By Habiba El Abd, Mohammed Badran, Mirna Abu Ghazalla

1955: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima

1957: (Former) Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Yūrakuchō

1958: Kagawa Prefectural Government Building the east offices, Takamatsu, Kagawa

1960: Kurashiki City Hall, Kurashiki, Okayama

1964: Yoyogi National Gymnasium for the 1964 Summer Olympics & St. Mary's Cathedral (Tokyo Cathedral) (Roman Catholic), Tokyo

1966: Master plan for rebuilding of Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, then part of Yugoslavia after the 1963 earthquake

1967: Towers of Fiera district (Regional administration of Emilia-Romagna), Bologna, Italy

1970: Librino New Town Project, Catania City Italy

1977: Sogetsu Kaikan, Aoyama, Tokyo

1979: Hanae Mori Building, Aoyama, Tokyo

1982: Directional Center, Naples

1982: Central Area New Federal Capital City of Nigeria, Nigeria

1986: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

1986: OUB Centre, Singapore

1987: American Medical Association Headquarters Building, Chicago, Illinois, USA

1991: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku, Tokyo

1992: UOB Plaza, Singapore

1996: Fuji Television Building, Odaiba, Tokyo

1998: University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain

1998: WKC Centre For Health Development, Kobe, Hyōgo

2000: Kagawa Prefectural Government Building the main offices, Takamatsu, Kagawa

2000: Tokyo Dome Hotel

2003: The Linear – Private Apartments, Singapore

2005: Hwa Chong Institution Boarding School, Singapore

Kenzo Tange is one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five continents. Kenzo Tange was also an influential protagonist of the structuralist movement. He said: "It was, I believe, around 1959 or at the beginning of the sixties that I began to think about what I was later to call structuralism", (cited in Plan 2/1982, Amsterdam).Influenced from an early age by the French modernist, Le Corbusier, he gained international recognition in 1949 when he won the competition for the design of Peace Memorial Park. Joining the group of architects known as Team X in the late 1950s he steered the group towards the movement that became Metabolism. His University studies into urbanism put him in an ideal position for post war redevelopment. This was explored in designs for Tokyo and Skopje. His work influenced a generation of architects across the world. Tange’s best-known and most-visited creations include the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) complex in Nishi-Shinjuku, Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Harajuku and the Fuji TV building in Odaiba. However, the 1987 Pritzker Prize winner has a number of masterpieces dotted around the city that offer a glimpse into his grand vision of the capital in a future that has already begun. Tange's early designs was not only a combination between modernism with traditional Japanese forms of architecture but also his own taste of brutalism for example his Capitol Building in India. Where he is clearly influenced by Le Corbusier and his style of Brutalism. By 1964 Tange’s designs proved his genuine taste and blend of styles and the pure evolution of the modernism movement. Saint Mary’s Cathedral was built in the same year as Yoyogi Gymnasium are two projects that are very different yet are great examples of Tange’s creative taste. Saint Mary’s Cathedral is a far from your usual house of prayer his manifestation of Tange’s futuristic visions that are both spiritual and architectural. The bare concrete walls inside shimmer with a mystical light that pours in from behind the crucifix above the altar. Viewed from above, eight massive stainless steel wings converge to form a huge cross. This sculptural yet brutalistic design is one of his most recognized work. Le Corbusier was not the only architect who inspired Tange the works of Walter Gropius and his Bauhaus movement understanding that “form follows function”. Although, he was not a complete functionalist because he did completely reject ornament’s, however they did have to be part of the design not an addition. Kenzo Tange disliked postmodernism in the 1980s and considered this architecture to be only "transitional architectural expressions”. And in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku which opened in 1991, Tange designed an enormous civic centre with a plaza dominated by two huge skyscrapers. These housed administration offices whilst a smaller seven storey building contained assembly facilities. In a high tech version of Kofu Communications Centre Tange equipped all three buildings with state of the art building management systems that monitored air quality, light levels and security. The external skin of the building makes dual references to both tradition and the modern condition. Tange incorporated vertical and horizontal lines reminiscent of both timber boarding and the lines on semiconductor boards.

