Digesting Metabolism: Artificial Land in Japan 1954-2202

A group of Japanese architects calling themselves Metabolists first appeared together in 1960 at the World Design Conference in Tokyo. This impressive illustrated volume is the first to focus on the Metabolists’s built designs for housing, which they regarded as living organisms, not static monuments.

Inspired by Le Corbusier’s concept of artificial land, their housing encouraged individual and collective forces to collaborate in the creation of the living environment. They produced buildings made of modular, flexible, and dynamic units that can be randomly expanded, redesigned, and adjusted to meet every expectation. This gives all of the buildings a special charm: not only are they fascinating in themselves, but they also provoke us to completely rediscover and rethink how housing is created.