R.I.P. - Kisho Kurokawa 1934-2007

**takesh h** · 12-10-2007

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Kisho Kurokawa, known as the avant-garde Metabolist since 1960s, died 12th October 2007 in Tokyo.

**ReD** · 12-10-2007

I'm thankful for his time on earth & after I discovered him in the mid 70's I always found his work inspirational

**gorgon** · 12-10-2007

Very sad news and sudden too - wasn't he running for a seat in the national parliament after losing the Tokyo City Mayor election earlier this year?
Maybe it was the decision to knock down the capsule towers that hastened his demise...

**SWANK-E** · 12-10-2007

didn't you say he was loosing his mind in recent years?

can't say i am a fan of his work past the 70s

by the way, Takesh just told me this is SCOOP! no one has announced it yet.

**cacapis** · 12-10-2007

I thing the Hedge fund that owns the tower killed him because he was being a nuisance about demolishing the capsule tower...

**digs86** · 12-10-2007

Terrible news, I regarded him as an absolute legend.

They should DEFINITELY NOT demolish the Nakagin Capsule Hotel now... It should be a celebrated monument to a genius in his prime.

**Xing** · 12-10-2007

73 years old Kisho Kurokawa is dead on 12 Oct around 8:00 pm (japanese time).

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/society/fl...071012038.html

**takesh h** · 13-10-2007

Japanese architect Kurokawa dies at 73 by Mari Yamaguchi / Associated Press Writer

TOKYO -- Kisho Kurokawa, the Japanese architect who led the so-called "Metabolism Movement" and based his designs on themes including ecology and recycling, died Friday, a Tokyo hospital spokeswoman said. He was 73.

Kurokawa died of heart failure Friday morning, said Keiko Yamazaki, spokeswoman at the Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital, where he was hospitalized Tuesday with an intestinal ailment.

Kurokawa, who made his world debut in 1960 at age 26, led a style known as the Metabolism Movement, advocating a shift from "machine principle" to "life principle" in his literally work and architectural designs based on themes including ecology, recycling and intermediate space.

His major works include the National Ethnological Museum in Tokyo, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia that encompasses palm trees and rain forest, the National Art Center in Tokyo's posh Roppongi that looks like a wavy curtain, as well as the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Kurokawa's design of the Kuala Lumpur airport won the 2003/2004 grand prix by Italy's Dedalo-Minosse International Prize, and was also certified as a sustainable airport by the United Nations' Green Globe 21 in 2003.

"(Kurokawa) demonstrated his genius to open a new passage to architecture," Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Friday.

Compared to his renown in the architecture world, Kurokawa was seen as somewhat eccentric candidate this year when he ran unsuccessfully for local and parliamentary elections.

Born in Japan's central city of Nagoya in 1934, Kurokawa graduated from Kyoto University's architecture department before earning a doctoral degree from Tokyo University under Kenzo Tange, who was hailed as the architect of some of the most beautiful structures of the 20th century. Tange, who designed the twin gymnasiums with sweeping roofs like upside-down ships' hulls for the 1964 Tokyo , died in 2005 at 88.

Kurokawa received the Gold Medal from France's Academy of Architecture in 1986, and most recently the Chicago Athenaeum Museum International Architecture Award in 2006.

**Lumox** · 13-10-2007

Sad news, we're about to start a research project on his philosophies and works in our school. Hope the capsule hotel remains as a memorial, i think its a stroke of genius