Metabolism and After: A Correspondence With Hajime Yatsuka

Author(s): Ioanna Angelidou and Hajime Yatsuka

Source: Log , Winter / Spring 2012, No. 24, Architecture Criticism (Winter / Spring
2012), pp. 33-41
Published by: Anyone Corporation

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 Metabolism and After:
Ioanna Angelidou

A Correspondence
With Hajime Yatsuka
The following correspondence with the architect Hajime Yatsuka,
curator of u Metabolism: the City of the Future" at the Mori Art
Museum in Tokyo , occurred over nearly six weeks in 2011 - the
product of a series of coincidences in my ongoing research, the
inauguration of his exhibition, and a number of common acquain-
tances from Tokyo's architectural scene . My long questions with
longer postscripts and his answers, incorporating historical facts,
insider stories, and witty commentary, are assembled here to form a
post-Metabolist micro -history, a brief critical review of what the
Metabolist era bequeathed to the architectural vernacular, urban
condition, and media of contemporary Japan .

IOANNA ANGELIDOU: The Metabolist Movement is largely

associated with image and time, and the exhibition "Metabo-
lism: the City of the Future" is structured around four relevant
sub-themes - Birth of Metabolism, Era of Metabolism, From
Space to Environment, and Global Metabolism - which explore
the shifting identity of Metabolism, the adaptation of its
concepts, and its architectural imagery through time and in
different places. Simultaneously, they reveal a duality and a mis-
conception. Metabolism was part of archi-technology, a broader
architectural scene that developed after World War II and had
diverse expressions stemming from radically different inten-
tions. In the Soviet countries, archi-technology was essentially
a political tool in the service of mass industrialization and ur-
banization, an approach that imposed uniformity and discour-
aged individuality as unproductive aestheticism. On the other
hand, in Europe archi-technology positioned itself on the op-
posite side of the spectrum: Yona Friedman's Spatial City and
Archigram's Plug-in City were mainly artistic visions breaking
away from the reality of Parisian historicism or the uniformity
of Victorian London urbanscapes. Metabolism seemed to strike
a delicate balance between the two approaches, both producing
enticing imagery and materializing it. To what could we attri-
bute the occurrence of this interesting duality in Japan?

11

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HAJIME YATSUKA: As you may know, the
influence of socialist realism theory was
rather extensive in Japan, and there were long
debates between Marxists like Uzo Nishiyama
of Kyoto University and modernists like Kenzo
Tange. Even for modernists, socialist realism
was not an easy subject to overlook. Kisho
Kurokawa, a disciple of both Nishiyama and
Tange, and later very close to the conserva-
tive regime, was no exception. His first book,
on prefabricated housing, drew from his
research on technological achievements in
the then USSR. So his Metabolist capsules had
their origin in Soviet archi-technology. This
was certainly related to the leftist political
milieu in 1950s Japan, as well as to the recon-
struction period that followed World War II.
Even megastructures, which are regarded as
the visual trademarks of the Utopian aspect of
Metabolism, were an outcome of the realistic
pursuits targeted at construction techniques
that could potentially counterbalance the
relatively poor economy of the period.
The Harumi Apartment Building (1958),
designed by Kunio Maekawa's office with
Masato Otaka in charge, was an early example
of a Metabolist megastructure - even if it
looked more Corbusian than Archigramesque.
Harumi's structural device, which consisted
of a dual construction method known as
"major" and "minor" construction, was an
attempt to deal with the potential of new
public housing standards and simultaneously tecture and contemporaneity, as well as the
to reduce construction costs. Tange's mega-
structure work at MIT was simply a scaled-up
version of this very same idea, as was Otaka's HY: I am quite uncomfortable with the popu-
Motomachi Housing in Hiroshima for the
homeless and relocated inhabitants of the A-
bomb slums, one of the last rehabilitation
projects (1968-75). Tange intended to tran-
scend the imaginary dimension of Arata
Isozaki's City in the Air with his own, con-
current project for Tokyo's Tsukiji district in
1964. City in the Air was a concept developed
from the Tange Laboratory's plan for Tokyo
*4
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Bay in 1960, a project Isozaki was in charge
of while still a disciple of Tange's at Tokyo
University. Whereas Isozaki's City in the
Air was bound to remain a Utopian scheme
with its 200-meter span, Tange's project was
much more realistic, utilizing JO-meter-long
bridges, the so-called eccentric truss designed
in collaboration with the structural engineer
Yoshikatsu Tsuboi.
IA: The Metabolist s and other architectural
visionaries who deployed the megastructure
concept are often referred to as an architec-
tural avant-garde. The term avant-garde is
used for experimental and innovative prac-
tices pushing the boundary of a discipline
toward the future by defying the past and
thus unwittingly detaching themselves from
the present. Mark Wigley has argued that the
term architectural avant-garde is a paradox,
since architecture engages in the immediate
present and thus can only be contemporary.1
Metabolism successfully transformed the
speculative imagery so popular in the 1960s
into reality. In other words, it bridged utopia
(the nonexistent) with what C.A. Doxiadis
called entopia (the here and now).2 In that
sense, it defied the notion of an architecture
that is quick to imagine futures but slow to
realize them, which is essentially the defini-
tion of avant-garde. What is your view on
this aspect of the relationship between archi-
way it relates to Metabolism?
lar image of Metabolism as techno-utopian.
This view negates how these architects re-
sponded to a very particular situation and so-
cioeconomic context. By the same token, the
Metabolists are completely different from
1. Mark Wigley and Peter Eisenman, "Architecture and Design," a
conversation at Columbia University, New York, July 7, 2009.
2. See Alexandros-Andreas Kyrtsis, ed., Constantinos A. Doxiadis:
Texts, Design Drawings, Settlements (Athens: Ikaros, 2006).
Log 24
 but it coincided with the third phase of what
Fumihiko Maki called the "Le Corbusier

