Thread by @Furmadamadam, THREAD: So, most people associate Japanese design with either cute kitsch or [...]

THREAD: So, most people associate Japanese design with either cute kitsch or zen-like minimalism, but its much more diverse, & 1 of my particular fav periods was the architecture of its 80-90s boom era; wild, strange & incredibly diverse, & unique in world architectural history

This is the Aoyama Technical College, Aoyama, in Tokyo, by Makoto Sei Watanabe, finished in 1990

Hiroyuki Wakabayashi‘s Humax Pavilion, Shibuya, Tokyo, 1993

Hiroyuki Wakabayashi‘s Life Inn Kyoto, Private senior citizens residence, 1986

Hiroyuki Wakabayashi‘s Maruto Bldg. No.17, Kyoto, Japan, 1991

Hotel Marion, Kyoto

Toyokazu Watanabe‘s battleship-like Kamo Culture Hall finished in 1994

Toyokazu Watanabe‘s absolutely incredible Akita City Gymnasium from 1991

Bunka No Sato, Cultural Centre, Tsushima Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, Toyokazu Watanabe, 1990
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Image unknown source

Toyokazu Watanabe‘s Kamiyubetsu Folk Museum from 1996
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Image unknown source

Shin Takamatsu‘s Imanishi Motoakasaka, Tokyo, from 1991. This one is an absolute mind bender in real life...

A couple more photos of Shin Takamatsu‘s Imanishi Motoakasaka

Shin Takamatsu’s Syntax in Kyoto from 1990, sadly demolished in 2009

Shin Takamatsu’s Kirin Plaza in Osaka from 1987 has also been demolished, but lives on in numerous photos of the other-worldly prominence it used to have in the centre of that city
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Photo from the architect’s site

Shin Takamatsu‘s Pharaoh Dental Clinic in Kyoto from 1984...
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This beautiful photo is by David Ewen

Kiko Mozuna‘S Kushiro Castle Hotel in Kushiro. Mozuna built a remarkable oeuvre in and around his hometown, the fishing city of Kushiro in Hokkaido

Probably the greatest monument to this era is also one of its last, and I believe the largest, to be completed, Hiroshi Hara’s incomparably spectacular, and overwhelmingly vast Kyoto station, begun in 1990 & finished in 1997
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Photo courtesy of Linus Yng

And of course there’s Hara’s Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, the hole on the top of which you rise through on two vertiginous escalators, & was imagined as the void left by a departed spaceship...
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Photo from Wikipedia

The project was originally intended to consist of four interconnected towers rather than two, and was to be called Umeda Sky City, rather than Umeda Sky Building. The implosion of the bubble put paid to that sadly...

The Airake Sports Center, Sewage treatment, Restaurants, & offices, in Tokyo, designed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Waterworks with GKK Architects & Engineers & completed in 1996

The sublime, perfectly terrifying, Akira-like awesomeness that is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government complex by Kenzo Tange... this is Building No.1 (whose overall silhouette recalls the westwork of Notre Dame), completed in 1990.
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This exquisite photo is by Fabrizio Raschetti

Takefumi Aida built a series of houses inspired by children’s building blocks, but with none of the candy playfulness of Memphis or Graves, instead a sombre sadness inflects all his designs. This is Toy Block House IV, from 1982

This is the typically highly articulated chiaroscuro interior of Takamatsu’s tiny Pharaoh Dental Clinic in Kyoto, whose exterior is posted further up this thread.
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Photo from the architect’s site

The interior of Hiroshi Hara’s Hara House in Tokyo

Takefumi Aida’s Toy-Block House

Week Building by Shin Takamatsu, Kyoto, 1986

Masaharu Takasaki‘s celestial insect, the Kihoku Observatory in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kanoya City, Kihoku Town, 1995
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Photo by Jacome on Flickr, source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacomejp/8921433258

Here are another couple of good images of Takasaki’s Observatory, taken from this good post: http://hiddenarchitecture.net/kihoku-astronomical-museu/

Kiko Mozuna‘S Gifu CUT building, in Gifu-city, from 1987
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Image from http://tkcycling.tumblr.com

The brilliantly sinister, end-of-days M2 building by Kengo Kuma in Tokyo from 1991 (I still think his best Building). It was originally a car showroom but is now, more aptly, a funeral home
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Photo from the architect’s site

Lala Gotemba, Gotemba, Shizuoka, Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, 1993

Images from : http://minkara.carview.co.jp/smart/userid/511048/car/445995/3877600/photo.aspx

House Tenchi by Takasaki Masaharu, Nagoya (from 2009 but keeping the flame alive)

Hiroshi Hara‘s Yamato International Headquarters in Tokyo, from 1986

Suzuki Edwards’ pointy helmet Shibuya Police Box, Tokyo, 1985

Some more photos of the Humax Pavilion in Shibuya, Tokyo, by Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, 1992

Shin Takamatsu's Origin 3, Kyoto, 1986

Apartments in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto-fu, Japan, Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, 1991
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Image unknown source

Shin Takamatsu's Origin 3, Kyoto, 1981. That’s my brother in the photo

Look at the tiny people for a sense of scale... the floating megastructure of the Edo-Tokyu Museum, Tokyo, by Kiyonori Kikutake, 1993

