Join Mohsen Mostafavi, Yukie Kamiya, and Florian Idenburg for a discussion of the celebrated Italian architectural historian Manfredo Tafuri’s book Modern Architecture in Japan. Originally published in Italian in 1964, L’architettura moderna in Giappone explored the country’s postwar architecture, including its metabolist movement. Tafuri, who had never visited Japan before writing the book, used photographs, articles, and texts to explore the country’s modern architecture. Mostafavi’s new edition introduces English speakers to the influential book for the first time.
Monday 12 December
18:00 EST
Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
New York 10012
Tickets available here.
About Modern Architecture in Japan
Manfredo Tafuri (1935–1994), the celebrated Italian architectural historian, published L’architettura moderna in Giappone in 1964. At the time, Tafuri was twenty-nine years old and had not visited Japan. His slim volume on the country’s postwar architecture was the first in a series of guidebooks on contemporary architecture under the direction of Leonardo Benevolo. Here, translated into English for the first time, the book presents a rare outsider’s view of the Metabolist movement and figures such as Kenzō Tange by one of the most astute critics of the second part of the twentieth century. Edited and introduced by Mohsen Mostafavi, this volume reflects presents Tafuri’s text alongside essays by Marco Biraghi, Catherine Ingraham, Ken Tadashi Oshima, Federico Scaroni, and Hajime Yatsuka, as well as a rich collection of images.
