Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture: Humans (edX)

Economic miracle, environmental problems, bubble economy and its collapse, information technology and globalization, earthquakes, population decline, pandemic... The nearly 60 years between the two Tokyo Olympics, 1964 and 2021, was a turbulent time for humans in Japan. During this period, how has architecture changed? And what happened to humans that architecture was supposed to have supported?

This course on “Humans” will review the works of those architects who have attempted to conceptualize humans through their architecture and examine the changes over the last half century as well as the issues for the future. Hiroshi Hara, Toyo Ito, Osamu Ishiyama, Kengo Kuma, Satoko Shinohara, and Sou Fujimoto visit their buildings to discuss the ideas behind their respective works.

This course is part of the Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture XSeries Program.

What you'll learn

- Development of contemporary Japanese architecture since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

- Features of works of influential Japanese architects

- Unique technologies used for contemporary Japanese architecture

- Present concerns and potential future directions for contemporary Japanese architecture