The Asian city of the 21st century through three projects by Arata Isozaki

Journal title TERRITORIO
Author/s Leonardo Ramondetti
Publishing Year 2020 Issue 2019/90 Language Italian
Pages 14 P. 7-20 File size 882 KB
DOI 10.3280/TR2019-090001
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The article discusses three projects by the Pritzker awarded architect Arata Isozaki: Incubation Process (1962), Mirage City (1992) and Solaris (2012). The projects are developed in three different periods for three different locations, and are intended by Isozaki as a way to interpret the effects produced by the ‘global tsunami’ on the urbanization process in the Far East. The architect evidences how, during the last fifty years, Asian cities have been the privileged place in which new urban forms, practices and techniques have been shaped due to unprecedented globalization conditions. Inquiring these places, and their reinterpretations through Isozaki’s work, is a way to questioning the contemporary cities, beyond the Asian context.

Keywords: Arata Isozaki; Asian city; urbanization processes

  1. Armstrong W., McGee T., 1985, Theatres of Accumulation: Studies in Asian and Latin American Urbanization. New York: Routledge Kegan & Paul.
  2. Aymonino C., 1965, Origini e sviluppo della città moderna. Venezia: Marsilio.
  3. Barattucci B., Di Russo B., 1983, a cura di, Arata Isozaki. Architetture 1959-1982. Roma: Officina Edizioni.
  4. Bie J., Jong M., Derudder B., 2015, «Greater Pearl River Delta: Historical evolution towards a global city region». Journal of Urban Technology, 22, 2: 103-123. DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2014.971575
  5. Bonino M., Governa F., Repellino M.P., Sampieri A., 2019, eds., The City After Chinese New Towns:
  6. Spaces and Imaginaries from Contemporary Urban China. Boston: Birkhauser Architecture.
  7. Brenner N.J., 2014, ed., Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Plan-etary Urbanization. Berlin: Jovis.
  8. Castells M., 1991, The Informational City: Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban-Regional Process. Oxford: Blackwell Pub. Castells M., 2004, La città delle reti. Venezia: Marsilio.
  9. de Meulder B., Lin Y., Shannon K., 2014, Village in the city: Asian vari- ations of urbanisms of inclusion. Zürich: Park Book.
  10. de Solà-Morales I., 1992, «Between Enigma and Irony. The rencent archi- tecture of Arata Isozaki». In: Isozaki, Ishimoto (1992).
  11. di Campli A., 2015, Working through Hiroshima: Arata Isozaki’s destructive visions. Roma: Carocci editore.
  12. Eisenman P., 1992, «Aratacism: On the theoretical ruins of Arata Isozaki». In: Isozaki, Ishimoto (1992).
  13. Friedman Y., 2011, L’ordine complicato: Come costruire un’immagine. Macerata: Quodlibet.
  14. Girard G., 2019, Tokyo-Yokosuka 1976-1983. Toronto: The Magenta Foundation.
  15. Girard G., Lambot I., 2014, City of Darkness Revisited. London: Water- mark Publications.
  16. Goldhagen S.W., Legault R., 2000, eds., Anxious Modernisms. Experi- mentation in Postwar Architectural Culture. Montréal : Cambridge: mit Press.
  17. Isozaki A., 1962, «City Demolition Industry, Inc». The Japan Architect, 10: 51.
  18. Isozaki A., 1972, «Control and Violation». The Japan Architect. In: Ba-rattucci, Di Russo (1983).
  19. Isozaki A., 1976, «From manner, to rhetoric, to...». The Japan Architect, 51, 3: 64.
  20. Isozaki A., 1977, «Nine quotation sources, nine metaphors». The Japan Architect: 20-21.
  21. Isozaki A., 1991, Arata Isozaki 1959-1978. Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita. Isozaki A., 1996, Island Nation Aesthetics. London: Wiley.
  22. Isozaki A., 1997a, «On Ruins+Fractures. The exhibition in the Japanese pavilion at the Sixth-Venice-Biennale-of-Architecture as lesson to be learned from the 1995 Kobe earthquake».
  23. Lotus International, 93: 34–45. Isozaki A., 1997b, The Mirage City. Another Utopia. Tokyo: ICC Intercom-munication Center Press Book.
  24. Isozaki A., 2001, Arata Isozaki. Unbuilt. Tokyo: Toto.
  25. Isozaki A., Administrative Commitee of Zhengdong New District, 2012, Zhongyuan. Traces of centuries and future steps. Venezia: La Biennale di Venezia.
  26. Isozaki A., Ishimoto Y., 1992, eds., Arata Isozaki Works 30: Architectural Models, Prints, Drawings. Tokyo: Gingko Press Inc.
  27. Jarzombek M., 2018, «Positioning the Global Imaginary: Arata Isozaki, 1970». Critical Inquiry, 44, 3: 498–527. DOI: 10.1086/696910
  28. Jenks C., 1976, «Isozaki’s Paradoxical Cube». The Japan Architect, 51, 3: 47-50.
  29. King A.D., 2004, Spaces of Global Cultures: Architecture, Urbanism, Identity. London: Routledge.
