Back to the future Visionary architecture in postwar Japan “Oncethere was a nation that went to war, but after they conquered acontinent their own country was destroyed by atom bombs... then thevictors imposed democracy on the vanquished. For a group of apprenticearchitects, artists, and designers, led by a visionary, the diresituation of their country was not an obstacle but an inspiration toplan and think… although they were very different characters, thearchitects worked closely together to realize their dreams, staunchlysupported by a super-creative bureaucracy and an activist state... after15 years of incubation, they surprised the world with a newarchitecture—Metabolism—that proposed a radical makeover of the entireland... Then newspapers, magazines, and TV turned the architects intoheroes: thinkers and doers, thoroughly modern men… Through sheer hardwork, discipline, and the integration of all forms of creativity, theircountry, Japan, became a shining example... when the oil crisisinitiated the end of the West, the architects of Japan spread out overthe world to define the contours of a post-Western aesthetic....” —RemKoolhaas / Hans Ulrich Obrist Between 2005 and 2011, architect Rem Koolhaas and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist interviewed the surviving members of Metabolism—the first non-western avant-garde, launched in Tokyo in 1960, in the midst of Japan’s postwar miracle. Project Japanfeatures hundreds of never-before-seen images—master plans fromManchuria to Tokyo, intimate snapshots of the Metabolists at work andplay, architectural models, magazine excerpts, and astonishing sci-fiurban visions—telling the 20th century history of Japan through its architecture, from the tabula rasaof a colonized Manchuria in the 1930s to a devastated Japan after thewar, the establishment of Metabolism at the 1960 World Design Conferencein Tokoy, to the rise of Kisho Kurokawa as the first celebrityarchitect, to the apotheosis of Metabolism at Expo ’70 in Osaka and itsexpansion into the Middle East and Africa in the 1970s. The result is avivid documentary of the last moment when architecture was a publicrather than a private affair.?

About the editor and author: Rem Koolhaas is a co-founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Having worked as a journalist and script writer before becoming an architect, in 1978 he published Delirious New York, a retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA and established connections of contemporary society and architecture. Amongst many international awards and exhibitions he received the Pritzker Prize (2000) and the Praemium Imperiale (2003). About the author: Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a curator, critic and historian. He is currently Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Obrist is the author of The Interview Project, an extensive ongoing project of interviews.

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