Between Land and Sea

For more than half a century, visionary architect Kiyonori Kikutake (1928-2011) pursued Metabolic architecture, embracing forces of renewal, recycling, and transformation. This volume, the first comprehensive assessment of Kikutake in the English language, highlights his lifelong creation of a constantly evolving platform for living, floating above land and sea through pivotal works including the Sky House, Hotel Tokoen, the Izumo Administration Building, and the urban scale of his ongoing Marine/Ocean City project, spanning from the late 1950s to today. Abundantly illustrated with archival drawings, period and contemporary photographs, this volume provides compelling perspectives on the practices, discourses, and production contexts of Kikutake's work as well as the architecture and urbanism of postwar Japan. Critical essays and analysis feature Kikutake's own writings, perspectives of disciples including Toyo Ito and new scholarship that situates Kikutake within an international context and as a vital inspiration for Japanese architectural practice today.