Paste your essay in here…Metabolism in Japan: Birth, Decline and Revival
Metabolism movement was an architectural movement happened in the post-war Japan. The Metabolists emphasized the growth, change and death of everything. They proposed to solve problems by using new technologies. The Metabolism movement was lead by Kenzo Tange, a famous modern architect. A group of young architects like Kisho Kurokawa, Kiyonori Kikutake and Fumihiko Maki were the core members in this movement. The architectural Metabolism was exposed to the world for the first time during CIAM’ 1959 meeting. Noboru Kawazoe described the Metabolism movement in Metabolism 1960, “Metabolism is the name of the group, in which each member proposes future designs of our coming world through his concrete designs and illustrations.” The Metabolists were a loose team tied together by an agreement on their basic, shared values. But the Metabolist also had different opinions on specific topics.
As what was expressed in Kenzo Tange’s talk in 1959, recorded in Anteng Zhongxiong lun jian zhu, “when we are challenging to the reality, we should be prepared to struggle for a coming new age, the new age must have a feature with a new kind of industrial evolution …… in the close future, the second technology evolution will totally change the society.” Kenzo Tange’s talk precisely express the intention of the Metabolism movement. Another Metabolist, Noboru Kawazoe, said in Metabolism 1960, “…each member proposes future designs of our coming world through his concrete designs and illustrations…we believe design and technology should
be a denotation of human vitality.” He viewed Metabolism movement as a way for Japanese cities going to a future urban form. Overall, the Metabolists were preparing architectural theory for the coming age and finding a way to solve the future social problems.
As one of the few built Metabolist buildings, the Nagakin Capsule Tower is a symbolic building in the history of Metabolism movement. (Figure 1) However, after serving for more than 40 years, the iconic building will be demolished late this year. The Nakagin Capsule Tower was a mix-used residential and office tower in Ginza, Tokyo. Kisho Kurokawa, architect of this project, cooperated with the container factories in this project. He used many pre-fabricated components manufactured in the factories and assembled them in the construction site. In such an industrial way, the whole building was completed in 30 days. All the facilities and furniture were all unitized. All the rooms were 2.3m*3.8m*2.1m capsules attached on two cores with elevators and stairs. Described in Project Japan Metabolism Talks, “The capsule is intended to institute an entirely new family system centered on individuals…” This building is the first capsules architecture in the world. After more than four decades, the building has become a social and environmental problem in Tokyo. The old asbestos used in the building represents a hidden danger. At the same time, rising land prices in Tokyo inspired the government to develop new modern apartment buildings to create more profits.
This decision to dismantle the Nagakin Capsule Tower is a hint that the last few remaining Metabolism buildings built during the peak of the Metabolism movement are gradually vanishing. The Nakagin Capsule Tower is the most famous building among few really built Metabolism projects. New York Times evaluated Nakagin Capsule Tower, “stands as a powerful reminder of paths not taken, of the possibility of worlds shaped by different sets of value.” The demolition of Nakagin Capsule Tower more or less indicates that the Metabolism buildings built during the peak of the Metabolism movement are being eliminated. At this moment, it’s an opportunity to talk about the birth and decline of Japanese Metabolism movement. Why Metabolism appeared in Japan during the 1970s? Why did Metabolism rapidly ascend to prominence as a force in architecture and then decline just as quickly? These questions can be answered from the perspective of both social and cultural background.
