The architectural legacies of Kisho Kurokawa in China

Journal of Architecture

Volumn 16, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 415-442

  Xue, Charlie Q L ^a   Sun, Lesley L ^b   Tsai, Luther ^a  

^a CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG   (Hong Kong)

^b TONGJI UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79960760579     PISSN: 13602365     EISSN: 14664410     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2011.591605     Document Type: Review

References (43)

1. For Japanese building design in Northeast China, see Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren, Modernism in China-architectural visions and revolution (New York, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2008).
2. In the early years after China adopted the open door policy, publications on Japanese architecture include Qiu Xiuwen, 'The works and viewpoints of Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa', Architectural Journal, 5 (1980), pp.58-63;
3. Wang Tan, 'Japanese architecture after the war', World Architecture, 1 (1981), pp.6-8;
4. Tong Jun, Riben jinxiandai jianzhu (Modern Japanese Architecture), (Beijing, Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe, 1983).
5. Jianfei Zhu, Architecture of modern China: a historical critique (Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2009), p.11On the topic of 'Westernisation' and modernisation,
6. see also Samual P. Huntington, The clash of civilization and the remaking of world order, (New York, Simon & Shuster, 1996).
7. On importing foreign architectural design and ideas to China, see Charlie Q. L. Xue, Building a Revolution: Chinese Architecture Since 1980 (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2006);
8. Charlie Q. L. Xue, The Global Impact: Overseas Architectural Design in China (Shanghai, Tongji University Press, 2006);
9. Charlie Q. L. Xue, World Architecture in China (Hong Kong, Joint Publication Co. Ltd., 2010).
10. For modern Japanese architecture and its influences, see Boton Bognar, Contemporary Japanese architecture: its development and challenge (New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985).
11. and Dana Buntrock, Materials and Meaning in contemporary Japanese Architecture-tradition and today (London and New York, Routledge, 2010).
12. Christopher Knabe and Joerg Rainer Noennig, eds, Shaking the Foundations: Japanese Architects in Dialogue (New York, Prestel Verlag, 1999), p.20.
13. For the modern architectural history of Japan, see Terunobu Fujimori, Nihon No Kindai Kentiku (Modern Japanese architecture) (Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten Publishers, 1993).
14. Kisho Kurokawa, '1960 Design Conference and the birth of the metabolic group', New Architecture (Japan, Interim Supplement, November, 1978).
15. Kisho Kurokawa, 'Symbiotic City'Architectural Journal, 4 (Beijing, 2001), pp.7-12.
16. The philosophy of Kisho Kurokawa is mainly derived from: Kisho Kurokawa, Philosophy of Urban Design and Its Planning Method (Tokyo, Shokokusha Publishing Co. Ltd., 1996).
17. After the conservative forces were removed in 1976, China gradually followed a path of openness to the world. The late 1970s and early 1980s are also called China's renaissance. See Jonathan D. Spence, The search for modern China (New York, Norton, 1990).
18. Kisho Kurokawa, Each One a Hero: The Philosophy of Symbiosis (Tokyo, London and New York, Kodansha International Ltd., 1997), p.42: this text provides a definition of 'symbiosis.
19. and Wu Yaodong, Renben xiandai jianzhu (Modern Japanese architecture) (Tianjin, Tianjin kexue jishu chuban she, 1997).
20. The basic project information for the Chinese-Japanese Youth Exchange Centre is from Kisho Kurukawa Architect & Associates's official website, see: http://www.kisho.co.jp/. Half a year after the ground-breaking ceremony, Hu Yaobang, the project proposer and Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, stepped down from the political struggle. The project was delayed for a while.
21. Concerning the use of geometry, see Each One a Hero: The Philosophy of Symbiosis, op. cit., pp.352-357.
22. Lu Jun, Chinese-Japanese Youth Centre Documentary: 'Dance in the tune of friendship', 21st Century Magazine, 6 (1995), pp.48-50.
23. Li Zongze, 'Architecture: History, Culture, Space', Architectural Journal, 3 (1991), pp. 33-39.
