Noriaki Kurokawa

Kurokawa, Kisho Noriaki (1934– ). Japanese architect and prominent force in Metabolism, his buildings and publications have been influential. He was among the first Japanese architects to question the basis of the International Modern Movement, and promoted the Metabolists' argument that life-sciences had more relevance to architecture than the Machine Aesthetic. The Nagakin Capsule Tower, Tokyo (1972), demonstrated his concept of sophisticated buildings incorporating the latest technology yet capable of being changed. He is active in fusing Eastern and Western cultural currents, and his search for an inter-cultural architecture has led him to an eclecticism ranging from the Neo-Classical extension to the Japanese Embassy, Berlin (1988), to the gigantic Pacific Tower, La Défense, Paris (1991). Other works include Fukuoka Bank Head Office, Fukuoka (1975), the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (1978), the Saitama Museum of Modern Art, Urawa (1982), the Wacoal Kojimachi Building, Tokyo (1984), the Museum of Modern Art, Nagoya (1987), the City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (1988), and the City Museum of Photography, Nara (1992). His writings have been influential.

Bibliography

Bognar (1985);
Chaslin (1988);
Drew (1972);
Kalman (1994);
Guiheux et al. (1997);
Kurokawa (1977, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1995a, 1995b, 1996, 2000);
Sharp (ed.) (1998, 2001, 2002)

Kisho Noriaki Kurokawa , 1934-2007, Japanese architect, grad. Tokyo Univ. (Ph.D., 1964). The youngest founding member of the group of architects known as Metabolists, who perceived architectural works as living organisms, Kurokawa provided for the growth or change of his buildings with the addition or subtraction of modular units. The Nakagin Capsule Tower, Ginza, Tokyo (1972), Sony Tower, Osaka (1976), and National Ethnological Museum, Osaka (1977), are among the most noted of his early designs. Kurokawa was later associated with the Symbiosis movement, which also sees buildings as living things and advocates a synthesis of worldwide cultural influences in architecture. His other major commissions include the Nagoya City Art Museum (1987), Japanese-German Center, Berlin (1988), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (1989), Chinese-Japanese Youth Center, Beijing (1990), Pacific Tower, Paris (1992), Republic Plaza, Singapore (1995), New Wing of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (1998), and the National Art Center, Tokyo (2005). His sole project in the United States is the Sporting Club at the Illinois Center, Chicago (1990). Kurokawa's best-known work is probably the prize-winning Kuala Lumpur International Airport (1998), a futurist complex built around a rain forest. Also an influential writer and theorist, he was the author of numerous books, e.g., Metabolism in Architecture (1977), Intercultural Architecture (1991), and The Philosophy of Symbiosis (1994).