  30. Koolhaas R., 1992, «Beyond Ma(sks)». In: Isozaki, Ishimoto (1992). Koolhaas R., 2010, Singapore songlines. Ritratto di una metropoli Potem-kin… O trent’anni di tabula rasa. Macerata: Quodlibet.
  31. Koolhaas R., Chung C.J., Inaba J., Leong S.T., 2001, Great leap forward: Harvard design school project on the city. London: Taschen.
  32. Koolhaas R., Obrist H.U., 2011, Project Japan, Metabolism Talks... Lon- don: Taschen.
  33. Kurokawa K., 1991, Intercultural Architecture: The Philosophy of Symbiosis. Washington D.C: Aia Pr.
  34. Kurokawa K., 2005, Kisho Kurokawa: metabolism and symbiosis. Berlin: Jovis.
  35. Li K., Administrative Committee of Zhengdong New District, Zhengzhou Urban Planning Bureau, 2010, The Masterplan of Zhengdong New District. Guangzhou: China Construction Industry Press (in cinese).
  36. McGee T.G., 2002, «Reconstructing The Southeast Asian City in an era of volatile globalization». Asian Journal of Social Science, 30, 1: 8–27. DOI: 10.1163/15685310260188718
  37. Miyagawa A., 1976, «In the Blank of the Theory of Maniera». The Japan Architect, 51, 3: 21-26.
  38. Oshima K.T., Ibañes D., Katsikis N., 2014, «On metabolism and the Metabolists». New Geographies 06. Grounding Metabolism, 6: 98–108. Ramondetti L., 2018, «Zhengzhou. Il potenziamento della metropoli interna». Territorio, 85: 51–56. DOI: 10.3280/TR2018-085006.
  39. Ramondetti L., 2019, «Zhengdong. Empowering the Inland Metropolis».
  40. In: Bonino, Governa, Repellino, Sampieri (2019).
  41. Ren X., 2011, Building Globalization: Transnational Architecture Production in Urban China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ren X., 2013, Urban China. London: John Wiley & Sons.
  42. Ross M.F., 1978, Beyond metabolism: the new Japanese architecture. New York: Architectural Record Books.
  43. Rossi A., 1966, L’architettura della città. Milano: Il Saggiatore. Rowe C., Koetter F., 1978, Collage City. Cambridge: mit Press.
  44. Shen J., Wu F., 2017, «The Suburb as a Space of Capital Accumulation: The Development of New Towns in Shanghai, China». Antipode, 49, 3: 761–780.
  45. Sklair L., 2005, «The transnational capitalist class and contempo- rary architecture in globalizing cities». International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29, 3: 485–500.
  46. Sklair L., 2006, «Iconic architecture and capitalist globalization». City, 10, 1: 21–47. DOI: 10.1080/13604810600594613
  47. Stamps L., Stokvis W., Wigley M., Gielen M., Horst, T.V.D., 2016, Con- stant: New Babylon. To Us, Liberty. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag Gmbh & Co Kg.
  48. Stewart D.B., Yatsuka H., 1991, Arata Isozaki: Architecture, 1960-1990. New York: Rizzoli Intl Pubns.
  49. Tafuri M., 1964, L’architettura moderna in Giappone. Bologna: Cappelli. Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2019, Population of Tokyo. -- www.metro. tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/ABOUT/HISTORY/history03.htm (ultimo accesso: 2019.09.21).
  50. Venturi R., 1966, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: The Museum of Modern Art Papers on Architecture.
  51. Wang X., 2007, «Study on Zhengzhou and Kaifeng Integrated Develop- ment Under the Background of Rising of Central Area of China». Areal Research and Development, 26, 6: 28–34 (in cinese).
  52. Warwick A., McGee T.G., 1985, Theatres of Accumulation: Studies in Asian and Latin American Urbanization. London: Routledge.
  53. Wendelken C., 2000, «Putting Metabolism Back in Place: The Making of a Radically Decontextualized Architecture in Japan». In: Goldhagen, Legault (2000).
  54. Williams A., 2017, China’s Urban Revolution: Understanding Chinese Eco-Cities. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
  55. Wu F., 2006, ed., Globalization and the Chinese City. New York: Routledge. Wu F., 2015, Planning for Growth: Urban and Regional Planning in China. New York: Routledge.
  56. Xue C.Q.L., Sun L.L., Tsai L., 2011, «The architectural legacies of Kisho Kurokawa in China». The Journal of Architecture, 16, 3: 415–442. DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2011.591605
  57. Xue C.Q.L., Wang Y., Tsai L., 2013, «Building new towns in China – A case study of Zhengdong New District». Cities, 30: 223–232.
  58. Zhengzhou Municipal Statistics Bureau, 2017, Zhengzhou Statistic Data. -- http://tjj.zhengzhou.gov.cn (ultimo accesso: 2019.09.21). Zhengzhou Municipality, 2016,

Leonardo Ramondetti, La città asiatica del XXI secolo attraverso tre progetti di Arata Isozaki in "TERRITORIO" 90/2019, pp 7-20, DOI: 10.3280/TR2019-090001