24. Most of the buildings designed by foreign architects in the 1980s were taken as role models in China because of their importance in the city. See Charlie Q. L. Xue and Yingchun Li, 'Importing American Architecture In China - a case study of John Portman & Associates' practice in Shanghai', The Journal of Architecture, Vol.13, No.3 (Routledge, 2008), pp.317-333;
25. Charlie Q. L. Xue, Nu Peng and Brian Mitchenere, 'Japanese architectural design in Shanghai: a brief review of the past thirty years', The Journal of Architecture, Vol.14, No.5 (Routledge, 2009), pp.615-634.
26. One of the hot topics in the 1980s was 'national form' and Chinese identity, evidenced by a large amount of publications. In China's major architectural journals, almost a quarter of articles were on this topic. The word in the quotation marks is from Jianfei Zhu, 'Criticality formal and social, in China and the West', The Journal of Architecture, Vol.12, No.2, (Routledge, 2007), pp.203-207.
27. 'Comments on the architectural design of the Chinese-Japanese Youth Centre', Architectural Journal, 3 (1991), pp.40-41.
28. The planning facts about Zhengdong New District are taken from Charlie Q. L. Xue and Wang Ying, 'Strategies and Implementation on Planning-Rethinking on Zhengdong New District planned by Kisho Kurokawa', The Architect, 146 (Beijing, 2010), pp. 14-20. Planning drawing is from the documents prepared by Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates. Several other town plans designed by foreign architects were built in China in the twenty-first century-for example, around six suburban towns in Shanghai-but the Zhengdong new district was a couple of years earlier than in the Shanghai examples.
29. Among 660 Chinese cities, 183 expressed the ambition to become 'international metropolises', regardless of their history, position and conditions. This was criticised by the State Council of China in 2005. See http://msn.ynet.com/view.jsp?oid=5946148&pageno=1
30. The positioning of Zhengzhou is revealed in the government website, http://www.zhengdong.gov.cn/zd/dqgk/dqgk/A090106index-1.htm
31. 'Chengshi guihua ye gua chongyang feng' (Urban planning also worships foreigners), China Economics Weekly, 36 (2006), pp.38-39.
32. Quoted from Anna Klingmann, Brandscapes: architecture in the experience economy (Boston, MA., The MIT Press, 2007), p.8.
33. Concerning Ordos, Inner Mongolia, see B. Powell, 'Inside China's Runaway Building Boom', Time Magazine (April 5th, 2010): retrieved from, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1975336,00.html.
34. On the 'One city and nine towns' of Shanghai, see Charlie Q. L. Xue and Minghao Zhou, 'Importation and Adaptation: Building "One City and Nine Towns" in Shanghai, a case study of Vittorio Gregotti's plan of Pujiang Town', Urban Design International, Vol.12 (UK, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2007), pp.21-40.
35. The number of visitors to Zhengdong is reported in its government website, http://www.zhengdong.gov.cn/zd/dqgk/dqgk/webinfo/2008/07/ 1215480781966905.htm
36. 'Yilanzhai Museum, China's largest private museum in Nanjing to build', see, http://news.artxun.com/shoujuan-1293-6460004.shtml. Kurokawa's confidence might come from his continuous winning of various awards. Some of Kurokawa's other building designs won twenty-five year awards from the Japan Institute of Architects: for example, the Headquarters of the Red Cross Society (1977) and the Fukuoka Bank (1975).
37. Fang Zhengning, 'Kisho Kurokawa's colour Nanjing: Nanjing Yilanzhai Museum, E-magazine 'SPACE', 7 (2007), pp.84-85:
38. see, http://www.gotoread.com/s/e/?vo=5365&p=84.
39. This is from the website, http://paper.people.com.cn/jnsb/html/2008-05/ 16/content-48543813.htm
40. About the ecology of China's private art museums, see, http://culture.people.com.cn/GB/11294118.html
41. Global architects working overseas, including China, have a long tradition stemming from the eighteenth century. For the general export of architectural design, see Jeffery W. Cody, Exporting American architecture, 1870-2000 (London and New York, Routledge, 2003);
42. Donald McNeill, The global architect -firms, fame and urban form (London and New York, Routledge, 2009). Both books describe the hardships and pleasures of designing overseas.
43. Ma Guoxin, 'Zhongri jiaoliu yi heichuang' ('Memory of Kisho Kurokawa'), Architectural Journal, 11 (Beijing, 2007), pp. 98-100.