Japanese Architecture In The 20th Century

16 Pages 3948 Words

he Thames in the center of London.But as their fame has grown outside Japan, they have been treated more and more like unwanted strangers in their hometown. Tokyo commissions, which were never plentiful, are now almost nonexistent. Their work is dismissed as a chaotic mixture of styles in most of the important architectural journals, and their ideas are mocked as foreign and immature.Even worse, they say, are the constant reminders at social events — always delivered kindly, with a smile — that they're not truly Japanese. "Japanese architects inevitably ask the same question: How long are you visiting?" Findlay says. "I've lived in Tokyo for 20 years." But in the past year or two, she has been spending more time in Britain, and had started to think she couldn't take the ostracism much longer and would soon have to leave Japan.One day last July, though, all that changed. To her astonishment, Kathryn Findlay was named a professor of architecture at Tokyo University, the highest professional honor that can be bestowed on an architect in Japan. Only once before has it been given to a foreigner, in 1877. It's rarely gone to a woman, and never to someone whose views are so radical.According to some of her colleagues, Findlay's appointment is no fluke: It signals — and will likely help foment — a sea change in the world of Japanese architecture. They claim that she has been brought in not just to revitalize a moribund department, but to change the way Japanese buildings are designed.Viray, who is Filipino, is an assistant professor of architecture at Kyoto Institute of Technology and knew Findlay when they were both students at Tokyo University. He says that until recently the school has avoided facing its entrenched problems. The bubble economy in the late 1980s provided more than enough work for architects, and no one was looking for a shake-up when everyone was getting rich. Moreover, the university was dominated by charismatic prof...