Kikutake, Kiyori

Kiyonori Kikutake ( Japanese 菊 竹 清 訓 Kikutake Kiyori , April 1, 1928 , Kurume , Fukuoka Prefecture , Japan - December 26, 2011) is a modern Japanese architect , one of the founders of the metabolism movement.

Biography

Kiyonori Kikutake was born on April 1, 1928 in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. In 1950, he graduated from Waseda University.
Kikutake was an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), an academician of the International Academy of Architecture, an adviser and president of the Japan Institute of Macroengineering, president of the Tokyo Society of Architects and Building Engineers, and a corresponding member of the French Academy of Architecture.
He was also the mentor and employer of several important Japanese architects such as Toyo Ito, Shoji Uchi and Itsuko Hasegawa. Kiyonori Kikutake passed away in 2011.

Creative Way

Among the first bright projects of Kiyonori Kikutake are the concept of the marine city Marine City Project and the floating urban system Floating System.
In 1960, with the designs of his house, Sky House and the Shinto shrine of Izumo, Kikutake introduced the concept of metabolic architecture, which implied the integration of tradition into modern designs.
“Sky House”, or “House of one room”, is a peculiar manifesto of metabolism, designed and built in one year. The interior space is surrounded by a circular gallery. The main thing in the project is the ability to adjust, configure the house as a mechanism. There is no heating and air conditioning system. The blocks of the nursery, bedroom, and kitchen are made mobile and replaceable, just like furniture. Over time, the project envisaged the replacement of engineering structures with modern ones that were maximally adapted to the new way of life and family composition.

Since the beginning of the 60s, Kikutake has been studying the problem of the high density of urban centers and is developing principles for designing high-rise buildings that can solve it. In the implemented Habitat project, Kikutake embodied some of the principles of his seemingly fantastic concepts of sea cities, ultra-high skyscrapers and megastructures.

Metabolism in Architecture:

Metabolism (fr. Métabolisme from the Greek. Μεταβολή - “transformation, change”) is an architectural style in urban planning and architecture of the mid-20th century, which is an alternative to the ideology of functionalism that prevailed at that time in architecture. It originated in Japan at the end of the 50s of the 20th century (Japanese architects Kenzo Tange, Kienori Kikutake, etc.). The theory of metabolism is based on the principle of the individual development of a living organism (ontogenesis) and co-evolution.