Renowned Metabolist Architect, Kisho Kurokawa Passes Away at Age 73
Well-known Japanese architect and one of the founders of the Metabolist Movement Kisho Kurokawa died this week at the age of 73. He is best known for his contributions and development of the Metabolists Movement in the 1960s. Together with some colleagues after college founded the movement, a radical Japanese avant-garde movement that pursued the merging and recycling of architecture styles around an Asian philosophy. Kurokawa believed that there are two traditions inherent in any culture: the visible and the invisible. His work, he said, carries the invisible tradition of Japan. The Metabolist movement reached critical success when it was highlighted for its contributions toward the architecture of the Takara Cotillion Beautillion at the Osaka World Expo 1970.
Kisho Kurokawa was born in Nagoya. Despite his Japanese education and heritage, Kurokawa was an international success. Some of his most well-known architectural accomplishments include Sony Tower, Tokyo (completed 1976), New Wing of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (completed 1998), Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia (completed 1998), Osaka International Convention Center (completed 2000), Toyota City Stadium (completed 2001), The National Art Center, Roppongi (completed 2005). His works number over 40 buildings and monuments during his life.
He also wrote a large amount during his lifetime about philosophy and architecture. He received a grant from the Graham Foundation in 1972 to deliver a lecture at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
You can read more about Kisho Kurokawa’s life in his online memorial tribute and obituary by the Associated Press.
Photo of National Art Center, Tokyo taken by by Kisho Kurokawa