Like the Modernism, Brutalism has little decoration. It makes use of very angular geometrics, emphasizing hard materials (glass, brick, concrete) and stark form. Brutalist buildings often ignore their surroundings or cover them up with more concrete. Brutalism was coined by Alison and Peter Smithson in 1953 who built “The Economist Builiding” in Piccadilly, London. Brutalist buildings are usually formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and the popular use of fare aced concrete is used. Brutalism is more of architectural philosophy then a architectural style the use of concrete and harsh geometric forms in Kenzo Tange’s heroic buildings, associates the building with a social utopian deology. However, A lot of people argue that this abstract nature of Brutalism makes the style unfriendly and uncommunicative, instead of being integrating and protective, as its proponents intended. But that could be the objective of designers like Kenzo Tange that the building stand out and is not integrated in the setting. It is also said that brutalism “disregards the social, historic, and architectural environment of its surroundings, making the introduction of such structures in existing developed areas appear starkly out of place and alien.” However this is not the case of Kenzo Tange his integration of traditional Japanese forms.

To conclude Kenzo Tange style transformed over time however has consistently kept to the generation of geometrical designs based on a clear structural formats in mega structures.

Left: 1960: Kurashiki City Hall, Kurashiki, OkayamaAbove: Capitol building, IndiaBoth examples of Brutalism by Kemzo Tange.

Location: Nichinan, Miyazaki, JapanDate: 1962.Building type: Cultural center Construction system: Reinforced concrete.Climate: Humid subtropical.Context: Urban.Style: Modern Architecture, Cubisim.

"Architecture always should be a reflection or expression of social structure...This structure should not be considered static, but dynamic—always advancing forward from the past to the future...This advancing social structure has some kind of energy inside, otherwise it cannot move itself. I think this energy is hidden or sleeping in the peoples' bodies and minds but they do not recognize this energy in themselves. So we have to give the image to the peoples' desires. In order to find new solutions to satisfy the peoples' desires or energy, I myself, and other younger generations in our country are striving to overcome our traditional weakness and so-called modernism, by trying to create new spaces and forms more suitable to their energy. This energy, it may be called vitality.”- Kenzo Tange. form Udo Kultermann, ed. Kenzo Tange: 1946-1969 Architecture and Urban Design. p9.

"The oblique volumes interpenetrate each other, creating a formal composition unique in its class. The auditorium rising up diagonally, is the key module on which, with certain variations, the rest of the buildings are based. Together, the exterior and interior spaces create an indivisible architectural whole. The area intended for large gatherings is preceded by a vestibule and other halls which can be used for a variety of purposes. Interior and exterior surfaces alike are of concrete. The slightly curving forms of the openings, the projecting ventilation shafts and guttering all serve to strengthen the play of volumetrics and the geometric character of the complex."—Udo Kultermann. Kenzo Tange: Works and Projects. p170.

Perfect example or Brutalism Style is the Culture Centre in Nichinan, its angular shapes and rectilinear form are diagonally crossing each other integrating volumes and spaces in between. The auditorium is the centre form in the middle and it is inclined diagonally up with the two walls diagonally closing in however they do not meet between them there is a stage.The structure itself is massive and the interior spaces are huge created for social activity. The angularity of the building highlights it’s importance. Although, it is a smooth ceiling the overall form is harsh the wide V shaped roof is noticeable from miles away. It is designed to stand as a free standing monument that’s volume space and size connote it’s vitality. The fenestrations are all equal size and distance, they are projecting outwardly with two vertical concrete slabs on either side.. This breaks up the diagonal horizontality of the building.

To Conclude we can see from both the cross-section and the plan the building is made of oblique volume obstructing or interpenetrating one another. The auditorium is the focal point and module rising up diagonally with all the rest of the buildings shapes looking like it but played around with a little.There is a complete marriage of the interior and exterior.It contains several halls starting with the large one for gatherings, a vestibule then other multi purpose halls. All surfaces (interior and exterior) are made of concrete The area intended for large gatherings is preceded by a vestibule and other halls which can be used for a variety of purposes. Interior and exterior surfaces alike are of concrete. On the exterior we have protruding fenestrations and ventilation shafts all playing a great role in the buildings expression and dynamism. It is as Kenzo tange says a reflection or expression of social structure which should not be considered static but dynamic (Udo Kultermann, 9)

Location: Hiroshima, Japan Date: 1949 to 1956Building type: museum and community

centerConstruction system: concrete.Climate: Humid SubtropicalContext: Urban.Style: Modern Architecture.