Economically, postwar Japan was experiencing an inconceivable economic growth. By prohibiting monopoly and simulating industry, postwar Japan rapidly got rid of the depression caused by the failure in World War two. From 1955 to 1972, the Japanese real GDP grew by an annual average rate of 9.3%. The economic recovery from the low ebb of World War two called for a new urban form in Japan to make the cities meet the new requirements of the new age. The rapid economic growth was calling for a large-scale construction. As a result of this strong demand of urban expansion, the Japanese architects turned their sight to the Tokyo Bay to find out an appropriate place to realize the expansion. At this time, Kenzo Tange made the 1960 Plan for Tokyo, an ambitious urban plan set in the Tokyo Bay. (Figure 2) According to the conclusion of 1960 Plan for Tokyo from Zhongjie Lin’s work Kenzo Tange and the Metabolism movement, “Tange was combining the regional and local conditions of Tokyo with cutting-edge concepts of planning and striking a balance between two contrasting approaches: the pragmatism of industrialists and the idealism of utopian architects.” This plan was finding a solution to the urban sprawl happening in many cities in the industrial world. Working for this project, Tange’s team had Kohi Kamiya (in charge of housing systems), Isozaka (in charge of office buildings) and Kisho Kurokawa (in charge of transprotation). They did a demographic and economic research to have a better understanding the crises Tokyo was facing. There were triptych crises: Tokyo’s population boom (population increased from 5.4 million to 10 million in 10 years since 1950); it’s lacking of housing and affordable land on which to build; the suffocating traffic in Tokyo (the street transportation system can only cover 9% of Tokyo). They found the crises were impossible to be alleviated in the current urban form. So Kenzo Tange and his team tried to make the most radical reconstruction. They expand the city to the Tokyo Bay. In their plan, 5 million people would live at sea, in giant megasturctures up to 138 meters tall. There was a central axis in this plan. Along the central axis would be zones for government buildings, offices, passenger vessels. Kenzo Tange’s team didn’t mention the industry in this plan since they imagined that the new city in the Tokyo Bay would be a postindustrial city with mainly the territory sector. They also imagined it would be a city composed by its flows of communication, information and road traffic. The cost of this plan would be ￥18 trillion ($50 billion in 1960). The plan would also spend over 20 years to be constructed. With a unique insight into the emerging characteristics of the contemporary city and a firm believe that design can change the cities, Kenzo Tange attempted to create a new urban for Tokyo. He believed Tokyo would have a chance to have a continuous expansion and internal regeneration.
Along with the great economic growth, there was also a remarkable growth of population, especially in big cities like Tokyo. The over populated cities had an urgent wish to find a solution to solve the escalating housing problem. Except for finding methods to enlarge the city, the Japanese architects were also find solutions from the existing city. Kisho Kurokawa, another Metabolist, tried to solve this social problem by creating a new architecture form. He designed the Nakagin Capsule Tower as an experiment of solving the population problem by using a new kind of residential building. (Figure 3) The capsules fulfill the basic living requirement with a minimized space. At the same time, the capsules were replaceable so that the users can change the combination whenever they need. Metabolism was using an organic form to provide a variable residential building for the growing population in Tokyo. The Nakagin Capsule Tower had a clear interpretation in Project Japan Metabolism talks, “Just as an astronaut is protected by a perfect shelter from solar winds and cosmic rays, individuals should be protected by capsules in which they can reject information they do not need…thereby allowing an individual to cover his subjectivity and independence.” The Nakagin Capsule Tower was also providing a new kind of housing for people live in future Tokyo. The growing economy and population, as well as the requirement of a new kind of lifestyle promoted the birth of Metabolism.
Thinking about the Metabolism movement with a historical view, we can find the reason why the Metabolism movement happened in Japan. Looking back to Japanese architecture history, we can find that traditional Japanese buildings share mutual features with Metabolist architecture. The Ise Grand Shrines, which were viewed as the prototype of Japanese architecture can be a good example to show us how Metabolism ideas related to the Japanese cultural roots. (Figure 4) In 1961, Kenzo Tange and Kawazoe wrote a book on the seventh-century Ise Shrines called Ise, Prototype of Japanese Architecture. In this book, they confirmed the importance of Ise Shrines in Japanese architecture history, “Ise Shrine manifests primitive yet powerful, simple yet noble, and serene yet ecliptic qualities, which cannot help moving us.” Ise Shrines produced effect on Japanese architects.
The Ise Grand Shrines were built for the fist time in 250_538 C.E. They were viewed as the prototype of Japanese architecture. According to the Japanese tradition, the Ise Grand Shrines should be dismantled and rebuilt every 20 years. The shrines will always be rebuilt on an adjacent site. In this way, the shrines can be always new and original. The most resent reconstruction happened in 2013 and the next iteration of the shrines will be built in 2033. According to the Japanese traditional understanding of architecture, architecture should be has a life circle with birth and death. This tradition of rebuilding the shrines again and again is similar to the idea of Metabolism that buildings should have an organic biological growth. This means that Japanese Metabolism movement can find its cultural roots from the traditional architecture.
The Ise Grand Shrines hold the idea of architecture that buildings have a life circle like human beings. Buildings can only be conserved by being rebuilt again and again. This traditional idea inspired the Metabolists to imagine the future architecture as organic biological growth. in 2005, a team including an architect(Rem Koolhaas), a curator(Hans Ulrich Obrist), editors and a photographer went to Tokyo to interview the surviving members of the Metabolism movement. This event was viewed as the most detailed research about Metabolism movement from the western world. During the talk among Kisho Kurokawa, Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist about Metabolism movement, Kurokawa mentioned the Ise Grand Shrines, explaining, “the shrine is 1200 years old, it’s true, but it’s reconstructed every 20 years. Do you understand? Everything we see is impermanent. Whole cities can vanish in a day of warfare. It’s this idea that the Japanese believe in, not the out ward form. It’s the philosophy, Kawazoe talked about the concept of Ise because of the simplicity it shared with the modern style.” Kurokawa highly related the Metabolism to Ise. He built the value about architecture that architecture can’t be permanent. Giving architecture an organic growth can be an appropriate way to make architecture always energetic.
