O Y K O T . 0 1 . 8 2 . 1 1 . 1 8 1 e 0 l 2 o k s a r e t V s n u k r n fo g i s e d og
24. - 25. 10. 2018
26.10. 2018
27.10. 2018
28.10. 2018
29.10. 2018
30.10. 2018
31.10. 2018
01. - 02. 11. 2018
MORNING HOUSES morning walks 31.10 - 01.11 2018 06:00 - 08:00 the street Hanazoni dori and surrounding streets, Asakusa
ARCHITECTURAL NOTES
Kuwait Embassy, Kenzo Tange 1966. Metabolism meets brutalism. Sitting on a small hill the building makes a pretty dramatic appearance. As often in Tokyo you can’t really see the building from a distance - suddenly they are there in some small street. This one might even be in danger (as so many other fine structures here) as a plan for redevelopment has been presented.
The From First building in Ayoama. A fine kind of down-to-earth metabolism by the architect Takeo Kamiya from the office Kazumasa Yamashita. A mixed use business structure with shops, like a tiny city within the city. Designed 1972-1974, finished 1976.
Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall, aka Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, is a music venue located in the Ueno Park. Kunio Maekawa designed this marvel 1961 adjacent to the 1959 Museum of Western Art by Le Corbusier. Maekawa was working in the office of Le Corbusier 1930-1932 and brought the architectural language back to Japan
Having enjoyed the sculptural delights of the Bunka Kaikan you can walk 190 meters to enter the more sobering surroundings of the 1959 Museum of Western Art. It houses an art collection that during WW2 was kept in France. At the return to Japan it was proposed that a french architect built it a home, and so he did, with all his architectural tools.
The private home of Kunio Maekawa, designed by himself 1941. After the years with Le Corbusier and the return to Japan, Maekawa worked 5 years together with Antonin Raymond who was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright (Japan is the only country outside the US where Frank Lloyd Wright came to build) and in this small yet refined house Maekawa combines east and west, tradition and modernism.
A closing chapter on Frank Lloyd Wright in Tokyo is this officebuilding from 1963 for the Women’s Society just opposite of Wright’s1921 Girl’s School. This building, however, is by the architect Endo Raku, son of Arata Endo, who worked closely together with Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan. Young Endo worked with his father until Arata’s death in 1951. Finally having saved enough money to travel Endo Raku arrived at Taliesin (Wright’s studio in the US) 1957, and he was the last japanese apprentice to share the drafting room with Wright. This building is a quiet syntheis of the japanese love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright
The lost world - almost. This is the remaining wing of the Hotel Okura. The original part, built 1962, was demolished 2917 but even this this part, added 1973, is praised for the unique mix between mid-century international style and japanse arts and craft. Quiet and expensive. Architect Yoshiro Taniguchi.
Continuing on to another even more quiet and civilized spot in Tokyo: The International House, constructed by a trio of prominent modernists 1955 Kunio Maekawa, Junzo Sakakura and Junzo Yoshimura, and with an addition 1976 based on a Maekawa drawing. It’s a house for members (who walk around silently on plush carpets) but still open to the public as it has a tea room and a restaurant. The garden is created by a legendary 7. generation Kyoto gardener who still manages the plants.
Komazawa Olympic Park, Built as part of the olympic games facilities 1964, including the iconic control tower. Architect Yoshinobu Ashihara. When we visited the place the annual ramen festival took place.
The Nagakin Capsule Tower is still standing! There are many rumours surrounding this legendary structure from the era of metabolist architecture. Maybe it will stay, maybe it will disappear. In it’s nature metabolist architecture isn’t really meant to be permanent, it should flow organically with time. Completed in 30 days in 1972. Architect Kisho Kurokawa
Not far from the Nagakin Capsule Tower in the Ginza district you will see the 1967 Shizuoka Press and Broadcast Center by Kenzo Tange. It is his first realization of the thoughts he developed in the 1950’s about metabolism in architecture. The building towers over a highway and a railway bridge in the middle of a big crossing, standing on a tiny piece of land.
New Sky Building No. 3, Shinjuku. Recently restored from a derelict state this rocket from 1972 now shines again. The architect Yoji Watanabe was supposedly born on a US navy ship and uses techniques from submarine building in this metabolist high rise housing complex. We were brave and entered without asking permission and could enjoy the stunning view
Vera skole for kunst & design 2020 mogens ulderup