ARCHITECT

KENZO TANGE
Born
4 September 1913
Osaka, Japan

Died
22 March 2005,Tokyo
“Architecture must have
something that appeals
to the human heart, but
even then, basic forms,
spaces and appearances
must be logical. Creative
work is expressed in our
time as a union of
technology and
humanity".
-Kenzo Tange
•Tange spent his early life in the Chinese cities of Hankow and Shanghai.
•He and his family returned to Japan after learning of the death of one of his uncles.
•In contrast to the green lawns and red bricks in their Shanghai abode, the Tange family took
up residence in a thatched roof farmhouse in Imabari on the island of Shikoku.
•After finishing middle school, Tange moved to Hiroshima in 1930 to attend high school.
•It was here that he first encountered the works
of Swiss modernist, Le Corbusier.
•His discovery of the drawings of the Palace of
the Soviets in a foreign art journal convinced him
to become an architect.
•Although he graduated from high school,
Tange's poor results in mathematics and physics
meant that he had to pass entrance exams to
qualify for admission to the prestigious
universities.
•He spent two years doing so and during that
time, he read extensively about western
philosophy.
•Tange also enrolled in the film division at Nihon
University's art department to dodge Japan's
drafting of young men to its military and seldom
attended classes.
Bibliography:
1. B. Boyd, Kenzo Tange, Braziller, New York, 1962
2. B. Bognar, Contemporary Japanese Architecture, Van
Nostrand Reinhold Co., Inc., New York, 1985
3. F. Ross, Beyond Metabolism, Architectural Record
Books, Mc-Graw-Hill Inc. New York, 1978
4. Kenzo Tange and N. Kawazoe, Katsura: Tradition and
Creation in Japanese Architecture, Yale University Press,
New Haven, 1960.
5. Kenzo Tange and N. Kawazoe, Ise: Prototype of
Japanese Architecture, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge Mass,
1965.
Major works
- Peace Memorial Park of Hiroshima, 1955
- (Former)Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building,
Yurakucho, 1957
- Kagawa Prefectural Government Building, Takamatsu, Kagawa,
1958
- St. Mary's Cathedral (Tokyo Cathedral) (Roman Catholic), Tokyo,
1964
- Site of Expo '70, Suita, Osaka- 1964: Yoyogi National
Gymnasium for the 1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo, 1970
- Hanae Mori Building Aoyama, Tokyo, 1979
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 1986
- Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku, 1991
- Fuji Television Building, Odaiba, Tokyo, 1996
- WKC Centre For Health Development, Kobe, Hyogo, 1998
- Tokyo Dome Hotel, 2000
- Hwa Chong Institution Boarding School, Singapore, 2005
•After graduating from the university, Tange started to work as an architect at the
office of Kunio Maekawa.
•During his employment, he travelled to Manchuria, participating in anarchitectural
design competition for a bank, and toured Japanese-occupied Jehol on his return.
•When the Second World War started, he left Maekawa to rejoin the University of
Tokyo as a postgraduate student.
•He developed an interest in urban design, and referencing only the resources
available in the university library, he embarked on a study of Greek and Roman
marketplaces.
•In 1942, Tange entered a competition for the design of the Greater East Asian Co-
Prosperity Sphere Memorial Hall. He was awarded first prize for a design that would
have been situated at the base of Mount Fuji; the hall he conceived was a fusion
of Shinto shrine architecture and the plaza on Capitoline Hill in Rome. The design was
not realised.
•In 1946, Tange became an assistant professor at the university and opened Tange
Laboratory. In 1963, he was promoted to professor of the Department of Urban
Engineering. His students included Sachio Otani, Kisho Kurokawa, Arata Isozaki,
and Fumihiko Maki.