Metabolism movement failed to become a widely accepted architectural mainstream and faded out from Japan after the Osaka Expo, 1970. There were both political and philosophical reasons that can explain why Metabolism movement rapidly declined. Plitically, the oil crisis in 1973 caused a global financial decline, which pulled the Japanese architects’ fantasy back to the reality. Philosophically, the Metabolists’ incorrect understanding of the societal impacts of the new information age also led to the decline of the Metabolism movement.
The global economy came to an important turning point in 1973. The Yom Kippur War broke out in October 1973. To strike Israel and its supporters, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo. The oil price suddenly increased from $3.001 per barrel to $10.651 per barrel. The oil embargo directly led to a global economic crisis. Japan suffered a great economic decline during the crisis. The industrial production in Japan had a 20% reduction. After this global economic crisis, Japan economy turned from a rapid growth period to a slow growth period. Japan also changed his focus from industry, which highly relied on natural resources to new technology.
The 1973 oil crisis was also an important turning point for the Metabolism movement. After the economic decline caused by the oil crisis, the Metabolism movement turned their attention away from Japan towards the Middle East and the newly independent African nations. At that time, Japan was pushing Metabolism movement out while Middle East and Africa showed great fascination. The decline of economy made the Metabolists’ imagination of future city unaffordable. For example, 1960 Plan for Tokyo would cost more than $50 billion. This became unacceptable to the Japanese government. At the same time, the undeveloped ground and tremendous wealth brought by petroleum resources rendered Middle East and Africa a better experimental field for the Metabolism movement. Project Japan Metabolism Talks had a conclusion about this, “Middle Eastern and newly independent African nations in search of modernity and flush with oil money after the crisis begin consulting foreign architects to plan buildings and cities from scratch.” The Metabolism movement also attracted attention from Middle East and Africa. During the 1970 Osaka Expo, the Metabolists introduced the Metabolism movement to all the nations in the world, especially the Middle East and African nations, which were seeking for architectural and urban-planning expertise. From 1967 to 1985, 23 projects were completed in Middle East and Africa. As Metabolism movement was facing a freeing point in Japan, it was also having an expansion and globalization.
However, when Metabolism movement went to nations with totally different social, political and cultural background, it seems deviated from its original idea. Socially, the nations in Middle East and Africa were not facing the similar social problems in Japan. Their cities were not over populated. They had no intention to use Metabolism to extend their cities. What Metabolism attracted them were its modern architectural and urban form. Politically, the nations in Middle East and Africa had a different political system. Comparing with the democracy in Japan, the centralized political system in Middle East and Africa relied more on the judgment of the leaders of the country instead of the economic laws. Metablism projects in Middle East and Africa seems more like the political declaration these nations released to the whole world that they were having a quick modernization and urbanization. Culturally, religion was an inevitable issue in Middle East. Projects in Middle East more or less carried with religious significance. The religious appeals may lead architecture to a representation of the symbolic meanings. The different social, political and cultural background greatly controlled the projects. The Metabolism projects in Middle East and Africa can be viewed as a continuance of Metabolism representation instead of the idea of Metabolism.
With the Kuwait’s independence from UK in 1961, the leaders of the new nation were seeking for their symbols of modernization. They selected Kenzo Tange to do the projects. The three important projects were the Kuwaiti Embassy in Tokyo, Kuwait’s new international airport, and Kuwait Sports City for the Pan-Arab Games. (Figure 5)(Figure 6) Different from the Metabolism projects in Japan, the projects for new Kuwait didn’t show an organic form and possibility of growth. Instead, Kenzo Tange gave them symbolic meanings. Terminal of the Kuwait international airport had a shape of a plane. Islamic details can also be found in the projects he did. The fact of Metabolism movement in Middle East and Africa was that the idea of Metabolism was not really used in the projects. The globalization of Metabolism in Middle East seems just an introduction of the Metabolism representation to the world. The Metabolism movement didn’t actually have a continuance in Middle East and Africa.
