The Metabolist

[imomus]

Friday, for me, was a day of blockbuster avant-architecture shows. The V&A's Modernism show and the Barbican's Future City show bounced off each other rather well. Both were concerned with a weird fusion of mechanistic-behavioristic science (the V&A show revealed a worrying worship of Henry Ford running through Modernism) and cranky utopian spirituality. Alongside standardization and Taylorism came freaky manifestos about how boiler suits would make every human being a work of art, or how modern civilization was all about doing naked socialist-fascist callisthenics with your comrades.

Despite its 1939 cut-off point, the V&A show petered out with an interesting section on the quirky, diversifying regional flavours of late Modernism -- Czech fabrics, Scandinavian furniture, and Brazilian architecture setting the scene for the eccentricites of Post-Modernism. And -- whoosh! -- the Barbican show picked up where Modernism left off, flipping Mies' "Less is more" motto into Venturi's riposte: "Less is a bore!"

In many ways Future City recapped the themes seen in the Mori Museum's Archilab show last year. But it was well laid-out, and illuminated corners of avant-archictecture I didn't know about.

Like, for instance? Well, like the Metabolists. From the blurb:

"Japan hosted the world design conference in 1960 and here Noboru Kawazue launched the avant-garde Metabolism Group... The group published "Metabolism", a booklet that connected the Metabolism of living creatures with that of architecture and the city. They saw the metropolis as being in a constantly changing state of dynamic equilibrium, in the same way as a living organism. Their main objective was to create structures that could expand infinitely. They achieved this by designing megastructures that had capsules as minimum dwelling units. Part of the zeitgeist that included Vona Friedman's Spatial Cities (1958-60) and Archigram's Plug-In City (1963-66), the Metabolists frequently proposed visionary schemes for floating or aerial metropolises. Kenzo Tange's plan for Tokyo (1960), which proposed a vast extension of the city out into the centre of Tokyo Bay, was an inspiration to his younger colleagues Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa and is regarded as having sparked the Metabolist movement. The achievements of the Metabolists laid the foundation for much subsequent urban development, and the breadth of their importance is being recognised again today."

I also liked Metabolist Kiyonori Kikutake's idea that "a Japanese room was determined by information, whereas a Western room relied on objects". My new apartment in Neukolln is going to be very "Japanese" in that sense: a corridor and two rooms stuffed to the gullet with information.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Isozaki's ideas and drawings (if they aren't the same) about the air city are also really amazing. where they included in the show? I first saw them at Archilab, and was really blown away.

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

"...or how modern civilization was all about doing naked socialist-fascist callisthenics with your comrades."

I'm shocked to hear that you don't sound like much of a fan of rajio taiso (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ラジオ体操) (brief YouTube clip here (http://youtube.com/watch?v=_muFSsuNdpI&search=rajio%20)). You've written about the flight to Japan before. For me, that moment when I drop my guard and start exercising along to the video with the rest of the plane (somewhere over Khabarovsk or similar) is when I realise I'm effectively in Japan already.

Come on, Nick, itch-nee-san...

[akabe.livejournal.com]

it's interesting the way the ideas of metabolism have morphed into those of say atelier bow-wow (a true metabolism, though they woldn't call it so, stripped of all modernist ill).

metabolism's effect in japan has really been double edged.

the kurokawa osaka sony building apparently's been renovated recently while the nakagin capsule tower, the ultimate historical landmark of the movement, is rotting away, regardless of the fact that its design concepts are finally starting to be sensibly used all over the place.

[bikerbar.livejournal.com]

They aren't naked

come on I want youtube links to "naked socialist-fascist callisthenics"

something along these lines ...



Ok so they aren't naked either .. hmmm


or this



from the Spartakiada
heres a video (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3757706707929752013&q=spartakiada)
crappy quality and it ends right when it getting good

[(Anonymous)]

all those guys did some pretty nasty shit in the 80s

[(Anonymous)]

do you ever, even for a brief second, feel any guilt for not really pullling your own weight in this world? For being a professional "gallery rat"? Do you ever feel guilty that you're leisuring on the back of other people's labor?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I feel very proud to have given some people -- and myself -- a few glimpses of a world beyond work. The world of ideas, and spirit, and culture.

