Japanese Architecture: Never ending change

By Victor Wongso

JAKARTA (JP): Japanese architecture today is overtaking the world with its revolutionary design. This new form, and approach, in architectural design is gaining influence in a revolution which is turning Japanese architects into the designers of major architectural projects worldwide. In this globalized world, Japanese architecture is completing the list of Japanese products which are well-known for their revolutionary design, such as Japanese cars or hi-fi systems.

Remerging from the ruins of World War II, Japanese architecture has evolved into designs that combine foreign influences and indigenous Japanese traditions in a masterful way. If, in the 1930s, most Japanese architecture students studied abroad, affairs have now come full circle. Few Japanese study overseas, but most Tokyo offices have young Europeans or Americans working in them to learn more about Japanese architecture.

At the beginning of this century, Japan imported architectural styles, especially from the West. The opening of Japan after centuries of isolation led up to a need for buildings, which had no precedents in Japan. A new age of modernization, the Meiji restoration, which cities based on the text-book ideas of Western culture, surely needed experts from the West. At that time, the government needed Europeans to supervise the construction of stations, factories and other modern buildings. Some of the first generation of Japanese architects went to work at Le Corbusier's office in Europe and spread that influence after returning to Japan.

The reasons for Japanese architecture's meteoric rise can be attributed to three things, according to Kisho Kurokawa, one of the leading exponent.

"First, the economy. Architects need clients and a strong economic base to succeed. Second, the competition. The 80,000 qualified architects create very fierce competition, and means that people have to be competitive. And third, the theory. Combining history and tradition with advanced technology."

In addition to a strong economy, there is another factor that strongly influences the economics of building in Japan. Japanese architecture, in contrast to the materialist aesthetic of Western civilization, which sought eternity for its architectural monuments, is neither permanent nor particularly long lived.

The Grand Shrine of Ise is a classic masterpiece of Japanese Udan architecture with a history of 1300 years, but in fact, the shrine has been rebuilt every 20 years. Valued temples and shrines are simply rebuilt when they get old, generation by generation. The most important reason for this practice is that, in Japan, the visible object might be destroyed every 20 years by an earthquake.

While this natural symptom still prevails, it stands behind another economic factor. Today, if you want to build somewhere in Tokyo, you need money. But more than 90 percent of your budget will go towards the cost the land, and just 10 percent will go towards architectural design and construction costs. Land prices have gone up too far, and even the government cannot do anything about it.

This symptom is manifested in the growing number of buildings, including many well-known ones, that, after a few years, or even no use at all, have been demolished and replaced with something new. Every 10 years, about 25 percent of the bridges, houses, offices and hotels which make-up Tokyo, a city of 13 million people, are emptied, torn-down and rebuilt. Each time they rebuild, more effort goes into making the construction extraordinary.

Kurokawa says, "The fierce competition means people have to be creative to get noticed." Kurokawa is one of six Japanese architects currently ranked among the best in the world. The others are Tadao Ando, Arata Isozaki, Fumihiko Maki, Itsuko Hasegawa, the only woman among them, and Kenzo Tange, the father of them all. Isozaki and Kurokawa are better known overseas, while Maki and Tadao Ando are said to have a great impact inside Japan.

Architecture equals art in Japan; its architects are feted and their works revered. Japanese women go on tours to see the latest buildings and men hope to spot the architect at the opening ceremonies of a building. Kurokawa, who has published 30 art books and has also made films on the subject, was, at one time, voted the third most popular personality in Japan, after the Emperor and the Prime Minister.

The theory of Japanese architecture shows a willingness to incorporate new cultural elements, new technology and new forms, as well as the symbols of foreign cultures, as long as they are certain that they will be able to preserve their invisible tradition. This may be related with Japan's old tradition in borrowing and, the next step, developing this foreign culture's idea. Japan is the most open country for the influence of foreign culture but they always adapt the influence to the Japanese tradition, rather than simply just borrowing the idea and destroying the old tradition.

Isozaki, for example, uses a mix of history and technology as the basis for his architectural philosophy. He blends modern form and structure with traditional decorative touches of Japanese culture. The peace-park in Hiroshima, designed by Kenzo Tange, who has just visited Jakarta for a design competition, may be the best example that manifests this concept. The Park and Peace Memorial Building represents the first Modern Architecture building in Asia. The design comprises a Corbusian concrete box and a plaza for prayer with a trunk of domes as the place of worship.

The park was developed from the concepts of the architect, who was influenced by both Eastern tradition and the Western architectural philosophy, a blending of the Agora, the Greek meeting place or plaza, and the appealing appearance of the Ise shrine.

It is the blending that, in the end, turns Japanese architecture into perfectly crafted pieces of sculpture; sleek, stylish products, that are produced in a strong business environ ment, governed by a short life cycle, with greater opportunities for experimentation, constant demand for new development and a high degree of support from related industries.