Arata Isozaki
(b. 1931), Japanese architect. Born in Oita City, Japan, Arata Isozaki took an approach to architecture that was rooted in postwar art movements. His work has been described as "conceptual architecture" (Drew 1982: 18). Isozaki often used quotation to establish a certain sense of displacement; many of these references were obscure and personal, including distorted abstractions referring to Mickey Mouse and Marilyn Monroe, but a number also drew from the Western architectural canon.
In the 1960s Isozaki was best known for his drawings of dystopian structures rising from ruins. Isozaki's concurrent buildings reflected a fascination with technology, but were deliberately cold and abstract, rejecting their surroundings. In the 1970s, this abstraction grew pronounced; Isozaki developed a series that toyed with cubic volumes and barrel vaults to achieve a neutral emptiness. Inevitably, the emergence of postmodern architecture in the West during the1980s created many opportunities for Isozaki to work abroad, particularly in Spain and the United States, but his biting approach was frequently lost in the translation.
The 1990s and beyond saw Isozaki return to a criticism of technology, often juxtaposed with fragments from Western architecture. Throughout his career, Isozaki was a prolific essayist, and his writings offer a remarkable commentary, not only on his own work, but also on the trends influencing architects both in Japan and abroad.
Further Reading
Arata Isozaki. (1991) Arata Isozaki: Architecture 1960–1990. New York: Rizzoli.
——. (1998) Arata Isozaki: Four Decades of Architecture. Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art.
Drew, Phillip. (1982) The Architecture of Arata Isozaki. New York: Harper & Row.
Stewart, David, ed. (1991) Arata Isozaki, 1960/1990. Tokyo: Executive Committee for Arata Isozaki, Architecture, 1960/1990.
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