Modern Architecture in Japan

‘…all the burning issues in the contemporary international discourse have a particularly forceful presence on the Japanese architectural scene,’ wrote Manfredo Tafuri in L’Architettura Moderna in Giappone in 1964. ‘Working with an open mind and considerable energy, Japanese architects seem constantly to come up with concrete solutions to problems that western culture has raised, arguably with greater critical acumen, but has found much more difficult to resolve in practice.’

The celebrated architectural historian died in 1994, and his seminal work has now been translated into English for the first time.

While an outsider to Japan — he had never visited when he wrote the book — Tafuri created a rare and perspicacious commentary on Metabolism. The translation is accompanied by a series of commentaries on Tafuri and on Japanese architecture by editor and professor Mohsen Mostafavi and other authors, with original images complemented by more recent photographs that situate the original while preserving its character. The book is primarily textual, with a rigour that will reward the astute reader.