Arata Isozaki
磯崎新
Presented by :
Aarti Saxena
B. Arch 4
Biography
•
born July 23, 1931, Oita, Kyushu, Japan Japanese avant-garde
architect.
•
He studied at the University of Tokyo and opened his own studio in
1963.
•
His first notable building is the Oita Prefectural Library (1966), which
shows the influence of the Metabolist school.
•
In his later works, which often synthesize Eastern and Western
elements, he used bold geometric forms and frequently made
historical allusions.
•
Among his innovative structures are the Los Angeles Museum of
Contemporary Art (1986) and Art Tower (1990) in Mito, Japan.
Biography
m
•
Japanese architect, teacher and theorist. One of the leading
architects of his generation, he became an influential proponent of
the avant-garde conceptual approach to architecture that
characterized the New Wave in Japan in the 1970s and after .
•
He studied at the University of Tokyo under Kenzo Tange and after
graduating (1954) he worked for Kenzo Tange & Urtec until 1963.
•
From 1960 Isozaki began to develop his own practice Medical
Center (1960) and Oita Prefectural Library (1966) as an architectural
designer , and then as a theorist, loosely associated with Japanese
Metabolism and creating projects as his 'Ruin Future City' and
'Clusters in the Air' (both 1962).
•
His first large public commission was the Oita branch of the Fukuoka
Mutual Bank, completed in 1967. Other important public works
followed , buildings as the Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern Art
(1971-4), Takasaki; the Kitakyushu City Museum of Art (1972-4); the
Kitakyushu Municipal Central Library (1972-5); and the West Japan
General Exhibition Center (1977), Kitakyushu.
Other works
1986/92 - The New Brooklyn Museum, New York, U.S.A.
1987/89 - Bond University: Administration/Library/Humanities, Gold
Coast, Queensland, Australia
1987/90 - Team Disney building, Florida, U.S.A.
1987/90 - Kita-kyushu Unternational Conference Center, Fukuoka,
Japan
1990/94 - The Center of Japanese Art and Technology in Kraków,
Poland
1991/95 - Toyonokuni Libralies for Cultural Resources, Oita, Japan
1991/95 - Kyoto Concert Hall, Kyoto, Japan
1991/95 - B-con Plaza, Oita, Japan
1993/95 - DOMUS: La Casa del Hombre (Interactive Museum about
Humans), La Coruña, Spain
1993/96 - Okayama West Police Station, Okayama, Japan
1992/98 - Nara Centennial Hall, Nara, Japan
1993/98 - Higashi Shizuoka Cultural Complex Project, Shizuoka, Japan
1995/98 - Akiyoshidai International Arts Village, Yamaguchi, Japan
1996/02 - Ceramics Park MINO, Gifu, Japan
1997/03 - Ymaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Yamaguchi, Japan
1998 - Shenzen Cultural Center, China
Kyoto Concert Hall
Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles
Team Disney Building, Florida
Art Tower ,
Mito
PHILOSOPHY
• His style was combining Japanese sensibility with
Western post-modernism.
• He has employed complex asymmetrical forms,
innovatively juxtaposed materials and used
sophisticated technologies.
Influences:The New Wave Movement
•
In the earlier days, he was
identified with Metabolism.
•
Metabolism developed in Postwar Japan when in 1959, a group
of Japanese architects and city
planners had a vision for future
cities that enabled organic
growth.
•
This scheme aimed to create
radical solutions for restructuring
Tokyo's rapid and uncontrolled
post war growth.
•
As a theorist, Arata was loosely
associated with Japanese
metabolism. He proposed
concepts like Ruin City and
Clusters in the air.
Key Metabolists:
Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, Kisho Kurokawa and Kiyoshi Awazu
A plug-in
city
The laws of space and
functional transformation
hold the future for society
and culture
Kikutake city
JOINT CORE SYSTEM
• Isozaki proposed for a multilevel urban construction above the
city.
• Massive pylons supported elevated transportation, housing,
and office systems as well as parks and walkways,
The City In Air or Joint Core System
Isozaki proposed round columns
that permitted growth in any
direction, instead of a square
support system limits expansion
to four directions,
Cluster City
1960-62
•
The concept of the clusters was to
develop a new way to structure
housing around Tokyo.
•
The Cluster represent leaves from
trees which are the housing units and
the core represents the trunk of the
tree.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, LOS ANGELES, ARATA ISOZAKI, 1981-86
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, LOS ANGELES, ARATA ISOZAKI, 1981-86
 The building built around a terraced
courtyard
 Under the courtyard, galleries lead
into each other from left to right.
 Above the courtyard, only the
administration section stands out
with a roof in the shape of a
semicircular dome
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, LOS ANGELES, ARATA ISOZAKI, 1981-86
 Exterior a natural reddish colored
stone, contrasting with the
transparent skylights and the luster
of the semi-cylindrical roof of the
offices.
 Volumetrically pure shapes - various
pyramids and a series of linear
skylights
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, LOS ANGELES, ARATA ISOZAKI, 1981-86
The whole building is constructed in concrete with regular glass fenestrations
TEAM DISNEY BUILDING, FLORIDA, ARATA ISOZAKI, 1989-90
TEAM DISNEY BUILDING, FLORIDA, ARATA ISOZAKI,
1989-90
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The Team Disney Building serves as the office for IT personnel of
the Walt Disney Corporation.
•
Won a prestigious National Honor Award from the AIA in 1992.
•
Architect responds to
context - amusement park
by using warm colors both
inside and outside the
building
•
Building is symmetrical
about a central cylinder
•
The oddly looped gateway
suggests gigantic Mickey
Mouse ears
•
The entrance to the sundial
is similarly shaped
TEAM DISNEY BUILDING, FLORIDA,
ARATA ISOZAKI, 1989-90
Isozaki designed this playful
entrance that lives up to
the client’s requirement of
“ entertainment
architecture”.
LARGEST SUNDIAL IN THE WORLD
To capture the essence of the ‘sunshine state’,
Isozaki designed a large , colourful sundial to
rise out dramatically from the centre of the
building.
THE TIME THEME
Isozaki wanted the architecture to make a statement
about time since the offices were to be used by timeconscious executives.

The courtyard also acts as a central
atrium and houses a Japanese rock
garden.
• He coupled two office wings
with a long gray big carnival
color tower in the center as a
large funnel pointing to the
sky.
Conclusions..
•
Born and educated in Japan, Arata Isozaki often integrates Eastern
ideas into his designs.For example, Isozaki wanted to express a yinyang theory of positive and negative space when he designed the
Team Disney Building in Orlando, Florida
•
Isozaki's "style" has in fact been a series of modes that have come as
a response to these influences. As a young architect he was
identified with Metabolism, a movement founded in Japan in 1960.
However, Isozaki minimized his connections to this group, seeing the
Metabolist style as overly utilitarian in tone.
•
In the 1970s Isozaki's architecture became more historical in its
orientation, suggesting a connection with the burgeoning postmodern movement of Europe and the United States. His sources
included classical Western architects, especially Andrea Palladio,
Étienne-Louis Boullée, and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux.
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