Kenzo Tange

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Tange Kenzo)

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, Shinjuku-ku Tokyo

Kenzo Tange (丹下健三, Tange Kenzō; September 4, 1913 - March 22, 2005) was a Japanese architect, and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five continents.

Tange was born in Sakai, Osaka in 1913. He moved to Hankou, Shanghai of China and later England, with his banker father, backed to Japan in 1920. Tange was strongry influenced by Le Corbusier' books, and thought to be an architect in his secondary school days.

In 1935, Tange attended at the Department of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, where he studied architecture, completed his degree and worked as a professional architect at the studio of kunio Maekawa. Tange worked a few years there and left, backed to the University of Tokyo to study postgraduate course in 1941. Tange became an assistant professor and opened Tange laboratory in 1946, promoted to professor of the Department of Urban Engineering in 1963. As a professor, Tange supervised many of his students include Sachio Otani, Kisho Kurokawa, Arata Isozaki, and Fumihiko Maki who have inherited Tange's architectural style and his philosophy.

In 1949, Tange won the architecture competiton for design of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima city, following its atomic bombing in 1945. His design for Peace Memorial Park owes much to Le Corbusier, and is often called "the spiritual core of the city"^{[citation needed]}. One reason Tange gave for applying for the job was that as a secondary student he had studied in the city.

Tange won international fame for his design for the gymnasium for the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo. His Pritzker Prize citation described it as "among the most beautiful buildings of the 20th century".

He was also known for his "Tokyo Plan" of 1960, which proposed a radical redesign of the city. Although not fully implemented, it influenced architects worldwide. Tange received AIA Gold Medal in 1966, the Order of Culture in 1980, the order of the Sacred Treasures in 1994.

In 2005, his funeral was held in one of his works, Tokyo Cathedral.

2005: Hwa Chong Institution Boarding School, Singapore
2003: The Linear - Private Apartments, Singapore
2000: Tokyo Dome Hotel
2000: Kagawa Prefectural Government Building the main offices, Takamatsu, Kagawa
1998: WKC Centre For Health Development, Kobe, Hyōgo
1998: University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain
1996: Fuji Television Building, Odaiba, Tokyo
1991: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku
1987: American Medical Association Headquarters Building, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1986: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
1979: Hanae Mori Building Aoyama, Tokyo
1970: Site of Expo '70, Suita, Osaka
1966: Master plan for rebuilding of Skopje, Macedonia after the 1963 earthquake
1964: Yoyogi National Gymnasium for the 1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo
1960: Kurashiki City Hall, Kurashiki, Okayama
1958: Kagawa Prefectural Government Building the east offices, Takamatsu, Kagawa
1957: (Former) Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Yūrakuchō
1955: St. Mary's Cathedral (Tokyo Cathedral) (Roman Catholic), Tokyo
1955: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima

1955: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum at the Peace Memorial Park of Hiroshima.	1964: Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Shibuya, Tokyo.	1958: Kagawa Prefectural the Government Building east office	1964: St. Mary's Cathedral (Tokyo Cathedral), Tokyo
1987: American Medical Association Headquarters Building, Chicago, United States	1991: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku	1996: The Fuji TV headquarters in Odaiba is known for its eccentric architecture.	2000: Kagawa Prefectural the Government Building main office