This series will explore four facets of contemporary Japanese architecture: theory, technology, city, and humans. It will focus on the period between the two Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and 2021, and span five generations of architects since Kenzo Tange. Through lectures by instructors and discussions with the most influential Japanese architects, the course will trace the development of contemporary Japanese architecture and will consider its future direction.
In the first course, we will focus on one of the four facets of Japanese architecture: theory. The theory portion will feature discussions with architects who played a significant role in influencing the development of theoretical frameworks that contributed to guiding contemporary Japanese architecture. The second course, the technology portion, will focus on works by architects who explored the use of technology—from techniques used for traditional crafts to computational processes—as a vehicle for their investigations into the conceptualization and production of architecture.
The third course on “City” will review the works of those architects who have attempted to conceptualize cities through their architecture. We will look back over the last half century, when the urban environment has changed dramatically with the collapse of traditional communities and population decline, and examine future issues.
The fourth course on “Humans” will review the works of those architects who have attempted to conceptualize humans through their architecture. How has architecture transformed in the turbulent half-century of rapid urban change, informatization, and globalization? And what has happened to the humans that architecture was supposed to have supported? Together with the architects, we will consider these questions.
