Japan architects make it big on world stage, not with monuments but with a natural sensibility

Published on August 10, 2014

Japan architects make it big on world stage, not with monuments but with a natural sensibility

TOKYO - A new generation of Japanese architects believes the world has fallen out of love with the 20th century steel and concrete skyscraper. They are pushing a human-friendly alternative that some say has roots in the elegant simplicity of the traditional Japanese tea house.

Instead of pursuing monuments that cry out with a message of economic power, these Pritzker Prize-winning architects are scoring success with a uniquely Japanese reinterpretation of the past.

Unlike their predecessors, who modernized Japan with Western-style edifices, they talk of fluidly defining space with screens and sliding doors, innovatively blending with nature, taking advantage of earthy materials and incorporating natural light, all trademarks of Japanese design.

Their sensibility is also a hit abroad, said Erez Golani Solomon, professor of architecture at Waseda University in Tokyo.

"Food and architecture," said Solomon, stressing how the two are Japan's most potent brands. "They are powerful Japan's strongest cultural identity."

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Kengo Kuma, one of the star architects, finds he is in demand not only in Japan and in the West but also in places such as China, which has tempestuous relations with Tokyo but now boasts a growing fan base for Kuma's works.

Among the major China projects for Kuma are the recent Xinjin Zhi Museum, whose sloping angles and repeated tile motifs are characteristically Kuma, and the Yunnan Sales Center, a sprawling complex of shops, housing and a theatre, where wooden lattice decorates the main structure overlooking a pond.

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Japan architects make it big on world stage, not with monuments but with a natural sensibility