Syndrome" in Japan.* The main criticism

later directed toward Metabolism is that the

megastructure, no matter how adaptable

its units, disregards physical elements and
human scale or eliminates the "unpredict-
ability factor" of the city. This opposition is
represented respectively by Hiroshi Hara's
research on "discrete topology"4 and Kazuo
Shinohara's concept of "progressive an-
archy."5 Metabolism, from a Western per-
spective, is considered the culmination of a
condition that preceded it: modernity. But in
Japan one could actually recognize its effect
as the launching pad for productive opposi-
tion and the subsequent development of a
purely Japanese contemporary (rather than
modern) architecture. In that sense, could we
say it marks a beginning rather than an end?

Kiyonori Kikutake, Marine City, i96*. Model. Photo

COURTESY THE ARCHITECT.
HY: One of my chief motives for "reha-
bilitating" Metabolism, both with my book
Superstudio or Archigram. ThoseMetabolism
groupsNexusrep-and with the exhibition
resented Western architectural visionaries at the Mori, is my personal view that it was
and their intention to detach themselves from never justifiably understood or summarized
the social, technological, or political reality. - not only in the West, where its perception
Thus, they seem more like artistic rather thanis largely based on its visual legacy, but also
architectural visionaries. Conversely, even thein Japan, where people tend to be obsessed
least feasible Metabolist projects, like Kikutake' s with pursuing novelty while remaining
Tower- shaped Community or Kurokawa's oblivious to their immediate architectural

Helix City, were prototype designs of artificial past. I am rather unhappy with the work of
ground from which more realistic variants my contemporary colleagues, which seems
could potentially be produced. This is very
l. Fumihiko Maki coined the term "Le Corbusier Syndrome" to
representative of the specificity of the Metabolistdescribe the confluence of modernism and architecture in Japan,
group. Their idea of technology was beyond which is paralleled by three discernible periods in Le Corbusier's
work. The first period is roughly between the end of the 1920s and
personal artistic taste; their intention was to the beginning of World War II, which coincides with Corbusier's
become social engineers. Perhaps Isozaki was iconic small projects. The second period is during the first postwar
years up to the 1960s, when the need for reconstruction was im-
an exception, because he was always concernedmediate and Corbusier's office produced extended masterplans*
with artistic and conceptual issues, hence the for India, Argentina, and elsewhere. The third starts after 1965,
the year Corbusier died and his work began to be approached in a
mutual sympathy with his contemporary more critical manner, hence the emergence of the Metabolists. See
Fumihiko Maki, Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essajs on Architecture
European radicals in the 1960s.
and the City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008), 180-89.
4. Hiroshi Hara, "Mathematics, Discreteness, Architecture,"/^*»
Architect 78 (2010): 14-15.
IA: Metabolism is often referred to as the epit-5. Kazuo Shinohara, "Towards Architecture,"/^«» Architect 56, no.
ome of purely Japanese modern architecture, 9 (1981): 140-41.