The other reason that is more important is the philosophical problem in the Metabolism movement. The Metabolists didn’t correctly understand the features of the coming information age. They were still using the design methods from the previous industrial age to solve the social problems in the information age. The most important features of industrial age are the machines that took over the human labor. At the same time, the volume production greatly increased the efficiency and totally changed the way people work. Especially in architecture construction, the industrial production made the pre-fabricated building possible. Construction period can be greatly reduced with the industrial production. However, the information age present totally different features. The mode of production and lifestyle were beyond the imagination of the Metabolists. In the information age, information becomes the most important production factor. Economy of the new age was based on information computerization. In the information age, cities no longer highly relied on the organization of urban functions. The cities in the information age can’t grow evenly like what the Metabolists imagined. However, the Metabolists were still using the design methods from the previous industrial age to solve the social problems in the information age.
For example, in Kenzo Tange’s 1960 Plan for Tokyo, the architects were trying to use architectural megastructures with the organic biological growth to create an urban condition. In such a way, Tange hoped the urban structure can be organic and every unit can be replaced. What Tange did was building a future city with his understanding of the coming new age. He used the methods humans developed in the industrial age. He mechanically duplicated the units like what the factories did instead of thinking about how should the buildings grow with the cities. The ideas of the Metabolism movement should give room to the city for the future development. However, he did not correctly predict how the city would grow in the future. Years after 1960 Plan for Tokyo, Kisho Kurokawa designed the famous Nakagin Capsule Tower. To a great extent, this project was influenced by Kurokawa’s prediction of the future life in Tokyo. The rapid growth of population, the mobility of the residents and the new living mode of single apartments all lead Kurokawa to design an apartment building with small self-sufficient unites. However, the future is greatly out of his imagination. The capsules cannot fulfill the great increase of population, his idea of replaceable capsules was also proved worthless for this apartment building since the rearrangement of the capsules can neither create more room for housing nor form positive space for public activities. At the same time, the Nakagin Capsule Tower was proved not an answer to the over-populated city since its inefficient land use. He didn’t correctly predict how people would live in the future. In such a situation, the Metabolism movement can only produce architecture symbolically organic instead of actually organic.
Reyner Banham expressed a similar idea in his work Theory and Design in the First Machine Age, “an architect may ask himself two things; firstly, are any of his ideas as up-to-date as he thinks them to be, this is the Second Machine Age not the first; and secondly, how out-moded in truth are the ideas he dismisses as mere fashions of the Jazz.” He thought architects should always be conscious. A correct understanding of the age they are in is really important. However, like what Reyner Banham described in his work, at the turning point between the first mechanical age and the second mechanical age, the future architecture is especially difficult to be predicted. The Metabolism movement was also at the turning point of history. The human society was stepping from industrial age to information age. In the Metabolism movement, the Metabolists had started thinking about with a future view. But at that time, the world was experiencing great change. The limitation of human knowledge made it impossible to have a prediction of future life.
Overall, both the political factor and the philosophical factor led to the decline of Metabolism movement in Japan. Politically, the economy decline reduced the Japan’s passion on the Metabolism movement. At the same time, this decline also made the metabolism projects unaffordable. Philosophically, the Metabolists actually couldn’t give an accurate prediction of the future cities. This internal defect also led to the decline of the Metabolism movement.
The Metabolism movement failed to build the Japanese cities in a Metabolism form. However, 50 years after the peak of the Metabolism movement, the highly developed engineering technology and the highly developed informational society made Metabolist cities possible.
Technically, incredible progress in engineering technology has been made in the last decades. Many projects finished these years were creating engineering miracles. In such a situation, we can believe our building technology is well prepared for building megastructures, which was imagined by the Metabolists. The project of Burj Khalifa Tower, started in 2004 and finished in 2009, is the tallest building in the world. (Figure 7) At the same time, this project can also be viewed as the most difficult construction in the world. It’s the world’s first skyscraper built in the desert. This proved that we are already able to build megastructure in extreme geography. The accomplishment of this project means we have already get into another level of building technology comparing with time of the Metabolsim movement. With the technology basis, the Japanese architects are rethinking about the Metabolist city in the Tokyo Bay. The Takenake Corporation is planning to design a pyramid city on the Tokyo Bay. (Figure 8) The pyramid will be 2004 meters tall with an 8 square km total area. The pyramid can provide living space for more than 100 million people. The interior climate of the pyramid will be controlled manually. There will be residential commercial, agricultural and public areas inside the pyramid. The pyramid can be a self-sufficient city itself. Building a city in the Tokyo Bay used to be an impossible construction project. But now, city in the Tokyo Bay is no longer a dream.
