Digesting Metabolism: Artificial Land in Japan 1954–2202 is one of the better books about works of Japanese architecture that you have probably never heard of. But that’s exactly why you should read it. This cogent and well-illustrated volume was inspired by author-architect Casey Mack’s experience of Hong Kong, whose vernacular facades he describes as “self-organized into patterns of air conditioners, hanging laundry, and DIY balconies.” That observation led to this book, which features housing projects in Japan that grew directly, or indirectly, from the concept of artificial land promoted by the Metabolism architectural movement.
In contrast to Western Modernism’s goal of swapping the old for the new, Metabolism, launched in postwar Japan, promoted “replacement as an ongoing process.” Though it was “a movement largely famous for what it failed to build,” the author posits that a fundamental Metabolist concept—the creation of artificial land —lived on and has value today. Unlike landfill, artificial land was a way to expand the country’s limited landmass by stacking layers of buildable space supported by a mega-framework. Individual homes or shops could be built within that and, later on, replaced.
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