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Survivors of postwar poverty, repressive governments and bitter independence struggles, Asia's designers are turning more and more to their indigenous cultures for inspiration, aesthetic guidance and financial support. Japan, in the vanguard of change, is now the world's foremost setting for high-profile architectural and design projects. But Japan is not alone. Throughout Asia, architects and designers are crossing borders to launch technical and artistic joint ventures of unprecedented proportions. "The time has passed when an architect who grows up, say, in Seoul will only do projects in and inspired by Seoul," says Terence Riley, chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. "Cultures have become aesthetically accessible; national barriers are porous." In the domain of architecture in particular, Asia's innovators and trend setters have broken records and taboos. China-born I.M. Pei, 79, perhaps the world's most famous modern architect, has used glass, concrete and stone in bold, modernist forms to cast illusive national icons around the world- the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio; the Bank of China headquarters in Hong Kong; and the Pyramid at the Louvre. Japanese veteran Fumihiko Maki, 68, employing gridlike aluminum panels and materials such as perforated metal and glass, has displayed a mastery for tackling monumental structures without forfeiting human scale. And Sri Lankan Geoffrey Bawa, working out of the glare of the international limelight in Colombo, has won recognition for the sensitivity of his sprawling, low-rise, clay-tiled structures, often enveloped by water.
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Architects and designers take for granted today's intensely layered, pluralistic environment in which Kenzo Tange's Tokyo city hall evokes Notre Dame Cathedral and Jean Nouvel's Cartier Foundation headquarters in Paris would blend seamlessly in Tokyo. "Influences bounce back and forth faster than you can track them," says designer Takenobu Igarashi, 52. "It's like a Ping-Pong game in fast forward." Such cross-fertilization is, in fact, nothing new. It was Japanese art, after all, that set the tone for Frank Lloyd Wright's residential architecture (as much as he was loath to admit it). And it was Wright's 1923 Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, in turn, that persuaded scores of Japanese architects to return to their aesthetic roots. The award-winning architect Tadao Ando says the hotel "pushed me to seriously examine Japanese traditions." Ando now has a following of young disciples attracted to the Zen-like rigor of his buildings. In design, Japan plays an influential role not only in Asia but also throughout the world. From the Sony Walkman and the Honda Civic to the bullet train and the Nintendo Gameboy, the sway of its smart, functionally innovative products is enduring and global. Many Japanese artists are united in what designer Igarashi calls an affinity for the "total environment." Igarashi built a name on such classics as his corporate logo for Suntory, but he is noted for his sculptures and graphic, product and garden design as well. Similarly, Eiko Ishioka, who won an Academy Award for costume design for Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula", excels in graphic design and art direction as well as sets and costumes. This versatility has its cultural roots in the interdisciplinary nature of traditional Japanese art. But as with architectural projects, it has also been fueled by corporate clients with deep pockets and open minds. |
he work is nothing
short of spectacular. From Bombay to Beijing, a
legion of Asian architects and designers is
transforming the East in ways that could not have
been imagined 50 years ago. In Singapore, architect
William Lim has put a Southeast Asian spin on
postmodernism. In Japan, Eiko Ishioka demonstrates
a peerless facility with multiple design
disciplines. In India, the venerable Le
Corbusier&endash;influenced architect Balkrishna
Doshi is a towering inspiration in his own
right.