Socially, the current society based on the Internet also makes the Metabolist cities more possible to be realized. The highly developed Internet formed our society to be a network society. The network society has a new social structure. It is originated from the interaction among the social organizations, social change and the digital information technology. The society in the age with the highly developed Internet is becoming more and more predictable. The Internet is sending information to everyone in any corner in the world, which means the limitation of human knowledge is gradually being eliminated since the whole human society is sharing information and knowledge. With the totally new way providing information for the exploration for the future life, the result can be much more reliable than what Kurokawa did 40 years ago. With such a different social structure, architects can have a more accurate understanding of how the current cities work and how the future cities will be.
The Metabolist cities seems coming to a revival with the help of the well-prepared technology and a more predictable future life. The two factors allow Metabolism’s application once again to the exploration of the future life.
In conclusion of the explanation of the birth of Metabolism, both the economic and the cultural factor led to the birth of Metabolism movement in Japan in 1960s. Economically, the high-speed development of Japanese economy and population encouraged Japanese architects to find a new urban form to accommodate the population in Tokyo after a population boom. Culturally, the Japanese architecture history can highly related to the idea of Metabolism. The Ise Grand Shrines, viewed as prototype of Japanese architecture, had a architectural philosophy similar to Metabolism architecture. Both of them viewed architectural as a life circle like human beings.
There were also two aspects of reasons for the decline of the Metabolism movement. The political reason was that Japan was meeting with a dramatic economic decline result from the oil crisis in 1973. Japan was no longer able to afford the expensive Metabolism projects. The more important reason was the philosophical reason. The incorrect understanding of the coming new age led to Metabolism’s lack of adaptability to the new age.
However, years after the peak of the Metabolism movement, the highly developed engineering technology and Internet give Metabolism movement a chance to revive.
Figure 1
Nakagin Capsule Tower, Exterior
Kisho Kurokawa
1972. Tokyo, Japan.
Source: “AD Classics: Nakagin Capsule Tower / Kisho Kurokawa.” Accessed February 9, 2011. https://www.archdaily.com/photographer/arcspace
Figure 2
1960 Plan for Tokyo, Urban plan drawing
Kenzo Tange
1960. Tokyo, Japan.
Source: “JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE, URBANISM, UTOPIAN PROJECTS
A plan for Tokyo 1960 / Kenzo Tange.” Accessed January 26, 2016. http://archeyes.com/plan-tokyo-1960-kenzo-tange/
Figure 3
Nakagin Capsule Tower, axon and plan
Kisho Kurokawa
1972. Tokyo, Japan.
Source: “Japanese architecture residential: Nakagin Capsule Tower / Kisho Kurokawa.” Accessed March 3, 2016. http://archeyes.com/nakagin-capsule-tower-kisho-kurokawa/
Figure 4
Ise Grand Shrine, Exterior photo
Traditional Japanese architecture
4 BCE, Japan.
Source: “Ise: Japan’s Holiest Shrine.” https://www.gonomad.com/3031-ise-japan-s-holiest-shrine
Figure 5
Kuwait Embassy in 1970 Expo, Exterior photo
Kenzo Tange
1970. Tokyo, Japan.
Source: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1163565&page=9
Figure 6
Kuwait International Airport, Exterior photo
Kenzo Tange
1967. Kuwait.
Source: http://www.al-rashedgroup.com/al-rashed_65_KuwaitInternationalAirport
Figure 7
Burj Khalifa, Exterior photo
SOM
2010. Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Source: “Burj Khalifa / SOM.” Accessed October 23, 2017. https://www.archdaily.com/882100/burj-khalifa-som
Figure 8
Pyramid City, rendering
The Shimizu Corporation
Not built. Tokyo, Japan.
Source: “Tokyo Mega-Pyramid Project, The Future of Cities.” Accessed December 22, 2012. https://anarchytects.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/tokyo-mega-pyramid-project-the-future-of-cities/
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Noboru Kawazoe, Kiyonori Kikutake, Masato Otaka, Fumihiko Maki, Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolsim 1960, Bijutsu Shuppansha, Tokyo
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Koolhaas, Rem, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Kayoko Ōta, and Irma Boom. Project Japan metabolism talks .. Köln: Taschen, 2011.
Nicolai Ouroussoff. Future Vision Banished to the Past. New York Times, July 6, 2009
Lin, Zhongjie. Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist movement: urban utopias of modern Japan. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Tange, Kenzō, and Noboru Kawazoe. Ise, prototype of Japanese architecture. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1965.
Banham, R. Theory and design in the first machine age.