The new exhibit at Toyko's Mori Art Museum will be the first architecture showcase since the 2011 earthquake, and displays a movement central to the country's history of building and rebuilding.
The Metabolism movement began in the 1960s around a group of architects focused on creating structures that emulate organic life and allow for continual growth and change. "Sustainability and scale were paramount and they channeled these values not through a lens of austerity but of sci-fi dreams," explains reporter Kevin McGarry.
Examples of their work, such as the subcompact dwellings within the Nakagin Capsule Tower, built in 1971 by Kisho Kurukowa operate dually as a design oddity and manifestation of utopian planning theories hatched more than a decade earlier in the face of over population and limited space.
The exhibit is distilled into a slideshow by McGarry, who concludes that although "many of these buildings may recall a nostalgic vision of the future, projects influenced by Metabolism are still sprouting up in oceans, deserts and cultural centers the world over, and its driving ethos is as timely as it is timeless."
Read the full story: Out There: Metabolic Pathways
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority