Archinect - News

Fumihiko Maki, a leading icon of modern Japanese architecture, passes away in Tokyo aged 95

2024-06-12T12:56:00-04:00

Fumihiko Maki, the 1993 Pritzker Prize laureate and a leading figure in Japan's Metabolism movement, passed away in Tokyo on June 6th, his Maki and Associates firm announced late Tuesday. He was 95.

Maki was born in Tokyo in 1928 and immigrated to America to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and then the Harvard GSD, working in the New York offices of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) and for Josep Lluís Sert's Cambridge, Massachusetts studio before returning to Japan to found his own practice in 1965.

Online, Maki is being remembered for his many varied important works spread across three continents. Fans will recall his visionary contribution to the rich lineage of residential architecture in his home country, most notably the multiphase Hillside Terrace Apartments (completed between 1967 and 1992) that garnered several awards, including the country's prestigious Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in 1973.

Maki's MIT Media Lab (E14) building, home to the Jerome Leme...

Concrete corrosion and disrepair: Holding on to the Nakagin Capsule Tower

2021-05-11T19:30:00-04:00

The infamous Nakagin Capsule Tower has mesmerized architects, designers, and architecture enthusiasts for decades. Whether you're a fan of Japanese Metabolist architecture or not, many continue to share a fondness and adoration towards the mixed-use residential and office tower designed by Kisho Kurokawa in 1972.

Archinect's brief coverage of the tower and talk of its demolition in 2005 was a glimpse into the now sixteen-year discussion and debate regarding the fate of the Nakagin Capsule Tower. Recently, a report from the Tokyo Reporter shared the latest details regarding what is to come of Tokyo's well-known metabolism tower. According to the Tokyo-based news outlet," the management association for the tower has decided to sell it. The move clouds the future of the structure, which could be headed for demolition [...] A preservation push has been ongoing. But the management association for the building, which consists of capsule owners, voted to sell the building to the landowner ...