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Product Description
Product Description
This is a new architecture for postwar Japan. Once there was a nation that went to war, but after they conquered a continent their own country was destroyed by atom bombs...then the victors imposed democracy on the vanquished. For a group of apprentice architects, artists, and designers, led by a visionary, the dire situation of their country was not an obstacle but an inspiration to plan and think - although they were very different characters, the architects worked closely together to realize their dreams, staunchly supported by a super-creative bureaucracy and an activist state...after 15 years of incubation, they surprised the world with a new architecture - Metabolism - that proposed a radical makeover of the entire land...Then newspapers, magazines, and TV turned the architects into heroes: thinkers and doers, thoroughly modern men. Through sheer hard work, discipline, and the integration of all forms of creativity, their country, Japan, became a shining example...when the oil crisis initiated the end of the West, the architects of Japan spread out over the world to define the contours of a post-Western aesthetic. Between 2005 and 2011, architect Rem Koolhaas and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist interviewed the surviving members of Metabolism, together with dozens of their mentors, collaborators, rivals, critics, proteges, and families. The result is a vivid documentary of the last avant-garde movement and the last moment that architecture was a public rather than a private affair.
About the Author
Rem Koolhaas is a co-founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Having worked as a journalist and script writer before becoming an architect, in 1978 he published Delirious New York. In 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA and established connections of contemporary society and architecture. Amongst many international awards and exhibitions he received the Pritzker Prize (2000) and the Praemium Imperiale (2003). Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a curator, critic and historian. He is currently Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Obrist is the author of The Interview Project, an extensive ongoing project of interviews.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Tells the fantastic story of the "last avant-garde in architecture", the deeply influential Japanese metabolism group through a series of interviews putting the movement into context. The interviews are done mostly by Koolhaas and Obrist.
Supplemented with pictures of the relevant projects, it tells the grand story of metabolism in and excellent and interesting way.
Sometimes, you wish for more facts about specific projects. There are also some shortcomings in graphical design i.e. hard to read texts due to color and placement close to the spine. This and cheap paper stops it from being a five.
However, it is an absolute must for anyone interested in Japanese architecture.
Supplemented with pictures of the relevant projects, it tells the grand story of metabolism in and excellent and interesting way.
Sometimes, you wish for more facts about specific projects. There are also some shortcomings in graphical design i.e. hard to read texts due to color and placement close to the spine. This and cheap paper stops it from being a five.
However, it is an absolute must for anyone interested in Japanese architecture.
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent book - an incredibly well researched and indepth analysis of Metabolism. It is refreshingly full of plans, diagrams, photos and archive material (all clearly laid out). There is also an enjoyable commentary from Rem Koolhaas alongside the interviews (including a very personal and heartfelt review of Kisho Kurokawa by Charles Jecks) - I thoroughly recommend this.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A neccessary book for the blasé sons and daughters of the architectural noughties
28 Feb 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A great collected history of a truly radical movement caught into, and trying to steer,a rapidly changing society.
This book is neccessary for architects right now: The thorough archiving and indexing of an avant-garde movement reminds us that architects once fearlessly and courageously embraced the transformational qualities of architecture. It really makes you lament the absence of such a strong contemporary agenda to react to-I can't imagine all those pritzker prize winners actually consolidating their respective intelligence into a cohesive idea like the metabolists did.
It's a massive and dense volume though-I havent been able to finish it yet. It is very well illustrated and is bound to provide inspiration, almost too dense to go through all at once.
This book is neccessary for architects right now: The thorough archiving and indexing of an avant-garde movement reminds us that architects once fearlessly and courageously embraced the transformational qualities of architecture. It really makes you lament the absence of such a strong contemporary agenda to react to-I can't imagine all those pritzker prize winners actually consolidating their respective intelligence into a cohesive idea like the metabolists did.
It's a massive and dense volume though-I havent been able to finish it yet. It is very well illustrated and is bound to provide inspiration, almost too dense to go through all at once.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
a thorough beauty
27 Feb 2012
Format:Paperback
an incredible, ambitious collection of all things metabolist- materials from every possible source from friends, lovers ti colleagues from the past and present. a great handbook for aspiring and practicing architects to see how one generation succeeded in an architecture/ media/ policy/ masterplanning mash up that still holds as one of the most legendary group efforts to this day.
Long Overdue
17 May 2012
Format:Paperback
The Metabolist movement in Japan seemed consigned to the dustbin of history until resurrected in this amply illustrated book that gives the movement a greater width and breadth. Not surprising to see Rem Koolhaas behind the project, as his work owes a substantial debt to this movement. More importantly, Koolhaas provides wonderful interviews and insights on its leading proponents, including the dapper Kisho Kurokawa, who gave us such novel projects as the Nagakin Capsule Tower, downsizing units to less than 10 square meters (100 square feet).
Of course, a movement like this could have only been spawned in Japan, which was looking for new ways to deal with the post-war housing shortage. Kenzo Tange was the godfather of the movement, and would have a major impact on international architectural design. The movement also gave us Arata Isozaki and Fumihiko Maki, among other leading architects. While the designs looked very futuristic at the time, they were based on traditional planning principles. I would have liked to see a bigger format like Taschen has done on other topics, but the wealth of material will reward those interested in Metabolism.
Of course, a movement like this could have only been spawned in Japan, which was looking for new ways to deal with the post-war housing shortage. Kenzo Tange was the godfather of the movement, and would have a major impact on international architectural design. The movement also gave us Arata Isozaki and Fumihiko Maki, among other leading architects. While the designs looked very futuristic at the time, they were based on traditional planning principles. I would have liked to see a bigger format like Taschen has done on other topics, but the wealth of material will reward those interested in Metabolism.
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