Heres me underneath it

Japan Times Nifco Building, Sakakura Associates, Tokyo, 1992

The mind-boggling Site of Reversible Destiny in Gifu Prefecture, by Arakawa Shusaka & Madeline Gins

Pavilion in the Site of Reversible Destiny, Yoro Park in Gifu, 1995, Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins
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Image unknown source

Shin Takamatsu’s Earthtecture Sub-1 from 1991, Tokyo

And here with my awesome friend Alyssa

Kushiro City Museum, Hokkaido, by Kiko Mozuna
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Image unknown source

Kushiro Public University of Economics, Hokkaido, Kiko Mozuna

Fishermen's Wharf, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Kiko Mozuna

A couple more photos of the Humax Pavilion, Shibuya, Tokyo, Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, 1993

And an interior shot by Stirling Elmendorf

An odd one im throwing in, progenitor of many diverse architectures: Kazuo Shinohara’s phenomenal, and incredibly fresh-feeling House in Uehara, Tokyo, from 1976, 42 years old now but as intriguing and relevant as ever.

Kansai Airport Express Train, Osaka, Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, 1995 (so much better than the actual airport)

Building in Kyoto

Unagidani Children Museum, Osaka, Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, 1989
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Images source http://uratti.web.fc2.com/architecture/wakabayashi/childrenmu.htm http://www.geocities.jp/maharajastory/57ohenro5.html

Maruto Building No.15, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, 1990
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Image from http://ikazamay.wordpress.com

Here an article I wrote on the subject in Icon Magazine, though obviously I would like to write a book on it... link: http://text-bin.blogspot.com/2017/04/architecture-of-japanese-bubble.html?m=1

Matris, Kazuo Kashinaga, 1993, Aoyama, Tokyo (It’s like Tadao Ando had a nervous breakdown)

The Spiral Building, Fumihiko Maki, Omotesando, Tokyo, 1985.
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Image unknown source

House in Aoyama, Tokyo

Mixed use building in Shinjuku, Tokyo

Another angle of Kenzo Tange’s astounding magnum opus, the exquisitely fine and incomparably vast Tokyo Metropolitan Government Complex, Building no1, 1988-91

K-Museum by Makoto Sei Watanabe, Tokyo, 1996.
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Photo by Stefano Perego.

Ooh I should’ve done this earlier, this is a book i wrote on Postmodernism around the world & its historical legacy, it’s authoritative & has lots of great images too... get a copy https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/185946632X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_d8uEDb4PS6K9A

However I’d like to do a book on Japanese Bubble Architecture... any publishers interested just shoot me an email

Tea House by Terunobu Fujimori, Yatsugatake, Japan, 2005

Kumamoto Police Station, Japan, Kazuo Shinohara, 1990
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Photo by wakiiii on Flickr

Week Building, Shin Takamatsu, Kyoto, Japan, 1986

Okamuro House, Toyokazu Watanabe, Japan, 1981

Kikō Mozuna, Nusamai Junior High School, Hokkaido Prefecture, Kushiro, Japan, 1986

Ining 23, Shin Takamatsu, 1990

Photo by ellen's attic on Flickr

Even construction sites in Japan can be incredible objecrs of aesthetic delight... Mobile construction gantry for an overhead high speed railway line, Yokohama, Japan
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Image unknown source

Tattoo, Sapporo, Shin Takamatsu, 1989

Some more models & drawings of Hiroshi Hara’s highrise masterpiece, the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, 1988-93, last image with my reflection in it

Sumitomo Pavilion Illusion Cube, Tsukuba Expo'85, Japan by Shigeo Fukuda

Zero Cosmology House, Takasaki Masaharu, 1991, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan

Dental clinic in Hiratsuka, 1973, by Kazumasa Yamashita.

Tarō Okamoto's Tower of the Sun, Osaka Expo 1970

Hotel Kawahisa, Nanki Shirahama Hot Spring, Nagata Yūzō, 1989

http://nagatakk.com/%e4%bd%9c%e5%93%81%e4%b8%80%e8%a6%a7/%e3%83%9b%e3%83%86%e3%83%ab%e5%b7%9d%e4%b9%85/

54 Windows, Clinic & Residence, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan, Kazuhiro Ishii, 1975

Bridge for Our Generation, Kazuhiro Ishii, Kanagawa, 1986

facade designed by 13 architects...

Shonandai Cultural Center, 1990, Itsuko Hasegawa

Tamana City Observatory Museum, Takasaki Masaharu, 1992 http://takasaki-architects.co.jp/tamana.html

A late addition which is nonethless as fabulously expressive as his earlier buildings, from 2000, is Iidabashi Station in Tokyo by Makoto Sei Watanabe (architect of the first building in this thread)

Image source https://tokyobling.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/bioarchitecture-subway-station-in-iidabashi/

This is Watanabe’s superdynamic K Museum in Tokyo from 1996

https://makoto-architect.com/K_museum.html

Ichiban-Kan, Tokyo, Minoru Takeyama, 1969 (!) He was very much a precursor of all the bubble architecture I’ve been sharing...

Photo by ag.sklm on igram

I don’t know who designed it, but I’ve always found Hibiya park’s ancient-hypermodern bandstand pavilion in Tokyo’s mix-up of architectural elements to be totally fascinating.

Some of these architects continue to produce amazing work in this spirit to this day, including Terunobu Fujimori... here is his Roof House in Shiga Prefecture, 2009