Awards
RIBA Gold Medal, AIA Gold Medal,
Order of Culture, Order of Sacred Treasures
St. Mary's Cathedral

“Development
of idea of
structuralism
deepened
interest in the
spaces as it
relates to
humanity and its
spiritual aspects.”
-Kenzo Tange
1. St. Mary's Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Tokyo. It is located in the Sekiguchi
neighborhood of Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan.
2. The original structure of 1899 was a wooden building in
the Gothic style. It was burned during World War II.
3. The present church, designed by Tange Kenzo, dates from 1964.
Kenzo Tange won the competition for the reconstruction of this
church in 1961.
1. It was built with assistance from Wilhelm Schlombs,
architect to the Archdiocese of Cologne, the engineer
Yoshikatsu Tsuboi, who worked with Tange on many of his
projects and the Zurich architect Max Lechner.
2. The plan of the building is in the form of a cross, from which the
walls, eight hyperbolic parabolas, rise up at an angle.
 1. To this rhomboid
volume other
secondary
constructions are added, their
rectangular volumes
contrasting with the symbolic
character of the cathedral
with which they communicate
by way of pathways and
platforms.
2. The bell tower is 60 m in
height and stands at a little
distance from the cathedral
proper, whose interior is
finished in exposed concrete.
The exterior surfaces are clad
INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL in stainless steel, which gives
them a special radiance in
keeping with the religious
character of the building
 “I do not believe that
YOYOGI NATIONAL regionalism is an
GYMNASIUM expression of the
visible idiom which has
TOKYO OLYMPIC been applied in a specific
region traditionally.
I believe that tradition
neither be preserved nor
converted into a creative
impulse. Creative work is
expressed in our times in a
union of technology and
humanity.”
-KENZO TANGE
 •Yoyogi National Gymnasium is an
arena in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan
which is famous for its suspension roof
design.
•It was designed by Kenzo Tange and built
between 1961 and 1964 to house swimming
and diving events in the 1964 Summer
Olympics.

•The design inspired Frei Otto's arena

designs for the 1972 Summer Olympics in
Munich.
•The plan is in the form of two semi-circles,
slightly displaced in relation to one another,
with their unconnecting ends elongated into
points.
 • The curving form of the roof
serves to make it more resistant to
wind, which can reach hurricane
force in this region.

• The entrances are located in the

concave sides. The roof is supported
on two reinforced concrete pillars,
and is made up of a system of steel
cables onto which enameled steel
plates are then soldered.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

“Modern architecture and

Japanese traditional
architecture have common
characteristics— simplicity,
standardization, openness,
spaciousness and
lightness...Simplicity or
standardization means
sometimes the formalistic.
. Architecture always should
be a reflection or expression
of social structure.”
-KENZO TANGE
•The Tokyo Metropolitan
Government Building , also
referred to as Tokyo City Hall for
short, houses the headquarters of the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

•This comprises not only the 23 wards, but

also the cities, towns and villages that
make up Tokyo as a whole.

• Located in Shinjuku, it held title of the

tallest building (by roof height) in Tokyo,
at 243 meters (799 feet), from 1991 until
late 2006.

• The building consists of a complex of

three structures each taking up a city
block.
•The tallest and most prominent
of the three is Tokyo
Metropolitan Main building
No.1, a tower 48 stories tall that
splits into two sections at the
33rd floor. The building also has
three levels below ground.
• The design of the building
(which was supposed to look
like a computer-chip), by
architect Kenzo Tange (and
associates), has many symbolic
touches, most notably the
aforementioned split which re-
creates the look of a Gothic
cathedral.
Tokyo Dome Hotel

“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...
- KENZO TANGE
•Located at the very center of Tokyo's citywide JR
Yamanote Line, the Tokyo Dome Hotel is an ideal base for
business, leisure or sightseeing.
•The Tokyo Dome Hotel towers at a height of 155 meters
above the city, which includes 1,006 guest rooms, 10
restaurants & lounges, 18 small to large banquet rooms.
two distinctive chapels and other wedding facilities, a
business center, a child care room, and an outdoor pool.
•The magnificent, unobstructed
view from the guest rooms
encompasses the Imperial Palace,
Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Bay and
towering Mt. Fuji to the south. The
northern view gazes over a
panorama of the Kanto plains
including Tokyo Dome City below.
 OTHER MAJOR PROJECTS

Kagawa Prefecture
Office
UOB Plaza American Medical
Association HQ
 Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Kenzo Tange’s House Fuji TV headquarters

 TOD
Presentetion

Submitted by
Abhijit
Singh
IV-Sem, B.Arch.