earticle

영어

1)Over the past two decades after the collapse of the bubble economy, Japanese architecture emerged onto the international stage as one of the most influential in contemporary architecture. However, its emergence to a position of such acclaim is intriguing in that unlike the past generations of architects in the modern era, the leading Japanese architects practicing today do not share a strong paradigm nor operate as a cohesive group. Nonetheless, there exists lineage of relationships and cross-pollination of ideas which have developed into shared architectural tendencies. The similar architectural sensibility is particularly evident in the younger generation of architects who have established their practice in the years following the collapse of the bubble economy. These generations of practitioners show tendencies to strive for diagrammatic quality, flimsy and light minimalism, and two-dimensional spatiality in their work. Distinctive qualities which are increasingly being identified with the leading architects practicing in Japan currently. The critical examination of the selected works produced by the architects reveals certain paradoxical ideas appears to be at work. First, utilizing what is a fundamentally explanatory device, diagram, as a performative device and the end goal. Second, striving for minimalistic aesthetics of utmost simplicity which require complex and extraordinary levels of work. Third, striving for two-dimensional spatiality in what is a three-dimensional discipline in its core. While such seemingly arbitrary and stylistic inclinations have attracted some criticism, such inclinations appear to have been shaped by the cultural sensibility, societal change, and needs of an era.