15 Log 24

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Yatsuka Lab, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, IA: Tange and his students made a fundamental
Slab City from Hyper Den-City, 2011. Rendering. distinction in their research between struc-

to indulge in aesthetics as if to confirm the tural elements based on a combination of scale

old observation of Alexandre Koj ève on the and time: short cycles and long cycles. The
post-historical state of culture,6 which the long cycle was perceived as transitional space,
French-Russian Hegelian identified with a hybrid of building and city, and the short
premodern Japan and the Edo period artistic cycle as individual habitat, hence the capsules.
tendencies of extremely sophisticated form Interestingly enough, the opposite condition
devoid of any sense of context, history, or in- has developed in Tokyo* s urbanscape with the
tellectual dimension. The ultimate question is constant scrap-and-build process of the past
whether we still find ourselves in the process decades. Individual buildings in Tokyo have an
of modernization or not; whether our current average life span of three decades or less, but it
globalism is a part, even the very last one, of is actually the city blocks, as building clusters,
modernization; and whether we regard so- that change more radically throughout this 30-
called postmodernism as an independent stage year cycle, since the replacement of a single unit
after modernism in the first place. changes the overall system. Should we perceive
You referred to Kazuo Shinohara as an this kaleidoscopic urban condition as the defeat
advocate of productive opposition. I was of urbanism or the victory of aesthetics?
fairly close to him, and I am well aware that
he expressed skepticism about the Metabolists HY: In this respect, I would say Metabolism
before 1970. Indeed, Isozaki and Shinohara actually marked the beginning of post-
are regarded as the two key figures in con- postmodern architecture. I think the most
temporary Japanese architecture after the stimulating urban design schemes of the
dissolution of the Metabolist group. But I am Metabolists remained on paper. Nonetheless,
personally convinced that he would be sym- even today they are still considered valid and
pathetic with my position with regard to the provocative. So the kaleidoscopic urban im-
city and its architecture, rather than with the
6. Alexandre Kojève, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the
current tendency that encourages an archi- Phenomonolog y of the Spirit , eds. Raymond Queneau and Allan Bloom,
tecture devoid of intellectual tension. trans. James H. Nichols Jr. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980).

