks • http://www.architakes.com/?p=1441

• http://codedsapce.blogspot.com/2010/05/personal-opinion-about-failure-of.html

• http://architecturewithoutarchitecture.blogspot.com/2012/12/living-city-exhibtion-in-london. html

• http://www.maxkoehler.com/2017/dissertation/ • https://xjtlu.academia.edu/RaffaelePernice

• http://www.iftf.org/future-now/article-detail/the-architecture-of-the-future/

• https://thecharnelhouse.org/2011/09/09/industrialism-and-the-genesis-of-modern-architecture/ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UhGEaw82Z0 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20rYUAeiL10

• https://www.fastcodesign.com/3068361/lessons-from-a-radical-1970s-architecture-collective • https://jkehl.com/metabolism/

• https://medium.com/architecture-landscape-urban-design/metabolism-of-identity-784a55e1c2e8 • http://architecturalmoleskine.blogspot.com/2011/10/metabolist-movement.html

bibliography- websites/DOCUMENTARIES

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS • Fig:1

Domino house by Le Corbusier, https://www.dezeen.com/2014/03/20/opinon-jus tin-mcguirk-le-corbusier-symbol-for-era-obsessed-with-customisation/

• Fig:2 Baukasten im Großen, Walter Gropius,and Adolf Meyer, Weimar, 1922, http://www.proholz.at/zuschnitt/67/der-container/

•

Fig:3 Rietveld Schröder House, https://in.pinterest.com/pin/225672631311384984/

•

Fig:4

Dymaxion House by Buckminster Fuller, https://www.archdaily.com/401528/ad-classics-the-dy maxion-house-buckminster-fuller/51f0501ee8e44e94e500013b-ad-classics-the-dymaxion-house- buckminster-fuller-image

•

Fig:5

New Babylon Model, https://medium.com/@WALLACE_JOSHUA_2895401/constant-nieuwenhuys-new-baby lon-central-station-bdada4787e6b

•

Fig:6 Spatial City project, Perspective by Yona Friedman, https://www.moma.org/collection/ works/104695

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Fig:7

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Fig:8 Plug in City,Schematic Sections, https://www.archdaily.com/399329/ad-classics-the-plug-in- city-peter-cook-archigram?ad_medium=gallery

•

Fig:9

No Stop City,Archizoom, https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/archizoom-retrospec tive/

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Fig:10

The Continuous Movement,Superstudio, http://arch122superstudio.blogspot.com/2012/06/continu ous-monument-architectural-model_15.html

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Fig:11

City in the Air,Arata Isozaki, https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/258464466085164247/

•

Fig:12

Marine City, Kiyonori Kikutake, https://www.flickr.com/photos/transphormetic/231450730

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Fig:13 Helix City, Kisho Kurukawa, http://villainslair.net/?p=263

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Fig:14 Sky House, Kiyonori Kikutake, https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/318277898658849582/

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Fig:15 Box type Apartments, Kisho Kurukawa, https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/339740365609811951/

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Fig:16 Pumpkin House, Kenji Ekuah, http://archeyes.com/furniture-designs-that-turn-into-

Walking City Project, Archigram, https://www.archdaily.com/786504/yesterdays-future-vision ary-designs-by-future-systems-and-archigram

cities-kenji-ekuan/

•

Fig:17

Capsule House ‘K’, Kisho Kurukawa, https://78.media.tumblr.com/f5971e25621f30291e1b044940da d5a8/tumblr_neevuoFHjg1r56udmo4_r1_1280.jpg

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Fig:18 Agricultural City, Kisho Kurukawa, http://socks-studio.com/2015/02/24/agricultur al-city-by-kisho-kurokawa-1960/

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Fig:19

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Fig:20 Odakyu Drive in restaurant, Kisho Kurukawa, https://in.pinterest.com/ pin/564920346982336511/?lp=true

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Fig:21

Takara Beautillion, Kisho Kurukawa, https://dreamingofy2k.tumblr.com/post/166187588501/na kagincapsuletower-kurokawa-kisho-takar

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Fig:22

Takara Beautillion, Kisho Kurukawa, Site assembly, Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Archi tecture, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; 1st Ed. edition (May 19, 1977), pg-103

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Fig:23 Takara Beautillion, Kisho Kurukawa, Section, Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Archi tecture, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; 1st Ed. edition (May 19, 1977), pg-101

Nitto Food Cannery, Kisho Kurukawa, http://www.kisho.co.jp/page/195.html

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS • Fig:24

Nakagin Capsule Tower,Kisho Kurukawa, http://amanecemetropolis.net/nak

• Fig:25

Nakagin Capsule Tower,Kisho Kurukawa,Unit Prefabrication , https://

• Fig:26

Nakagin Capsule Tower,Kisho Kurukawa, Capsules being lifted by crane, https://

• Fig:27

Nakagin Capsule Tower,Kisho Kurukawa, Fixing Details of the unit, https://

agin-capsule-tower/

thethinkingarchitect.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/nakagin-capsule-tower-revisit ing-the-future-of-the-recent-past/

• Fig:28 Big Roof, Expo70, https://twitter.com/fisurazine/status/881928635636211713 • Fig:29

Quinta Monroy, Alajendro aravena, https://www.archdaily.com/10775/quin ta-monroy-elemental

• Fig:30 Aranya Low Cost Housing, B.V.Doshi, https://dome.mit.edu/han

dle/1721.3/47997

list of illustrations

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