Modern Japanese buildings ‘disappear’ in cities: the weakening of the building’s sense of existence

Abstract

Japanese architecture began to flourish in the 1980s, after a period of postwar stagnation. During this period, postmodernism swept over Japanese architecture, flooding the country with unusual constructions. Kengo Kuma, a young, fourth-generation Japanese architect studying at Columbia University in New York at the time, constructed the striking M2 building in 1990. However, following the collapse of the bubble economy and the impact of natural disasters, widespread criticism of the M2 building’s extreme and intense style rendered him unable to accept projects in Tokyo for over a decade. Kengo Kuma found respite in Japan’s rural townships to analyze and reflect on the excesses of the bubble-driven Japanese city, resulting in his philosophy of ‘Defeated Architecture.’ This essay seeks to establish a connection between the economic, social, and political circumstances of Japanese architecture during and after the economic boom of the 1980s and the career, thoughts, and work of architect Kengo Kuma. This establishes the study of Kengo Kuma’s philosophy, theory, and design processes that are grounded in context.

Keywords

• Bubble economy
• Kengo Kuma
• architectural design
• defeated architecture
• particilizing
• Samuel Adu-Gyamfi, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology College of Arts and Social Science, Ghana