Japanese Architecture In The 20th Century

16 Pages 3948 Words

Once pariahs in the Tokyo architecture world, Kathryn Findlay and Eisaku Ushida are now being embraced — at least by some — as its only hope. by Adam Davidson During those walks — as they compared their responses to the parks — it became obvious just how divergent their philosophies were. They began to develop a new way of thinking about architecture, one that incorporated both Findlay's attraction to the irregular appearance of the gardens and Ushida's love of their artful formalism. This new approach has resulted in some of most original, beautiful, and functional buildings in Tokyo, where their practice is now based. In a remarkably eclectic city, the forms, the materials, and the site plans of their houses bear no resemblance to those of other structures. Among the clean Modernist lines and planes of their neighbors, Ushida Findlay houses twist and bulge bizarrely. In a country where every architect hopes to create an ideal form, Findlay and Ushida prefer to blur the distinctions between their creations and the natural landscape."They're special," says Peter Cook, chairman of architecture at the Bartlett School in London, and Findlay's former tutor at the Architectural Association (AA). "They may be the most special architects of their generation. They're getting quite a lot of mileage in England — they're getting onto competition lists, into publications, they pull in large crowds at lectures." Along with the praise has come work in Britain. They recently finished designing an apartment building for the Homes for the Future project, part of Glasgow 1999 — the central focus of the city's yearlong celebration of architecture and design — which is their largest commission to date in any country. They were also among six finalists (a shortlist that included Frank Gehry and Norman Foster) in one of the most prestigious British design competitions of the past decade, for the 1996 Financial Times Millennium Bridge spanning t...