Even in a country where outstanding achievements have become almost a commonplace, the Japanese architect, Kisho Kurokawa, appears as both a remarkable and a remarkably successful man. With buildings in the United States and Eastern and Western Europe as well as in Japan, he has established an international reputation as a leading figure amongst the younger generation of architects. At the age of forty he already had thirty-five major buildings and seventeen books to his credit; four new towns are being built to his designs; he heads a company of over a hundred employees, he runs a think-tank and an urban design bureau and for variety he has his own television programme with a regular audience of some 30 million. Behind these statistics lies a prodigious vitality expressed in original and stimulating buildings. -- from book jacket.

"By combining the abstraction of the 20th century with the iconography of history and the cultural identity of topos in a cosmology of culture, I am trying to tackle the philosophical challenge of Abstract Symbolism."--BOOK JACKET.

The completion of the first phase of Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 1998 resulted in two 4000 m runways and a 335 000 m2 main terminal building. The airport can handle 25 million passengers a year, By 2020, however, the airport will be able to handle 120 000 000 passengers a year. It is not surprising that everyone should wonder why Malaysia would need an international airport of that size. The reason is the intense strategic competition that has already started. Unquestionably, the world will have an entirely new high-speed transportation system by 2025 at the latest. This will be the HSST (Hypersonic Speed Transport), which will carry between 300 and 500 passengers at speeds up to Mach 3.5. The HSST will be meaningless for short routes. Therefore the required international hub airports will be limited to two in North America, one in Central and South America, one in Africa, two in Europe, one in Russia, and three in Asia. Like China and South Korea, Malaysia is very eager to obtain one of the three Asian international hub airports, because a country with such an airport and the associated infrastructure is very likely to become a financial, information, tourism and advanced industrial centre. The airport is an integral part of a future linear capital corridor, which was also developed by Kurokawa. The area surrounding the airport will be used for an experiment in artificially restoring the tropical rain forest. Creating such a forest is the most effective method for blocking out noise from the airport. This is the basis of the architect's concept for a symbiosis between airport and forest. In addition, the architect believes that this is effective for expressing the identity of Malaysia, as tropical rain forests are the typical vegetation of the country. Kurokawa was a key figure of Japanese Metabolism; he has played an essential role in this movement, not only through projects and buildings, but also through theoretical writings. Since then he has been one of the leading architects in Japan.

Known as the 'Big Eye' the Oita Stadium is one of the chosen venues for the next World Cup in 2002. It will be reused for the second stage of the Japan Inter-Prefectural Athletic Competition in 2008 after the World Cup, continuing to grow in the future to become a large-scale all-purpose sports park for Oita. The whole site covers an area of 225 ha and has several facilities outside the main football stadium. These include general fitness, training and lodging centres, a botanical pool, two multipurpose athletic fields, two rugby and soccer practise pitches, a softball field, tennis courts and other game areas. The main stadium features an open track for athletic events as well as the football pitch. It can also be used year-round for public events aided by its retractable roof. For soccer matches, spectator seats are placed right up to the edge of the pitch to bring them close to the action. To change over for track events a retractable seating system was developed. The stadium sits elegantly on its site, enhanced by the gentle curves of its spherical design. The choice of the sphere, Kurokawa says, is 'an expression of abstract symbolism'. This spherical shape also enables the retractable portion to move along its curved surface. The use of Teflon membrane panels with 25 percent light permeability obviates the need for artificial lighting during daylight hours. In order for the pitch to get proper exposure to sunlight the elliptical roof opening runs along the north-south axis. A main arch with perpendicular horizontal sub-members follows the elliptical shape of the roof opening. Between the roof and the spectator seating below the surrounding mountains can be seen from a slender ventilation clearstorey set just below the roof line. This slit of space is designed to create a feeling of openness inside the stadium. Since the original design, an idea emerged for a moving camera to be located on the main beam to deliver special dynamic images for television audiences around the world.

Exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt, Germany 2005 - a complete catalogue of therchitects works. Dual text: English/German

"The word symbiosis comes from the Greek term for "living together" - referring to a relationship between two or more organisms that is not only advantageous but necessary to both. Today, as national boundaries give way to larger economic alliances, increased discussion and interchange is imperative. Kisho Kurokawa, the noted Japanese architect and urban planner, argues that symbiosis is the means to this end. Symbiosis differs basically from concepts of harmony or peace, because it encompasses both opposition and competition." "The author sees evidence everywhere that an increasingly symbiotic attitude is taking root around the world, not only in shifts toward democracy and interreliance but in the growing emphasis on pluralism, multiculturalism, and especially ecology - "the symbiosis of diverse species." The book touches on the writer's areas of professional specialization - architecture and urban planning - but the philosophy of symbiosis, which already boasts a substantial following among some of the world's most prominent political and business leaders, concerns us all." "In addition to multiple issues of direct concern to the evolving relationship - economic, political, and cultural - between the West and Japan, the second half of Each One a Hero: The Philosophy of Symbiosis analyzes in detail the Asian Renaissance underway today. A spotlight is thrown on Malaysia and the plan for a Multimedia Super Corridor, or Eco-Media City, currently attracting global notice and investment."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A celebration of architecture from around the world profiling todays leading firms. The top one hundred firms.

This book provides an up-to-date illustrated account of current developments in Japanese architecture. It has been compiled by Kisho Kurokawa, himself an internationally celebrated architect, whose essay guides us towards understanding the innovative and exciting new projects which feature in this book. In addition, Kurokawa helps us to understand current projects against the background of Japan's distinctive and sometimes exclusive cultural and spiritual tradition.

This book included color photography, drawings, and text offering an understanding of the building's relationship to landscape, time and space.

Metabolism was a movement launched in Japan that took inspiration for buildings and cities from biological systems. With interviews and commentary and hundreds of images, Project Japan unearths a history that casts new light on the key issues that both enervate and motivate architecture today.