Modern Japanese Architecture: From Meiji Restoration to Today

Tokyo Institute of Technology

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Start Date: 19 Apr, 2017
Self-Paced
Study Content: Videos

Explore traditional Japanese architecture and related political influences starting with the introduction of Western building styles in the 19th century to the influence of Le Corbusier in the mid-20th century.

Course Fee: Free

Certificate Cost: 69.00 USD

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Introduction

Introduction Video

Course Description

This course is made available through the eLearnAfrica and Edx partnership.

Examine how architecture reflects Japan’s history, starting with its emergence as a new nation in the 19th century and the building of the Western-style capital city of Tokyo on the foundations of Edo. New building materials and construction methods reflected changing times, and the radical contrast between tradition and modernism in the nation was clearly visible in Japan’s architecture and politics.

While experiencing intense Westernization pressures, Japan developed rapidly to rival the world’s great powers, we will look at how Japanese architects developed their own version of Modernism. Initially, Japanese wanted to pursue the discoveries of the Franco-Swiss Le Corbusier and of Walter Gropius at the German Bauhaus. But soon, Japan also began to produce its own 20th-century architects and develop its own style. Following World War II, Kenzo Tange became the first Japanese architect in history to achieve international fame.

In the last section of the course, we will present an interview-based case study titled “Exploring Tokyo Tech’s Twenty-First Century O-okayama Campus.” Tokyo Institute of Technology (aka Tokyo Tech) possesses its own unique and unbroken succession of practicing architects/professors, who design campus buildings. We will learn about Professor Kazuo Shinohara, one of the most prominent Japanese designers of the second half of the 20th century, and several of his renowned disciples from Tokyo Tech.

This course aims to illustrate the present state of Japanese Modernist and postmodern building, as well as the distance covered over the past 150 years, including the 130-year history of Tokyo Tech itself. Join us on this journey through time as we examine and admire Japan’s architecture to better understand Japanese history and politics.

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Tokyo Institute of Technology

Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) is the top research-based national university in Japan dedicated to science and engineering higher education with a history spanning over 130 years. Tokyo Tech consists of undergraduate and graduate programs, and many research laboratories spread over its three campuses in Tokyo and Yokohama. There are approximately 10,000 students of which 12% are international, 1,200 faculty and 600 staff members on its campuses. Tokyo Tech strives to cultivate its students to become tomorrow's global leaders in science and technology in order to contribute to the betterment of a global society based upon a philosophy of education through research.

As part of an institute-wide reorganization and education reform effort to become one of the world’s top sci-tech universities, TokyoTechX courses will be offered starting in 2015, to demonstrate its commitment to global higher education.

This institution is available on eLearnAfrica through partnership with Edx.

You may be able to download course materials after enrolling in this course. If not, all of the necessary course materials provided by the course instructor will be available on the provider's course page.

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