Tokyo Noir

Good afternoon ladies and gents. I’m sharing some photography for today’s Archi-Anime Anecdote. I’ve also come to realize, this segment may feature more Japanese Architecture news, history, etc. I’m just so in love with everything Japan! Also, for those of you new to the segment, these anecdotes are to give you a peek into my architectural mind. Also, to reveal a little bit more about myself and my own personal design aesthetics. What I find pretty, interesting, and graphically eye-catching out side of the buildings itself.

Nakagin Capsule Tower via Dezeen, photographed by Tom Blachard

 

 

Original Link:

Blade Runner-style photographs capture Tokyo’s infrastructure

 

First off, this article caught my eye because of the color choices. I love my magentas and cyans (I mean, you can tell by the blog right?). Especially if they’re used in a way to create a mood lighting or dreamy effect to an image. So obviously, the compositions and use of colors appealed to my inner designer. The photographer Tom Blachford chose to use the colors as part of his composition as a call to Blade Runner and the fact some of these buildings could’ve been built in the distant future. The mood in lighting choices are also derived from film noir.

The other obvious thing that I loved about this photo series was the fact that the he chose these specific buildings.  The buildings featured in this set of photos are from an important architectural movement that can only be found in Japan. Blachford wanted to approach this photography set as a ‘cyberpunk metropolis’ having said:

My goal for the series was to communicate the feeling that struck me the first time I visited Tokyo, that somehow you have been transported to this advanced and amazing parallel universe.

And to be honest, not just the metabolist movement, but there’s all kinds of architecture in Japan that is so surreal, just look at Omotesando street near Harajuku. It’s filled with famous buildings built by famous architect’s, it’s a museum of architecture just walking down that street.

The Metabolist Movement

Metabolist Architecture came as a post-war movement that dealt with the ideals of megastructures and organic growth. Kenzo Tange is one of the well-known names and patrons of this movement.

The metabolist manifesto opens as follows:

Metabolism is the name of the group, in which each member proposes further designs of our coming world through his concrete designs and illustrations. We regard human society as a vital process – a continuous development from atom to nebula. The reason why we use such a biological word, metabolism, is that we believe design and technology should be a denotation of human society. We are not going to accept metabolism as a natural process, but try to encourage active metabolic development of our society through our proposals.

A few Notable Buildings

Nakagin Capsule Tower

The building featured in the photo is known as the Nakagin Capsule Tower, and is one of my favorite metabolist buildings, and is actually the most notable buildings from the movement. Designed and built by Kisho Kurokawa it is comprised of 140 pre-fabricated capsules that can be replaced individually.

I bring this up, not only to shine some light on an amazing piece of architectural history, but to also bring awareness that this building is in danger of being demolished.

Tokyo Big Sight

You guys probably recognized this one, as I’ve featured it on a past ANI-Reality where it was featured in the anime Kiss Him, Not Me! as a lot of conventions are head at this particular building.

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Overall, I think the images featured in this article were spectacular. It combines a few of my favorite things: color and Japanese architecture.

What did you guys think of the article and the photos? Let me know in the comments below! And YAY! I’m slowly making my comeback to the blog!