Table of Contents
Introduction
Arata Isozaki is the Laureate of 2019 Pritzker Award. He is the eighth Japanese architect who received the honor that is commonly considered the holy grail of architecture. Isozaki is known for futuristic approach to transnational architecture. This paper will examine the unique cultural adaptation Isozaki provided in his design of the Zendai Himalayas Center, a landmark of Shanghai, China, in terms of how Isozaki successfully integrate culturally significant elements in the countries that are not his own, especially with emphasis on modern architecture’s flexibility of purpose.
Background of Arata Isozaki
Isozaki graduated from the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo in 1954. After that, he decided to begin his career as 1987 Pritzker Prize Laureate Kenzo Tange’s apprentice. Tange Is famously known as a past-war architect in Japan. During Isozaki’s apprenticeship, he gained exposure on how Tange reinvent Japanese architecture with modern materials and influenced by him. Isozaki did not charter his own independent architectural career Arata Isozaki & Associates until 1963.
Arata Isozaki was born on July 23, 1931 in Oita, Kyushu, Japan. In 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were razed to the ground by atomic bombing.The casualties of the bombing are still hard to determine given that each different stage of the incident, from burn to blast to radiation, provides challenges in determining the exact number.
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Isozaki was only 14 years old when he witnessed the unprecedented tragedy that has no parallel in human history. This incident left a huge traumatic impression on generations of Japanese, including the young Isozaki. However, the experience also inspired Isozaki’s interest in architecture. He described this motivation in an interview after he received the Pritzker Architecture Award, “My first encounter in architecture was ground zero, no architecture, no city.” He subsequently began to think about how the Japanese civilization may recover as architecture and cities emerged from the ruins. He was and still is a firm believer that architecture is a reflection of urbanism. Not only does he keep up with the changes of the time and traditions of local culture, but he also actively explores and implements new architectural ideas. Isozaki’s career spans more than sixty year; he is a very prolific architect and had notable designs realized inside and outside Japan. Winning the 2019 Pritzker Award is undoubtedly a recognition of his lifelong achievements.
Commission of The Zendai Himalayas Center 2010
The Zendai Himalayas Center is not the first landmark in China Isozaki has designed. However, the Zendai Himalayas Center is particularly fascinating because it fully reflects Isozaki’s architectural imagination of Shanghai, a cosmopolitan city with a long history and vision of its future. The project was commissioned by the Zendai Group and expected to be situated in the blooming Pudong New District. The Himalayas Center was designed to be a multi-functional building, containing two five-star hotels, an art museum, and a public theater.
Shanghai is one of the most rapidly developing cities, gaining significant attention from the international society. Naming a building in such cosmopolitan area after an aged and distant mountain is unusual. Although Shanghai and the Himalayan Plateau are 3,900 miles apart, these two locations are geographically connected by mother river of Asia, the Yangtze River. The Yangtze originates in Tibetan Plateau where the Himalayan mountains are located. Shanghai is reside at the end of the river. The Himalayas region is not only the cradle of Buddhism, but it is also the origin of China and its neighbouring countries. In other words, the Himalayas Center reflects the interconnectedness of Asia, linking the past civilisation to the prospective future of Shanghai.
Fulfilling The Vision
Despite how modern the appearance of Himalayas Center is, the overall design contains a legacy of Chinese culture and history. Himalayas Center shows Isozaki’s unconventional approach to architecture and how he merged old traditions with new technology which enabled innovative architectural design to arise.
Shanghai have been known as an international city as cosmopolitan as New York and Hongkong. These types of giant mega cities often have a fond of skyscrapers in – the taller and more grandiose the better. Isozaki believed that architecture at should have elements that reflect the spirit and culture of the city in that era, rather than just layers and layers of construction that is leading to a skyscraper. Isozaki accepted the design invitation of the Himalayas Center in 2003. His solution was radically different. Isozaki used symbols important to Chinese culture in the design, such as calligraphy and Jade cong which allow this innovative architectural masterpiece to reflect on the history and spirit of traditional Chinese culture.
The bottom parts of the West and East elevations of the building are office spaces, the upper part are hotels. The difference in functions is differentiated by patterns on the facades. The hotel in the East elevation is the tallest section of the building. The design seems to imitate the shape of Liangzhu jade cong. Liangzhu is an neo-lithic culture found at today Jiangsu province of China, could be dated back to 3400–2250 BC. The culture is famous for the discovery of finely carved jade cong, that is believed to be a burial object with unknown function. The exterior of Jade cong is squared, the circular interior is formed by a central hole runs through the entire jade cong. According to Chinese cosmic, the inner circle of the Jade cong symbolizes heaven that is believed to be round and exterior symbolizes the squared earth.
