Tange Kenzo’s architectural career

Tange Kenzo (1913-2005), a world-renowned Japanese architect. He has received seven doctorates and honorary doctorates, including those from Harvard University and MIT. He has received the Cultural Medal from the Emperor of Japan, and gold medals from the American Institute of Architects, the Royal Architectural Institute and the French Academy of Architectural Sciences. Kenzo Tange is known to the world as a Japanese architect and a representative of Japan's cultural and artistic circles.

In September 1913, Tange Kenzo was born in Osaka, Japan. He had excellent grades since childhood, almost all 10 points. In 1935, he was admitted to the Department of Architecture of Tokyo University. After graduation, he worked in the office of the famous Japanese architect Kunio Maekawa. Here, his work won first prize in a national design competition and he began his research on urban planning.

In 1946, Tange Kenzo returned to the Department of Architecture of Tokyo University as an assistant professor, and at the same time established the "Tange Laboratory", a laboratory full of vitality and creativity. In the next fifteen or sixteen years, he designed a number of outstanding buildings such as the Hiroshima Peace Park, the Atomic Bomb Memorial Hall, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and the Kagawa Prefectural Government Building. He also continued to attend academic conferences and give lectures in Europe and America. .

The first stage

In the 1950s after the war, Tange proposed the concept of "functional typification" on the basis of inheriting the national tradition, giving the building a more rational form, and pioneered the A new realm of Japanese modern architecture. Representative works include: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (1955), Old Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (1952-1957), Kagawa Prefectural Government Building (1955-1958), Kurashiki Prefectural Government Building (1958-1960) )wait.

The second stage

is the 1960s, a period when Tange and his research institute achieved brilliant results. In the 1960 Tokyo plan, the theory of "urban axis" was proposed, which had a great influence on future urban design. New explorations were made in long-span buildings, the most famous of which is the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo (1961-1964). Successful explorations have also been made in the use of symbolic techniques and new national styles, such as Yamanashi Bunka Kaikan (1966), Tokyo Roman Catholic St. Mary's Cathedral (1964), Shizuoka News Broadcasting Tokyo Branch (1966), etc.

The third stage

After 1970, Tange Kenzo and his institute did a lot of architectural designs in North Africa and the Middle East, such as the Hashemite Palace Project in Jordan, the Abu Dhabi Building in the Nigerian capital Jia Urban Planning (1976), Algiers International Airport, etc. During this period, Tange Kenzo also explored mirrored glass curtain walls. Important works include the Tokyo Metropolitan New City Hall and the Tokyo Sogetsu Kaikan New Building. As well as the Osaka Expo site, infrastructure planning, Onsai Plaza (1970), Hiroshima International Convention Center (1989), New Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (1991), Shinjuku Park Tower (1994), Fuji TV Headquarters Building (1996) Year), Tokyo 'Dome' Hotel ("Qionglong" Hotel) (2000), etc.