Japanese Architecture Since the Early 1980s

Professor Bognar, ARCH 577 BB, 210A Architecture, Tu 4:00pm-6:50 pm
3 or 4 hours; #30038

The "Bubble" and Beyond

The course will investigate the complex, but by all means most remarkable development of contemporary Japanese architecture and urbanism in the past twenty-five or so years. This period in Japan was marked first by an unprecedented economic boom, and then an equally unprecedented recession which has been severe and long. Both of these have had a very profound impact on the course of architecture and urbanization.

Moreover, these more than two decades have also coincided with major changes in Japanese society prompted by the shift from an industrial to an information based society. Information and media technologies along with the fast progress in construction materials have further influenced architecture, which has enjoyed, and continue to do so, a worldwide reputation, while the Japanese city, lead by Tokyo, has earned broad admiration both within and beyond the country.

Leaving behind the ingrained precepts of modernism, a movement which exhausted itself by the mid or late 1960s, Japanese architects have explored a broad spectrum of innovative directions not only to find exits from the impasse of the previous paradigm, but also to envision a new one with design solutions better in tune with the accelerated times.

The course with closely examine the architectural (as well as urban) theories as well as the actual works of ten Japanese architects, such as Tadao Ando, Hiroshi Hara, Itsuko Hasegawa, Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Fumihiko Maki, Nikken Sekkei Ltd., Shin Takamatsu, Yoshio Taniguchi, and Riken Yamamoto, whose activities have left the most significant imprint on the architectural landscape of Japan.

The course is limited to ten graduate students.