Page 31 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide: Japan

A POR TR AIT OF JAP AN  29

Modern Architecture
An eclectic mix of contemporary building
styles can be seen in Japan. Kenzo Tange
(1913–2005), who built the Olympic Stadiums
in 1964 (see pp98–9), still casts a shadow over
younger designers. Foreign practi tioners, too,
have been influential.

Osaka’s Umeda Sky
The oxygen bar, in which customers inhale Building (completed
pure or scented oxygen for health and 1993) was inspired by
relaxation instead of imbibing alcohol, the 1960s’ dream of a
originated in Japan and is becoming “city in the air.” Hara
popular in other countries. Hiroshi’s twin towers
are linked by the
The Greater Tokyo conurbation Floating Garden
Observatory, which
hovers above the
city (see p206).

An amusing,
almost cartoon like
building, the Super
Dry Hall was built in
1989 by French
designer Philippe
Starck for the Asahi
beer company, near
the Sumida River in the Asakusa district of Tokyo.
International architects have designed some of
their most ambitious projects in Tokyo.

Modern Cityscapes
Shinjuku district in Tokyo, shown here (see also A modern house, designed by Tadao Ando
pp94–7), epitomizes the modern Japan ese (1941–), allows light to seep through in unusual
urban labyrinth. Buildings are constructed ways, such as through glass slots between ceiling
wherever land becomes available, using such and walls. One of the foremost contemporary
materials as aluminum, steel, and concrete. Japanese architects, Ando’s works include the
Increasingly, flexible-frame tech no logies are Himeji City Museum of Literature (see p213).
used to withstand earthquakes.

The Tokyo International Forum (see p75) is a
Manga (“comic books or shiplike structure built by the South American
cartoons”) are immensely architect Rafael Viñoly in 1996. Its glass-walled
popular in Japan, especially atrium, support ed
the genre of narrative by elegant
comics called gekiga, which columns and
emerged in the 1960s. The bars, is widely
con tent is diverse – politics, considered to
baseball, romance, martial be a master-
arts, and pornography are piece of
all popular. engineering.

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