Metabolism (architecture)

Under the name Metabolists in 1959 the Japanese architect and urban planner Kisho Kurokawa, Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Sachio Otaka and Noboin Kawazoe found together, their subject was the city in the urban context. The city of the future mass societies should be designed in a dynamic process through flexible, extensible large structures according to the ideas of Metabolists.

Concept

In their opinion, the previously valid laws of form and function in shaping the cities were no longer sufficient. The new, future demands of culture and society requires the inclusion of the laws of space and the continuous function change. There the idea was pursued to transfer the life cycle of birth and growth on urban planning and architecture.

The Metabolists presented results as the floating city at sea ( project Unabara ), the tower city of Kiyonori Kikutake, the wall, agricultural town and so-called helix -City of Kisho Kurokawa.

Projects Metabolists (selection)

The Japanese Metabolists

• Marine City Project 1958 Kiyonori Kikutake
• Living in the hard capsule ( Akira Shibuya 1966, Youji Watanabe 1967, Kisho Kurokawa 1970-72 )
• Mega city planning for Tokyo ( Kenzo Tange and Kisho Kurokawa 1960)

Archigram ( United Kingdom )

• Plug-in City, Living Pod and capsule of Tower (Peter Cook 1964-66 )
• Walking City and Instant City (Ron Herron 1964-70 )
• Trickling Towers and Layer City ( Peter Cook 1978-82 )
• Residential capsule Peanut and high-rise Coexistence ( Future Systems, 1984)

Other international representatives

• Habitat 67 in Montreal ( Moshe Safdie 1967)
• Funnel city of Intra Polis (Walter Jonas 1960)
• Space City ( Yona Friedman 1959-63 )
• Overbuilding city Ragnitz ( Günther Domenig 1963-69 )
• Floating Hotel Cairo ( Justus Dahinden 1972)
• Akro -Polis free - time City ( Justus Dahinden 1974)
• Recreational town of Kiryat Ono b. Tel Aviv ( Justus Dahinden 1984)
• City Fine Arts Museum Taipei in Taipei, 1984