Lessons from Metabolism. Evolution of Built Legacy on Continuous Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.2023218933Keywords:
Metabolism, Adaptability, Megastructure, Collective Form, Nakagin Tower, Hillside TerraceAbstract
One of the most prolific and inspiring offshoots of the utopian architecture of the 1960s, Metabolism, still offers valuable lessons for current urban development. Among the members of the Japanese group, two positions on the design of architecture and the city can be distinguished: one advocating the megastructural scheme and the other based on the logic of the collective or group-form, more akin to the structuralist approach. Both emerged around the same principle: the adaptability of architecture in the face of change over time, but offered different responses, some of which saw the light of day off paper in the 1970s. After half a century, this article studies the evolutionary development of two projects belonging to both factions: Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower and Fumihiko Maki's Hillside Terrace, with the dual aim of testing the extent to which the theory of transformation and constant growth was put into practice and of drawing useful lessons for a contemporary practice that increasingly seeks resilience in the face of changing events and conditions.
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