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

Ooo la la!

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

For being a professional "gallery rat"?

He's also made a ton of great records. He's a professional musician. Give the guy a break.

[akabe.livejournal.com]

yes, and 90s. thank heavens it's over, well not quite but give me Shiodome or Roppo0ngi hills anytime over the Tokyo metropolitan buildings and the like - the old metabolists lost the plot once the bubble started. there's a serious facelift going on in tokyo (and i don't mean omotesando hills etc) so all this pomo 80s 90s stuff is slowly becoming just a background layer, what's popping up is light structures and space.

[hello-mike.livejournal.com]

Does anybody really pull their own weight anymore? I suspect the percentage of citizens of the developed world that work in with real, physical goods is very small.

Are you a lumberjack? Do you mine? I suspect you don't. You're posting anonymous comments on livejournal. At least if you signed your name you could pull your own discursive weight.

[hello-mike.livejournal.com]

That sounded more snippy than I meant -- what I wanted to really say was that we're all in service industries now. Nick makes people happy. It's a service, and it's a lot more directly influential on the well-being of others than a lot of things people do.

[(Anonymous)]

wouldn't we all want to contribute to culture and ideas if we could? right now i'm in the position of, if i work hard enough and with a bit of luck, getting paid for being a cultural critic. But maybe i'm too righteous. i worry about adding to all the empty hot air that's already blowing around and just being parasitic, getting paid writing my solipsisms about this and that...whilst someone else makes my coffee and someone else empties the bins at work. and they're always of a different colour to me.

white woman's guilt. i've got it bad. i can't get over the injustice of my opportunities compared to theirs. i feel i'm not doing the 'right' thing with my life if i don't spend it trying to help redress the imbalance of opportunity. But then again, i love writing about books, art, music and film...and i'm kind of good at it. but it doesn't really help anyone.

[urban-ospreys.livejournal.com]

Oh now, anonymity is part of the novelty and power of the www. But this sounds like a discussion I had when I was 17, about the crossover between the 'unemployed' and the aristocracy. And it wasn't (all that) interesting then. Some people are miserable on millions and most people contribute nothing. The UK exists on an investment ethic of 'work? there's no real money in it'. Why fight that?

[hello-mike.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see my following comment for what I was really trying to hit on. I'm not anti-anonymity, I was just trying to ineptly make a point.

I've been part of the drifting officially-unemployed creative class for years now, and I've only recently started having a "real job", socially-sanctioned and everything, with a regular paycheque, and it seems to be all pretty much the same thing. Either way, you don't have a lot to worry about, in the modern western economy, workers, non-workers, aristocracy, whatever. The economy runs on information and communication, and all occupations of one's time are equally valid. I think.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

i love writing about books, art, music and film...and i'm kind of good at it. but it doesn't really help anyone.

It helps people who like reading about books, art, music and film.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Interesting how putting the cube form in a subordinate role can make the overall effect organic like that. Could use a lot more vegetation, though.

George and Dragon

[(Anonymous)]

Nick - just got back from your set at the George and Dragon. Huge fun. Thanks for it. Sorry about all the smoke (which I contributed to). I have good memories of coming home after your concerts on summer evenings, sitting on the bus going over the river and enjoying the sunset. It was all just right, anyway - the whole evening. I loved the little Fall reference at the end (I always love Fall references).
Considering that you don't often play live, and don't spend a lot of time in England, I have managed to see you a lot over the past 3-4 years - 5 times, I think. All good stuff. Thanks again, Stephen Parkin.

gig

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

Nice to see you at the gig.

I shall try and post some of the photos I took here later (I have to go off to a job interview now, worst luck).

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I love adobe brick structures.

I've always felt (http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/78369.html#cutid1) that if you are to use strong forms like pyramids or cubes, then a natural material is needed—it softens the contours.

need your opinion about metabolism

[(Anonymous)]

can the theory of metabolism apply in designing an interior space? what kind of materials do the metabolists use? can you give me examples..are metabolism and symbiosis the same?

my thesis is all about integrating metabolism in the interior design of an arts center..what do you think? is it applicable?


thanks,
emilie