16 Log 24

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age of Tokyo should be perceived as neither
the defeat of urbanism nor a victory of aes-
thetics. Ideally, architecture and urban design
can and should respond beyond the present.
My most recent book, Hyper Den-City , is
part of a project I have been working on with
my laboratory at Shibaura Institute of Tech-
nology called Tokyo Plan 2010.7 The project is
conceived not for the present but for 2050; in
that sense it is the counter- version of Tange's
plan for Tokyo Bay half a century later. Our
project, much like Tange' s , is motivated by the
exuberance induced by megalopolitan desire.
However, it is based on a quite different hy-
pothesis: the concern for global demographic
mobility in the next few decades, during which
the planet's population is expected to rise by
two to three billion. Let us not forget that this
number alone was the total population of the
earth in 1960, when Tange and the Metabolists
were working on their schemes. Our project
is also located in the bay area of Tokyo rather
than the inner city, where land ownership is
hyper- fragmented and its kaleidoscopic aes-
thetic imposes a condition that hinders drastic
innovation. We like to think that Hyper Den-
City, a mega compact city, is characterized by
implosion instead of the previous condition of
explosion. Our hypothesis is that the previ-
ous architectural canon will become invalid,
be it the physical context or human scale. I
admit that this was highly inspired by Rem
Koolhaas's essay "Bigness," the Japanese trans-
lation of which will be included in our book.
Coincidentally, my book Metabolism
Nexus was also partly instigated by a conver-
sation with Rem in the early 1990s.8 On the
other hand, Rem's interview with Isozaki in
Project Japan begins with a reference to my
discussion of the nexus between the prewar
Japanese urban experiments in Continental
Asia and the postwar projects of Tange and
the Metabolists. Every discussion forms a sort
of nexus, so to speak . . . eternal reemergence
of the metabolic principle, perhaps?
V Log
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IA: You mentioned, when referring to
Shinohara, that there is a tendency in the
contemporary Japanese architectural scene
toward mannerist aesthetics. I can connect
this with three points you made several years
ago in your essay, "An Architecture Floating
on the Sea of Signs": that cities have become
complicated circuits of information and de-
sire relevant to consumption, what you call
the "sea of signs"; that Japanese architecture
has suddenly been met with increased and
unprecedented public interest; and that the
loose structure of the Japanese city provides
a generous medium, a testing-ground, so to
speak, for architectural novelty per se.9
HY: I am surprised that you cite this old es-
say from more than 20 years ago! Yes, I then
indulged in semiotic pleasure and what you
call mannerist aesthetics, which character-
ized the Japanese postmodern era. This is
very far from my present position - such an
old (and innocent) dream of a young boy! I
think we - not just me, but other architects
as well - were then trying to find an alterna-
tive to the planned megacities of Tange and
the Metabolists and were thus discovering,
or rather rediscovering, our city, which was
seen to be desperately devoid of rational or-
der. This chaotic city, which the Metabolists
believed could be "salvaged" only through
grand-scale surgery, suddenly came to be
regarded as something positive, although
no operation was actually undertaken. The
particular approach to the city was a hybrid
of the pleasure of the text à la Roland Barthes
and the intellectual criticism of modern town
7. See Hajime Yatsuka and Urban Profiling Group, eds., Hyper
Den-City: Tokyo Metabolism 2 (Tokyo: INAX, 2011).
8. Hajime Yatsuka refers to the Nexus World symposium in Fukuoka
in 1991. The discussion and its relevance to his current research,
which instigated the Metabolism exhibition at the Mori, is described
in the introduction to Yatsuka's most recent book, Metabolism Nexus.
See Hajime Yatsuka, Metabolism Nexus (Tokyo: Omusa, 2011).
9. Hajime Yatsuka, "An Architecture Floating on a Sea of Signs,"
in Botond Bognar, ed., The New Japanese Architecture (New York:
Rizzoli, 1990), 38-41.
24
planning à la Christopher Alexander. I think
we were enchanted with the mix of the sen-
sual and the intellectual dimensions in this
rediscovery of our chaotic city, almost para-
lyzed by our narcissistic autointoxication.
IA: You also argued that "architecture becomes
a form of fashion and commodity." One of
your collaborators on the Metabolism exhibi-
tion, Souhei Imamura, has written that the
recent frenzy with small and design-conscious
urban houses in Japan was driven not only by
the post-bubble financial condition in Japan
but also by a sort of fashion - the concept
of i-shoku-ju .10 We could perhaps find traces
of this development in the transition from
the Metabolist era to today; from the tactile
and customizable mini-habitats to the small,
introverted, yet flamboyant buildings of the
late 1970s and 1980s, to today's notion of the
urban nest, a morphologically sophisticated
and functionally dispersed domesticated con-
dition. Do you think this commoditization
and "fashionization" of architecture in Japan
since 1970 has affected the city in an almost
metabolizing way?
HY: Back then Shinohara was our hero, re-
placing the Metabolists, but his existentialism
was possible only through his strong person-
ality and critical stance. His Loosian house in
Yoyogi Uehara, a house so small that it was
essentially like a grain of sand in the desert of
the city, challenged the surrounding chaos.
It was a metonymy of the very existence of
the city itself, which he called "savage." He
was opposed to any postmodern attempt that
reduced architecture to a commodity. For me,
he was the last tragic architect.
IA: I assume you say this with a heroic or
idealistic connotation.
HY: Yes, and because he was a singular, even
lonesome, figure. When he was involved in
38
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Kumamoto Artpolis, on which Isozaki and I
collaborated as commissioners, Shinohara was
assigned the design of the police headquarters.
Such a project required much functional plan-
ning, which did not seem to be a fitting project
for an artist-architect like Shinohara. Equally,
when Rem invited him to do a project for Eura-
lille, I thought it was wrong to assign Shinohara
the purely commercial program of an urban
hotel, which I believe eventually proved true.
But getting back to the urban desert
theme: young followers of Shinohara like Toyo
Ito and, later, Kazuyo Sejima chose more subtle
yet sophisticated ways to assert their own criti-
cali ty. This tendency was met with the tempo-
rary recovery of the Japanese economy from a
lull after the oil crisis and eventually generated
a new architectural culture immersed with the
charm of the so-called "eternal presence," or
the "endless everyday."
IA: The "endless everyday?"
HY: This term is a proposition that sociologist
Shinji Miyadai used to refer to the postmodern
condition in Japan after the terrorist gas attack
in the Tokyo Metro by the cult group Aum in
1995 11 The "endless everyday" is an approach
often devoid of intellectual and social dimen-
sions. It is interesting that the young critic
Hiroki Azuma recently called the present
situation, after the 5/11 earthquake, "the day
the 'endless everyday' ended." Anyway, it is
precisely my disagreement with this "cas-
trated" architectural culture that drove me
to revive the concern for Metabolism and its
nexus with the current condition. In Hyper
Den-City y I wrote what I call the "Bay Area
Manifesto," which negates the excessively
10. The term corresponds to the essence of contemporary Japanese
urban culture and translates as food-clothes-shelter. See Souhei
Imamura, "Little Houses in a Big City," in George Wagner,
ed., Tokyo from Vancouver (Vancouver: School of Architecture,
University of British Columbia, 2005), 92-99.
11. See Shinji Miyadai, Ovari naki Nichijou wo ikiro (Tokyo:
the Chikuma, 1995).
Log 24
mannerist aesthetics that appear exclusively
in the urban desert of Tokyo's inner core
with its porous urban tissue and infinitely
small grains. I tried to make a contraposition
between these fin de siècle aesthetics and the