The overall rise of the building is not very substantial compared to many skyscrapers in Shanghai. However, by incorporating the shape of Liangzhu jade cong into design of the tallest part of the building, the message Isozaki send out here is clear that he was designing a place that is not only embracing Chinese culture, but also forming the bridge between heaven and earth which made the infinite spiritual height of the Himalayas Center. Isozaki had no interest in competing against local skyscrapers. The design can also be seen as a statement Isozaki made previously regarding that architectural rise should not be the primary focus in cosmopolitan urbanism.
Himalayas Center is creative for reassemble buildings with different functions that are traditionally seen at different places. The Himalayas Center consists of five major parts and each part fulfils a different function: the hotel for accommodations, the office area for businesses, the art museum for cultural events, the business district for commercials and a plaza for public gatherings. The challenge for Isozaki is to differentiate these physically joined spaces with subtle transition without too much spatial and visual disruption, this helps keep the overall style-wise render of the Himalayas Center united.
The entire building is primarily composed of crystal clear cubes that are covered with organic elements that are made out of metallic lustrous materials. However, the exterior of office spaces is covered with a pattern that looks like psuedo-Chinese hieroglyph written on calligraphy grid. The psuedo-Chinese hieroglyph looks like derivative of ancient scripts written on Oracle bone. The ancient scripts on oracle is known to be the earliest form of Chinese writing that are inscribed on animals bone, particularly scapula that is found at the Yinxu site, one of the four major capitals of ancient China.
The patterns reminded me of how I learnt to write my name in my childhood. I started to learn how to write in native language with writing out my name. I wrote on grid paper time and time again in order to practice and remember proper strokes of writing Chinese characters. It is odd that Isozaki choose psuedo-Chinese scripts for patterning instead of actual characters, but it decorated the building with rather neutral visuals that signified the legacy of Chinese culture. The grid pattern not only adds visual complexity to the exterior so visitors see this part of the building as a whole which distinguished the difference in function and purpose from inside and out. The grid pattern is also a signifier of how knowledge of the past is passing down; as paper with grid is meant to be an aid for beginners to learn Chinese writing and make sure each part of the character is written with correct proportion.
The central part of the Himalayan Center houses a contemporary art center and a multi-purpose theatre of approximately 2,000 people. The art center is also a premier venue for large-scale public events to take place. The Himalayas Center is touted as a “Archisculptural Masterpiece for 21st century China” by the spokesman of Zendai Group which commissioned the building. The sculptural qualities of the building are shown by the conglomerating gray heteromorphic structure which hence formed an abstracted and organic forestry exterior design. The curves and edges of the heteromorphic structure made the forest looks like is growing naturally from the ground and supporting the entire Himalaya Art Museum, the foundation of the building. The exterior made out of irregular shapes that blends into the surrounding landscape include grand plaza. The surface of heteromorphic structure looks like undulating ocean waves; the unexpected alternating ups and downs and peaks and troughs also suggests the rhythm in the exterior of the building especially when visitors walking pass by.
The unusual heteromorphic structure is blended into both the interior and exterior of the building itself. The interior of ground floor where all the entrances and art center located is primarily composed of the heteromorphic structure. Numbers of holes are carved out on heteromorphic structure that are later sealed with glass windows which allow natural source of light to cast into the space. It is not common for art space to have such an unusual crooked finish, but the plain gray colors of the structure have the meditating effects and helps create an immersive environment in which visitors can fully concentrate on exhibit itself. For visitors who are entering the space, the experience is more like an exploration of a historic cave where not much evidence of human activities could be found there.
Aside from the aesthetic consideration of the heteromorphic structure, the structure is designed with a technical purpose that served supporting function. This is not the first time Isozaki working with unconventional supporting structure. Isozaki has been working with Mutsuro Sasaki, a structural engineer to study how bending force and pressure is distributed in structural elements by utilizing a method called Evolutionary Structure Optimization Technique (ESO Method). It is believed that the bending force applied on the traditional supporting structure is uneven. The ESO method allows architects and structural engineers to study how efficient each part of the supporting framework interacts with pressure and bending force; and thus strengthens where the supporting framework needs reinforcement and simplify the framework by removing inefficient parts to optimize the design. The heteromorphic structure is the optimised result of supporting structure with the most efficient layout and material at the Himalayas Center.
Conclusion
Shanghai in the 21st century is a changing environment with a promising future, and undoubtedly frustration and uncertainty. Somewhat negatively influenced by the war and his childhood experience, Isozaki’s design philosophy often comes with a sense of tragedy and solemnity that architecture is part of the impermanent nature. The experience urged him to reflect on what makes good architecture with a transient nature. The solution Isozaki offered through the Himalayas Center design not only expressed a positive response to the past and present of a developing city, but also suggested the future of urbanism needs to establish a productive dialogue regarding changes, diversity, and sustainability through architecture with residents.
