KENZO TANGE

Tradition can, to be sure, participate in a creation, but it can no longer be creative itself.
Kenzo Tange's work marked a revived awareness of Japanese architectural
traditions expressed through a contemporary interpretation of architectural form.

Kenzo Tange demonstrated that a unique regionalism could be developed, and

recognized, within the circumstance of the international style.

LIFE
Kenzo Tange was born in, 1913 in the port city of Imabari.

Kenzo Tange's private practice began in 1949 with his successful submission to the open
competition for the Hiroshima Peace Center.

Corbusier was a major influence on him in his formative years.

He designed the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo; which catapulted him to

international fame and to the Pritzker Prize.
PEACE MEMORIAL MUSEUM

Although the design philosophy is purely Japanese, Tange’s ideas aligned with modern
architecture from the west in many ways – simplicity, lightness, openness, modulated
repetition and ingenuous construction with exposed materials.

This is around the same time as Le Corbusier.

Inevitably suggesting Le Corbusier influences, the museum is supported on pillars, like Le
Corbusier’s pilotis. Furthermore, the building is articulated with exposed reinforced
concrete.
Tange combined Le Corbusier’s five points with elements drawing from Japanese
traditions, such as the sun-screens and the modular arrangement of the facade.
YOYOGI NATIONAL GYMNASIUM, TOKYO

Its aerodynamic, monumental and suggestive design became an icon of the Japanese capital
The complex consists of 2 buildings
The two gyms are placed in a landscaped platform. In fact, despite
their monumental size, they give the impression that the roofs are
born the park itself, emphasizing its relationship with the surrounding
environment.
The elegant roofs of the two gyms use a contemporary language and a similar structural
logic: they are suspended by two large steel cables. Both axes are arranged in an east-
west, which is also the predominant direction of plot.
The structural concept is based on a main spine that consists of two steel cables 13 "
in diameter, anchored to two large slabs of concrete on either end of the building and
to two structural towers. Cables describe a parabolic curve (technically, it is called
catenary ) from which smaller wires are placed perpendicularly, to form a tent-like roof.
Kenzo Tange takes advantage of the gap between the two curves to propose an
imposing triangular access, which, despite having a monumental scale, seem to
be born of the earth, giving the building a feeling of lightness.
It is also important to note that the roof, although it used state-of-the-art technology at the
time, still evokes elements of traditional Japanese architecture, particularly the roofs
of Shinto shrines.