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...

The Tokyo Toilet Project: Pritzker Prize winners Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, and Fumihiko Maki among designers of new public restrooms

2020-08-17T14:36:00-04:00

Noteworthy Japanese architects, and even some Pritzker Prize laureates, are among the creators of 17 innovative public restroom designs throughout the bustling Shibuya area of Tokyo. Launched by the non-profit The Nippon Foundation, THE TOKYO TOILET project hopes to create save, clean, and appealing facilities "to make them accessible for everyone regardless of gender, age, or disability, to demonstrate the possibilities of an inclusive society."

Five of the 17 planned facilities, envisioned by Shigeru Ban, Fumihiko Maki, Masamichi Katayama/Wonderwall, and Nao Tamura, have recently opened to the public while more are expected to launch later this year and in 2021.

The Tadao Ando-designed restroom is scheduled to open on September 7th. Toilets created by Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, and Sou Fujimoto will be available next year.

Take a look at the initiative's first five releases below.

Designer: Shigeru Ban

Project description: "There are two things we worry about when entering a public r...

Fumihiko Maki featured in PLANE—SITE's next Time-Space-Existence video

2018-02-14T12:36:00-05:00

One of the world’s foremost living modernists, AIA Gold Medalist and Pritzker laureate Fumihiko Maki's celebrated career stretches over 60 years. Steering clear of “unnecessary forms or textures” (as he puts it), his designs are understated integrations of metal, glass and concrete. Like other Japanese architects of his generation, Maki has spent a lifetime unafraid to embrace new technologies while insisting on their humanity.

Four World Trade Center © Tectonic

Aga Khan Museum © Shinkenchiku-sha

Fumihiko Maki was trained under Kenzo Tange at the University of Tokyo, going on to graduate from Harvard GSD and work at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and Sert Jackson and Associates. He later returned to Tokyo and started his own firm, Maki and Associates.

Spiral © Toshiharu Kitajima

In this new video for the Time-Space-Existence series, Maki discusses the importance in acknowledging human behavior in architecture, the strange shapes of today’s skyscrapers, and the influence of his mentor, ...

China's new Design Society launches with V&A collaboration

2017-12-04T14:42:00-05:00

The Design Society, China’s first dedicated cultural design hub, opened its doors this weekend in Shenzhen. Established by China Merchants Shekou (CMSK), the group aims to create a platform for global collaboration and creativity giving China a center point for design and innovation. The opening also launched The Sea World Culture and Arts Center (SWCAC) working in tandem with the Design Society. China's new center is designed by Fumihiko Maki and features a roof park, several public plazas, and a range of horizon views.

Design Society, Shenzhen, China. Photo: Design Society.

This opening is the result of a collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum, a partnership consisting of professional training, concept design, and the center's site-specific inaugural exhibition, Values of Design, along with two major touring V&A exhibitions. In sync with this initiation, The Design Society has an open invitation for future collaborations and partnerships as part of a larger effort to pr...

Hadid and Japanese at loggerheads over ‘turtle-like’ Olympic stadium

2014-12-10T13:59:00-05:00

“They don’t want a foreigner to build in Tokyo for a national stadium. On the other hand, they all have work abroad. Whether it’s Sejima, Toyo Ito, or Maki or Isozaki or Kengo Kuma.” Last month Isozaki, 83, wrote an open letter to the Japan Sports Council, the government body in charge of plans for the 2020 Games, in which he attacked the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form”.

Previously

Toronto set to unveil first museum of Islamic culture in North America

2014-09-11T13:49:00-04:00

The Aga Khan Museum, which opens Sept. 18, offers a welcome antidote to these clichés through art that celebrates the rich cultural history of the Islamic world. The building’s architect, Fumihiko Maki of Japan, has used geometric patterns inspired by the great mosques of classical Islam, repeating them in the inlaid floor of the courtyard, etched glass, and wood screens in the auditorium.

Maki to design Muslim cultural centre for the Aga Khan

2012-10-15T15:09:00-04:00

World-renowned Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki is to design a Muslim cultural centre and university on the 67-acre King’s Cross development for the Aga Khan. The 84-year-old Pritzker prizewinner has been appointed to draw up plans for the two buildings by the Aga Khan Development Network, an 80,000-strong organisation headed by the leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims.

Is 4 World Trade Center Better Than the Big One? Inside the Other Tower About to Top Out

2012-06-12T13:49:00-04:00

That a 977-foot tower has gone unnoticed is partly the point. Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, 4 World Trade Center has a quiet splendor hidden within its still skin. Like the original Twin Tower, 1 World Trade Center still imposes itself on the skyline. By contrast, 4 World Trade Center becomes a part of it.

Video inside the new 4 WTC, which is two floors from completion.

Maki and FXFowle Get to Work on U.N. Tower

2011-10-20T14:24:00-04:00

[FXFowle Principal Dan] Kaplan explained that much of the design work had been completed for a 35-story tower on the site, and while it will not change significantly, it does require some updating.

Following a land deal with New York City, the U.N. is back to work on building a new tower to house its operations across the street from the under-renovation U.N. Secretariat. Fumihiko Maki, who was selected in a Pritzker-only competition in 2004, is back to work on the project, along with local partner FXFowle.

Beam me up, Fumihiko Maki

2011-04-19T11:25:31-04:00

Pritzker prize-winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki uses a transition space to elevate the crematorium's customary banality and create an uplifting place that comforts the grief-stricken. In his Kaze-no-Oka Crematorium in Nakatsu, Maki achieves this by creating a chamber with no roof.

Correa, Maki Tapped to Design Aga Khan Center

2008-10-07T09:48:00-04:00

One of the world’s great architecture patrons has hired two distinguished architects—the Indian Modernist Charles Correa and Pritzker Prize winner Fumihiko Maki—to design a $200-million cultural and religious complex in Toronto. ArchRecord | Slideshow