'Impossible Architecture': Consider the impossible — find the visionaries
From Vladimir Tatlin's "Monument to the Third International" (1920) to Zaha Hadid's plan for the New National Stadium of Japan, "Impossible Architecture: The Architects' Dreams" eulogizes aborted artistic conceptions — some that technically would have been possible, others purposely preposterous.
'Japan-ness in Architecture': Arata Isozaki and the search for a national identity
In "Japan-ness in Architecture," architect and theorist Arata Isozaki chronicles the search for a Japanese identity through design. Isozaki begins by outlining Japan's architectural discourse in the 20th century, in which he played a key role. He writes honestly about his contemporaries who grappled ...
Taking flight with Arata Isozaki
I once almost got to interview the architect Arata Isozaki, but it was canceled due to his ill health at the time. No doubt a consideration in the cancelation was the fact that interviews with him can go to extreme lengths, as Isozaki has ...
Tokyo's 'fayrest that ever was'
Scene 1: Late evening, Sept. 23, 1990, at the tiny Greek amphitheater, Shin-Okubo, Tokyo 'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ... " Dozens of actors, actresses, staff, and hangers-on are sitting on the steps, drinks in hand, watching a distinguished British actor perform ...
Shigeru Ban: 'People's architect' combines permanence and paper
Generally speaking, an architect’s style is defined by particular forms or shapes. There’s Frank Lloyd Wright’s prominent horizontal lines, for instance; Le Corbusier’s simple white boxes; or, more recently, the deliberately abstract masses of Frank Gehry — of Guggenheim Bilbao fame.
Arata Isozaki: astonishing by design
If the entire Japanese architectural fraternity was one big royal family, then Arata Isozaki would be a king approaching the end of a long and glorious reign. The "pedigree" of this majestically silver-maned 76-year-old is, quite simply, faultless. Architecturally speaking, Isozaki's "father" was the great Kenzo ...
