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MANILA, Philippines - Who is the Japanese architect known for his iconic designs like theKuala Lumpur International Airport and is one of the founders of the Metabolist Movement?
He was born in Kanie, Aichi on April 8, 1934 and studied architecture at Kyoto University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1957.
Under the supervision of Kenzo Tange, he attended the University of Tokyo and received a master’s degree in 1959.
He was a man ahead of his time. In 1958, he predicted a transition from the Age of Machine to the Age of Life, and continuously utilized key words of life principles as metabolism (metabolize and recycle), ecology, sustainability, symbioses, intermediate areas (ambiguity) and Hanasuki (Splendor of Wabi) in order to call new styles to be implemented by society.
With colleagues, he cofounded the Metabolist Movement in 1960. It was a radical Japanese avant-garde movement pursuing the merging and recycling of architecture styles within an Asian context. The movement was very successful, peaking when its members received praise for the Takara Cotillion Beautillion at the Osaka World Expo in 1970. The group was dismantled shortly thereafter.
The founder and president of an architectural firm named after him in 1962, he applied many of these principles in his work. His architecture focused on keeping traditional Japanese concepts invisible, especially materiality, impermanence, receptivity and detail. He would specifically refer to these four factors in his discussions of a new wave Japanese architecture.
His early works include the Sony Tower in Osaka, Central Plaza 1 in Brisbane, Australia, the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo, the Nagoya Art Museum, and the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.
Other groundbreaking works include the Okinawa Prefectural Government Headquarers, the Louvain, La Neuve Museum in Belgium, Pacific Tower in France, the Lane Crawford Place in Singapore and the new wing of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. His design for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia was futurist complex penetrated by a rain forest.
During his latter years, he designed the Toyota Stadium, the Singapore Flyer, and designed the master plan of Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana.
He was later associated with a movement called Symbiosis, which championed an architectural synthesis of global cultural influences and viewed buildings as living entities that could enrich human beings.
During his lifetime, he received numerous awards. These include the Gold Medial from the Academie d’Architecture from France in 1986, the Richard Neutra Award in 1988, the Dedalo-Minosse International Prize for the KL international Airport in 2004, the Walpole Medal of Excellence from the UK in 2005, and the International Architecture Award for the Chicago Anthenaeum Museum in 2006.
The Art Institute of Chicago named their architectural gallery after him in 1994, and he was named an honorary fellow by the Royal Institute of British Architects, an honorary member of the Union of Architects in Bulgaria, and received the Shungdu Friendship Award from China in 2005.
He passed away in Tokyo in October 2007. In 2008, the Green Institute under his name was founded in his honor.
Last week’s question: Who is the English architect whose works in performing art centers, art galleries, museums, and libraries have gained international renown? Among these are the Lowry Performing and Visual Arts Center in England and the British Embassy in Berlin?
Answer: Michael Wilford
Winner: Leonardo Aran of Binangonan Rizal.
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