Thomas Daniell - After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan

Thomas Daniell After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008.

In ‘Arter the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan’, Thomas Daniell is taking a thorough look into contemporary Japanese architecture.

More a collection of articles than a ‘proper’ book may be disconnected at some times, but in total it manages to capture all the different directions that Japanese architecture took after the big economical crisis that Japan went through in the beginning of the ‘90s. There are seven chapters in the book (genealogies and tendencies, domestic spaces, new prototypes, public spaces, revitalizing metabolism, nature and artifice and urban views) that touch upon projects of different scale (and maybe of different significance) where the author examines the work of Japanese architects like Kazunari Sakamoto, Kazuhiro Ishii, Jun Aoki, Toshiaki Ishida, Kazuyo Sejima, Toyo Ito and many others, along with projects from international architects like FOA and MVRDV.
Thinking that the western world is now going through its own economical crisis this book might also provide some insights into how Japanese architects handled the economical crisis of the ‘90s and managed to produce interesting architecture.