Collage City

I would like to call Tokyo a "collage city". That is probably the best term I can think of right now. By collage I don't just mean the city is composed by layers of architectural movements, but the influence of post-war Metabolism. I think the reason why Tokyo is such a unique city is because of how thoroughly they carried out that idea. Couple terms from the Metabolism, like: human society, technology, cluster, mobility are actually pretty accurate words to describe the city. With the post-war population increasing and the rise of auto-mobile usage, both human and machine helped shape the metropolis. 

Metabolism classic: Nakagin Capsule Tower, Kisho Kurokawa, 1972

With collage city comes complexity and chaos. "Chaos" is always like a taboo word for architecture major, but I think, yes, under all these calculated structures, they create some sort of chaos all together. It is this kind of chaos that turns the city into an incubator of cultures and ideas. One example would be Katsuhiro Otomo’s cult classic Akira (1988). For me the film is like an extension of Metabolism in an alternative format. It is about the outsiders of the society in the great Neo-Tokyo setting. The Neo-Tokyo itself is heavily influenced by all the megastructures and developement around the time. Katsuhiro Otomo did not just invent a brand new world by himself. He followed the trend carefully and multiplied its scale. 

Akira (1988)

Fuji Television Building (1996) - Kenzo Tange

From my observation, the complexity created by the Metabolism was unlike most architectural movements because the aesthetic was not what driven it. Metabolism did not dictate what the infrastructure should look like. It only provided the backbone of design. That is why the design can be so diverse. It is mixed of colors, materiality, proportions, human scales, and machines. 

What amazed me the most this trip was that human somehow developed a whole new way of dwelling within the collage city. I've never felt the word "urbanism" so much until this trip. Before urban environment for me was just a district full of tall buildings. Tokyo provided not only that verticality, but also the intricacy of horizontality as well. A lot of the design and architecture felt "spontaneous" and "intuitive", like they are all part of a larger organism. 

Tokyo Big Site, 1996

The Tokyo Big Site is located on the artificial island of Tokyo. I was shocked by the monumentality of it especially when standing at the center plaza. Look at how four inverted pyramids can achieve timelessness. The building was built in 1996 yet it feels like something that can be done in the distant future. The escalator from the side makes the scale even more dramatic, I personally think it's a great gesture. 

That was some of my thoughts throughout this trip. Everytime I visit Tokyo, I get some sort of architectural epiphany. LIke I stated, a lot of it came from the diverse products of the Metabolism. Let's end the blog post with one of my favorite post-modern buildings: the K-Museum by Makoto Sei Watanabe in 1996. I like the sculptural compostition of the project along with its contrast with the artificial landscape and installation. The balance of the materiality is also well-handled. Unfortunately, the museum has been abandoned for a while so I couldn't take a look at the interior.

K-Museum, Makoto Sei Watanabe, 1996