Commentary"The building is raised up on pillars, its structure a framework of exposed concrete. The complex as a whole has a monumental quality. There are two secondary buildings, one on either side, consisting of an auditorium, a hotel, an exhibition gallery, a library, offices and a conference centre to the west, and an assembly hall with capacity for 2,500 people to the east....Together they form a kind of screen for the square of Peace, which extends to the north, in which up to 50,000 people can congregate around the monument to Peace. The monument...in the form of a hyperbolic parabola, brings together modern tendencies and techniques and the ancient form of the Haniwa, the traditional tombs of the rulers of old Japan."— Udo Kultermann. Kenzo Tange: Works and Projects. p163-165.The Creator's Words”

This project, also called the Gembaku Dome or the Dome of the Atomic Bomb, was won in competition by Kenzo Tange in 1949 and somehow made him famous in the international arena. In 1996 he was declared world heritage by UNESCO. The original building was designed by Czech architect Jan Letzel and worked as a Commercial Exhibition Center of Hiroshima Prefecture until the August 6, 1945, the fateful nuclear explosion epicenter was just 150 meters from the building and became so close the only structure that remained standing, despite the great damage, to such an attack. Respecting what is left standing of the original building and a few meters from it, Tange rose in an area of 122,100 square meters a tribute to the victims of the tragedy. Located in the heart of the city of Hiroshima, at the junction of the rivers Motoyasu and Honkawa, Japan, the Peace Park to symbolically aligns atomic dome.

The park is a tribute to the victims of the tragedy and recalls all its corners with either evocative monuments or three modernist buildings that Kenzo Tange was raised in, and remember that the ravages of humanity caused by the atomic bomb and calling for the urgent need for nuclear weapons are not used anymore. The Center's purpose is reinforced by several monuments of reinforced concrete, like the one erected in honor of Sadako Sasaki, a girl victim of atomic radiation in the form of a hyperbolic parabola. This monument is known as the Peace Bell. Another monument to honor those killed in Hiroshima by the bomb, like a saddle, with its parabolic shape, but with Kenzo Tange incorporates elements of Japanese tradition, since that form is in memory of Haniwa, tombs former leaders of Japan. Behind this there is a small artificial lake on the other monument that rests with a candle in memory of the fallen.

The original building is preserved as it was after the atomic explosion and the whole park was created around it. This complex of buildings to show the simplicity that can be reached on a design. With its main dining room of flat and long resting on concrete pillars removed, in a concrete structure slender, thin, finely finished that allows the color of cement and allows you to see the transparency of the interior, it is impossible not to mention again Le Corbusier, even when shown a strong influence of traditional Japanese design in the grid of windows and layout of the structure. The glass facade is divided by nerves

cement horizontal and vertical layers, highlighting the dominance of vertical and horizontal characteristics of the construction of Tange. The construction of buildings and monuments was completed primarily in reinforced concrete exposed and the main facade of the museum covered by glass. The Hiroshima Peace Center Memorial Hall, was constructed with 140 thousand bricks, the number of victims until the end of 1945

Location: Ichinomiya, Japan.Date: 1961.Building type: RowhousesConstruction system: Site-cast concrete.Climate: Humid subtropical.Context: Urban.Style: Modern Architecture.

The Ichinomiya group represents the Eastern equivalent of the rowhouse. It is in a rural setting...Although the individual units are much smaller than their Western counterparts, the grouping is rather typical of Western arrangements. The landscape plays a much more dominant role, however, and the buildings rather easily accommodate themselves to the existing stream and trees....Each unit has a garden defined by a low wall, and a higher wall separates every second unit....There are several different types of units. Built on a module of about 11 feet, the one-story units use two bays—about 23 feet—and the two-story units only one bay. Both types are of comparable size, about 400 square feet, with four rooms each. Only the two-story apartments have balconies, but both have a paved patio on the garden side.

Kenzo Tange was confronted with Japan’s spatial limitations, Tange spent most of his career addressing ways to make large urban areas such as Tokyo more functional as well as aesthetically interesting. With technology and communication such vital parts of everyday life, Tange sought to make one building ‘communicate’ with another such that the two structures, regardless of the previous architect, stand in harmony together rather than in discordant opposition. Using traditional Japanese forms as a basis and modern technology, Tange creates and entirely new form of architecture.

Kenzo Tange was an extremely influential architect in the modern and contemporary schools of architecture. He is globally recognised for his design of the National Gymnasium Complex for the 1964 Olympic Games and his winning design of the Peace Park and Peace Centre of Hiroshima. He was greatly influenced by the great architect Le Corbusier and Renaissance master, Michelangelo as well as ideologies and concepts cemented in traditional Japanese architecture. Tange developed a rare ability to articulate the severe modernist materials of steel frames, concrete and glass to replicate the dignified timber-framed structures. His buildings are concerned with spatial context and the nature of urban structure. From the idea of structuralism, an interest in humanity and spatial aspects developed .Additionally, Kenzo Tange was devoted to the movement of Functionalism, especially in regards to the Yoyogi Gymnasium. Communication between the architectural space and humanity’s interaction with the structure is an imperative quality of Tanges architectural mentality and is evident in all his work.