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. Translated into English for the first time, the book represents a rare outsider's view of the metabolist movement and figures such as Kenzo Tange by one of the world's most astute critics of the second part of the twentieth century. Tafuri's ideas about Japanese architecture were primarily formed through texts, including magazine articles and contemporary photo- graphs. How did Tafuri come to select the achievements of Japanese architects as the focus of his reflections on modern architecture? What happens when a historian of architecture relies purely on photographs for making judgements about a building? This new translation is accompanied by a series of commentaries on Tafuri and on Japanese architecture by Mohsen Mostafavi, Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design, as well as a rich collection of images from the time of the publication and a more recent photographs. Together, these texts and images situate the reader in relation to both Tafuri's scholarship and modern architecture in Japan, while preserving aspects of the character of the original Italian edition.

About the Author
Mohsen Mostafavi, architect and educator, is the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, and served as Dean of the GSD from 2008- 2019. His work focuses on modes and processes of urbanization and on the interface between technology and aesthetics. He was formerly the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University where he was also the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture. Previously, he was the Chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.


Book Information
ISBN 9781913620837
Author Manfredo Tafuri
Format Hardback
Imprint MACK
Publisher MACK