Architect

KENZO TANGEKENZO TANGE

"Architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart, but even then, basic forms, spaces and appearances must be logical. Creative work is expressed in our time as a

union of technology and humanity".

Kenzo Tange _history

• Born in 1913 in Osaka and lived in Imabari, Japan

• Graduate from the University of Tokyo's Department of Architecture, he worked for four years in the office of Kunio Maekawa, an important disciple of Le Corbusier.

• In 1942 assistant professor in University of Tokyo Graduate School.

• Established Tange Laboratory where young associates such as ...Sachio Otani, Fumihiko Maki, Koji Kamiya, and Kisho Kurokawa exchanged fruitful ideas.

• Tange spearheaded the country’s reconstruction after World War II and played an important role in his country's rebirth and economic upswing

Kenzo Tange _his journey

• 1949 – selected winner of design competition to build peace park & peace center hiroshima.

• In the 1950's Tange was strongly influenced by Le Corbusier as well as by the Renaissance Master, Michelangelo.

• He was also greatly influenced by traditional Japanese architecture which is clearly expressed in the Kagawa Prefectural Office, 1958

Kenzo Tange _his journey

• In 1960's, he focussed most of his time into urban Planning.

• The buildings Tange continued to plan were part of a spatial context concerned with great metropolitan areas. Such ideas into the nature of the urban structure were at the core of the Tokyo Plan, 1960, expressing a change from mere functionalism toward structuralism.

Hiroshima Peace Park

Fuji T.V Center

St.Mary’s Cathedral Olympic Gymnasium

The Cocoon

Shizuoka Press Bldg.Tokyo Dome Hotel

Hanae Mori Bldg.

Kyoto SchoolYoyogi Center

Grand Prince Hotel Tokyo Mid-Town Bldg.

Shinatra R&D Center

St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo

St. Mary's Cathedral (1963)

• St. Mary's Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo.

• The original structure of 1899 was a wooden building in the Gothic style. It was burned during world war 2.

• Kenzo Tange won the competition for the reconstruction of this church in 1961.

• Tange conceived the new church as a concrete structure, simple in concept and complex in shape, which gives an impression of the lightness of a bird and its wings.

St. Mary's Cathedral (1963)

• The plan of the building is in the form of a cross, from which the walls, eight hyperbolic parabolas, rise up at an angle. These open upwards to form a cross of light which continues vertically the on length of the four facades.

• The bell tower is 60 m in height and stands at a little distance from the cathedral center whose interior is finished in exposed concrete

• The exterior surfaces are clad in stainless steel, which gives them a special radiance in keeping with the religious character of the building

Peace Memorial Park Museum, Hiroshima

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Complex,

• In 1949, Tange won a national competition to design a Peace Park in central Hiroshima.

• Hiroshima Peace Memorial is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a Nuclear attack, and to the memories of the bomb's direct and indirect victims.

• The complex, comprising a memorial, a museum, a community center, and an auditorium-hotel building, was completed in 1956.

• The free-standing memorial monument, a dramatic saddle-like arch made of reinforced concrete, is a 20th-century statement that recalls a building type in which the tombs of prehistoric Japanese rulers were Placed

• The museum, a long, horizontal structure of glass and concrete raised above ground on concrete columns (called pilotis), is reminiscent of buildings by Le Corbusier and also of ancient Japanese prototypes

• This theme of synthesizing modern architecture with traditional symbolism characterized the initial phase of Tange's career.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Complex,

Conclusion

• Kenzo Tange's work marked an awareness of Japanese architectural traditions expressed through a contemporary interpretation of architectural form.

• He believed that Architecture always should be a reflection or expression of social structure... dynamic-- always advancing forward from the past to the future.

“I do not wish to repeat what I have done. I find that every project is a springboard to the next, always advancing forward from the past to the ever-changing future. That is my next challenge.”- Kenzo Tange