Bay area culture, where everything is big and

coarse, and far from being sophisticated.

IA: Let us briefly return to a point you made

about archi- technology when you mentioned
Kurokawa' s affiliation with the conservative

political regime. Tange was well known for

being an influential figure outside architecture
and was often referred to as a political animal.
Like Tange, Kurokawa was a well-known and
influential public figure, often acting as archi-
tectural and urban design advisor to Japanese
officials. In 2007, Kurokawa ran for Tokyo
governor, though he was not elected. His deci-
sion to become directly involved in politics
coincided with the debate over the demolition
of his Nakagin Capsule Tower. On the other
hand, Isozaki has engaged in what one might
call cultural rather than political architecture,
or even architectural politics, but this sort of
power has been bestowed on Isozaki through
his success as an architect. What do you make
of these two kinds of involvement with social
matters beyond architecture, given that both
Kurokawa and Isozaki belong to the same ar-
chitectural generation?
Kisho Kurokawa, Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, 1972.
Photo: Ohashi Tomio.
think this change in Isozaki's opinion reflects
his sentimentality over a past rivalry, and in
Metabolism Nexus I tried to make clear that
Isozaki's position vis-à-vis that of the Meta-
bolists was not that different, at least not when
compared to the differences among the other
group members. In that sense, his old claim,
now diminished with Kurokawa' s death, was
rather strategic with regard to the politics of the
Japanese architectural community at that time.
IA: What about the matter of publicity itself
- publicity that can potentially act as an ar-
chitectural tool insofar as it is transformed
into political power and mediation?

