Andrew Barrie - The Japan Times

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Andrew Barrie

For Andrew Barrie's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Nov 5, 2003

Freed architecture

Rem Koolhaas, recently awarded the 2003 Praemium Imperiale for architecture, is prolific to the point of relentlessness. Looking at the stream of bold, innovative and aggressively hip buildings Koolhaas' Rotterdam-based office has produced, one well-known Japanese architect was prompted to liken him to a baseball pitching machine. Intended as a compliment, the analogy reflects the intensity and perfect control that are characteristic of Koolhaas' work.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jun 15, 2003

Home of conspicuous construction

It is hardly news that Prada spent a lot of money on their new flagship store in Tokyo's swish Aoyama district. The real surprise is what they got for it.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Apr 23, 2003

Shaking up the cityscape

Tadao Ando is not afraid to say what he thinks. More than that, when the Osaka-based architect has an idea about what life in cities should be like, he isn't afraid to radically alter the world to make his visions a reality. After the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, he felt that it was important that people in the Kobe area (where many of his buildings are located) did not forget what had been lost. Accordingly, he helped create an organization that planted more than 300,000 trees in the area. Each spring the entire district is now transformed by white blossoms, which serve as a living memorial to the lives and the history that perished in the quake.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Nov 24, 2002

Start at the base and work your way up

Jon Jerde is an architect, and he wants to change your life. The world has never been short of architects with ambitions to create a bold new future (designed in their signature style), but Jerde has actually done it -- it has been calculated that the buildings Jerde has designed collectively draw more than a billion visitors a year.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Nov 3, 2002

A pier without peer

The Yokohama International Passenger Terminal on Osanbashi Pier is slotted into a line of redevelopments along the waterfront -- a smorgasbord of ambitious architecture ranging from renovated century-old warehouses to the Blade Runner-esque towers of the Minato Mirai 21 complex.

CULTURE / Art

Sep 1, 2002

Postmodern -- or what?

Until the time of our great-great-grandparents, each region's architectural style was largely defined by its particular culture, climate and natural resources. Materials and construction techniques developed only very slowly, if at all. With all their buildings being built the same way, cities and towns naturally developed a strong sense of aesthetic unity.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Sep 1, 2002

Tokyo's blueprints of th past - and the future

Tokyo is an ugly city. Sure, it may not suffer from the smog of Mexico City, be blighted by Johannesburg-style shantytowns or possess Houston's plate-glass vacuity. Nonetheless, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, World War II bombing and subsequent construction booms have combined to obliterate the "Garden City" that was Edo, and strip modern Tokyo of the historical character and scenic splendor that conventionally define a beautiful city.

COMMUNITY

Mar 17, 2002

Cathedrals of commerce, towers of power

The tall building radically reshaped the modern city, thrusting it upward in the decades around the turn of the 20th century, just as the automobile pushed it outwards between the world wars. The skyward trend began in the 1890s, when high-rise commercial buildings began replacing the six- and seven-story structures that lined the downtown streets of U.S. cities, overtaking churches as those cities' tallest buildings and as the key reference points on the skyline. The symbolism is (and was) clear -- in America, a nation founded by devout pilgrims, commerce was overtaking faith as the pivot of urban life.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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