Japanese Architecture & Urbanism

Projects built on experiences working and researching in Japan.

Investigator

Broad research of Japanese architecture orients around three primary poles.

  1. Architectural production in modern and contemporary Japan: exemplified by Japanese Modern Architecture 1920-2015, which is the first survey of Modern Japanese architecture published in over 30 years, and current research tracing the multimedia exploration of architectural ideas in Ryoji Suzuki’s Experience in Material projects.

    Outcomes in this research area include:

    • 2016, Japanese Modern Architecture 1920-2014, Dialogues and Developments, Crowood Press, Whiltshire UK.
    • 2016 Exhibition @ Monash University: “Ryoji Suzuki Material Experiences” - The first comprehensive assemblage of Suzuki's work outside of Japan.
    • 2010, Kikuji Ishimoto, imagining Japanese modern architecture, Imagining... Proceedings of the 27th International SAHANZ Conference, 30 June to 2 July, Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Newcastle, NSW, pp. 365-371.
    • 2008, “More Lines,” in After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan, Thomas Daniell ed., Princeton Architectural Press, New York, USA, pp. 186-191.
  2. Discursive construction of Japanese architecture: examines representations and the historiography of English language publications on Japanese architecture.

    Outcomes in this research area include:

  3. Explicating Japanese urban configurations: includes ongoing research of the Kumamoto Artpolis program (1988-), which is one of the longest running public architecture programs in the world, as well as collaborative research projects on Tokyo with UCLA and the Tokyo Institute of Technology and on Kobe with Kobe University.

    Outcomes in this research area include:

    • 2016 Exhibition @ Monash University: “Fieldworks” – explorations of new public facilities integrating a central Kobe transit hub.
    • 2015 Exhibition @ Monash University: “MIX©ITIES” – propositions for reforming and reoccupying the dead Kusatsu river located north of Kyoto.
    • 2013, “Artpolis Legacies: Proliferation of Public Architecture Programs for Urban Regeneration in Turn of the Century Japan,” In Open...Proceedings of the 30th International SAHANZ Conference, Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Gold Coast, QLD.
    • 2012, “Tokyo tropes, the poetics of chaos,” Fabulation: Myth, Nature, Heritage: The Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand, 05/07/2012-08/07/2012, SAHANZ, Launceston, pp. 979-993.
    • 2010, “Kumamoto’s Artpolis: Mediating Innovative Architecture and Creative Cultural Expression.” In Cultural Expression, Creativity and Innovation, the Culture and Globalization Series Vol. 3, Helmut K. Anheier and Yudhishthir Raj Isar eds. pp.173-4, London, Sage Publications.
    • 2009 Exhibition @ UCLA: “A/cute Tokyo” – multiple lenses for understanding the urban dynamics of Tokyo.

    Funding in the area has been provided by The Japan Foundation

    Research led teaching in this area include: a Japanese Architecture studies unit and Japan travel studios and workshops.