HY: Recently, Isozaki, who called Kurokawa
the first media architect in Japan, claimed that
he understood what drove him to run for
election, and by the same token he feels he be-
longed to the Metabolist Movement himself.
This was a surprise for those who know of the
long rivalry between them, and how Isozaki
tried to distance himself from the Metabolists.
I worked in Isozaki' s office for several years,
and Kurokawa had been nice to me since the
time I was a graduate student in the Tange Lab,
so I know both well and owe them a lot for my
own involvement in architectural media. I
HY: Both Tange and Kurokawa were very con-
scious of using the media. Tange deliberately
used the NHK television network and Asabi
Shimbun newspaper to promote his vision of
urban land development. Koolhaas was inter-
ested in how Kurokawa was prominent as a
media architect, and AM O's book Project Japan
dedicates a chapter to this subject. However,
Tange did not transform into a political animal
until a certain stage of his career. Some may
argue that it was around the time he met his
second wife, who had been married into the
family that runs Le Figaro , the French conser-

Ì9 Log 24

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vative newspaper. Before that he was rather
stoic and abstemious. Even if he was very am-
bitious in propagating his ideas on the city, he
was never politically ambitious or looking to
gain political power for himself. I regret to say,
people do change. So did, perhaps, Kurokawa.
Even if he was too ambitious a person with
overt, even excessive, self-promotion, he did
not have any political ambition until the time
he was driven to the reckless action of run-
ning for Tokyo governor. Kurokawa always
behaved like a media hero anyway, but I think
even he was aware that by running for office
he had gone too far. It was a strange period for
Kurokawa then, and he seemed very different
from his most glorious days; perhaps because
he knew that his health condition was terminal,
it makes all those antics seem all the more tragic.
IA: Media can also act as an architectural plat-
form. For instance, the Metabolist manifesto
was first published in the bilingual edition
of Japan Architect , and influential texts like
Maki's "Investigations in Collective Form" or
Kurokawa's "Method and Idea of Project of
Settlement Unit" in Kenchiku Bunka, ajournai
that unfortunately has ceased publication.12
HY: This gave ground to a certain architectural
print culture in Japan, and it was very fortunate
that we had so many prominent editors. Nobòru
Kawazoe, the spokesman of the Metabolist
group, was also the editor of Shinkenchiku mag-
azine.1* As a matter of fact, there was a parallel
Tange school among the editors of architectural
periodicals in Japan. Were it not for Kazuto
Tanabe, the editor of Kokusai Kenchiku ,14
Kikutake's two urban projects, Tower-shaped
Community and Marine City, might not have
become so popular among the architectural
community. Tanabe was a graduate of Tange' s
laboratory from Tokyo University. This might
not be widely known, but Tange divided the
work in his studio between an architectural
design team and another that focused on urban
40
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research, an operational model that he later
transferred to his private office, TJRTEC, as well.
IA: What is interesting about Tange Lab's op-
erational model is that it combined a research
and a design team, which resembles the struc-
ture of OMA/AMO some 40 years later.
HY: I recently read an interview with Isozaki,
in which he recalled a conversation between
Louis Kahn and Tange, who were discussing
their imminent retirement from academia.15
Whereas Tange was happy with the prospect of
being totally devoted to design work, Kahn had
a sense of mission regarding education. Isozaki
thus suggested that Tange and his office had
become commercially oriented. I am not sure
whether this observation is accurate, or if it
just reflects Isozaki's disinterest in his mentor's
latest work. I think the urban research under-
taken at Tokyo University was very signifi-
cant for Tange, and his enthusiasm genuine.
However, he might have changed his approach
toward the time of his retirement. Rem's work
with OMA/AMO is much more polemical and,
I would say, journalistic. The research of AMO
always has a professional motive; it seeks some
sort of reimbursement. Tange Lab's research
was on the one hand academic, and on the
other totally voluntary - a fundamental dif-
ference representative of the diverse back-
grounds that Tange and Koolhaas hail from.
The research in my lab falls between the two
approaches; it started from my own intellec-
tual concern, but as I near retirement myself,
I regret that I did not push it more toward a
direction that could potentially gain additional
funds or develop prospects for its realization.
12. Kenchiku Bunka translates as Architectural Culture.
V,. Japan Architect , often referred to as simply JA, started as the
bilingual (English-Japanese) international edition of Shinkenchiku
(New Architecture).
14. Japanese architectural magazine of the time focusing on mod-
ern architecture; the title translates as International Architecture.
15. Arata Isozaki, "The Image of the Architect after 1995," in Ryuji
Fujimura and Team Roundabout, eds., Architect 2.0: the Role and
Image of Architects after 2011 (Tokyo: Shokokusha, 2011), 18-40.
Log 24
IA: And Tange achieved that through the dual
operational model of his lab?
HY: Yes, because some members of the research
team - like Atsushi Shimokobe - joined the
government, whereas others - such as Tanabe
- landed editorial positions. Tanabe was a
Marxist and much impressed by Tange' s ap-
proach to the city, so he fostered a series of
relevant issues, including one on marine tech-
nology. That is how he discovered Kikutake's
marine projects and published them. I would
say he might have even influenced the proj-
ects to some degree. Another magazine con-
nected to the Tange genealogy is Sface Design ,
which spearheaded critical discussion in Japan
after the Osaka Expo 70 and the demise of
Metabolism. Sface Design's first editor was
Keiichi Taira, who was a Tange student as well
- indeed, a contemporary of both Kawazoe
and Tanabe. Excellent editors complimented
the work of practicing architects; together they
nurtured the architectural culture of Japan.
IA: This immediately brings to mind the short-
lived (1987-1995) magazine Telescofe. Telescofe
was less a historical and critical journal and
more a set of "wandering issues" that collected
events and projects from the city, often loosely
connected to architecture per se. In other
words, a publishing experiment that investi-
gated the emergence of Tokyo's urban culture.
HY: Telescofe , a non-commercial self-published
magazine, was produced by two people: Akira
Suzuki, a former editor of Shinkenchikuy and
Kayoko Ota, who used to act as publications
and exhibitions assistant in Kurokawa's office
and is currently a member of AMO. They
approached four people to help them: the
recently deceased critic Koji Taki, Toyo Ito,
Akira Koyama, and myself. I have no idea why
they chose us. Suzuki and Ota set the basic
tone for each issue of Telescofe , which cer-
tainly focused on Tokyo urban culture, as you
41
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mentioned. Through them I got to meet Rem,
and the episode of mine with him, which I
described earlier, occurred from this meet-
ing. It is interesting to see that it drove me to
write Metabolism Nexus two decades later, and
Kayoko happened to be in charge of AMO's
new book, Project Jafan . As a matter of fact, I
believe the book started through Kayoko's ini-
tiative; she proposed a series of interviews with
the Metabolists to Stefano Boeri when he was
still editor-in-chief of Domus.
IA: Perhaps TenPlusOne ( 10+l)y which came
after Telescofe , was another common denomi-
nator in Metabolism Nexus and the Metabolist
exhibition at the Mori. Its final issue, in 2008,
which you guest edited, was dedicated to the
50-year anniversary of Metabolism and looked
into its urban and architectural aftermath.
HY: I was asked by INAX Publishing to act as
guest editor for a new architecture magazine
they were planning. I proposed two things:
first, to make ajournai that focuses 50 percent
on architecture and covers broader urban
issues in the remaining 50 percent; and second,
to ask Koji Taki to join us. So naturally 10+1
shared similar concerns with Telescofe , though
. the former was more theoretical and academic.
Taki and I eventually acted as editors for the
first four issues, and I contributed as an author
after that. When INAX decided to terminate
the publication with the fiftieth issue, they
invited me to be guest editor for one last time.
We produced an issue based on the urban
research our lab was undertaking at the time,
inviting several young scholars and critics, who
later joined the committee for "Metabolism,
the City of the Future." Hyfer Den-City is .
substantially a second volume of this last
10+1 issue.
I O ANN A ANGELIDOU IS AN ARCHITECT AND WRITER BASED
between Greece and Japan. She is in charge of the ex-
hibition "Platforms for Elastic Modernity," to open
at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, in 2012.