text: Kenzo Tange by Riani, Paolo: Hamlyn, London 9780600353027 Hardcover - Warwick Books, member IOBA
  Home Riani, Paolo Kenzo Tange
  ISBN 10: 0600353028 / ISBN 13: 9780600353027
  Published by Hamlyn, London, 1970
  Hardcover with dustjacket. 4to. First edition. Book and jacket are in fine condition. Contains 112 black and white and color illustrations; a crisp, clean copy. Not price-clipped. In protective mylar. 96 pp. including bibliography. Bookseller Inventory # 12429
  Title: Kenzo Tange
  Kenzō Tange (1913 - 2005) was a Japanese architect, and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five continents. Tange was also an influential patron of the Metabolist movement. Influenced from an early age by the Swiss modernist, Le Corbusier, Tange gained international recognition in 1949 when he won the competition for the design of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. He was a member of CIAM (Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne) in the 1950s. He did not join the group of younger CIAM architects known as Team X, though his 1960 Tokyo Bay plan was influential for Team 10 in the 1960s, as well as the group that became Metabolism. His university studies on urbanism put him in an ideal position to handle redevelopment projects after the Second World War. His ideas were explored in designs for Tokyo and Skopje. Tange's work influenced a generation of architects across the world. During the 1970s and 1980s Tange expanded his portfolio to include buildings in over 20 countries around the world. In 1985, at the behest of Jacques Chirac, the mayor of Paris at that time, Tange proposed a master plan for a plaza at Place d'Italie that would interconnect the city along an east-west axis. For Reyner Banham, Tange was a prime exemplar of the use of Brutalist architecture. His use of Béton brut concrete finishes in a raw and undecorated way combined with his civic projects such as the redevelopment of Tokyo Bay made him a great influence on British architects during the 1960s. Brutalist architecture has been criticised for being soulless and for promoting the exclusive use of a material that is poor at withstanding long exposures to natural weather.