31–40 of 115 posts
Travelling to the 70s must feel like going to the future: these futuristic capsule buildings existed, supersonic air travel was commonplace, and there were humans travelling to the moon. The epitome of modernity these days is how fast your car videos can load.
Travelling to the 70s must feel like going to the future: these futuristic capsule buildings existed, supersonic air travel was commonplace, and there were humans travelling to the moon. The epitome of modernity these days is how fast your car videos can load.
I think the first signs of not decline, but I'd say "wind down" were quite apparent in eighties already.
I published a photobook 'Danchi Dreams' in 2018 that captured the massive Japanese apartment blocks from the same era as Nakagin. The apartment buildings, known as 'danchi', were constructed from the 1960s - 1980s to replace burnt-out cities and house a booming population. Though they might not be quite as spectacular as what the Metabolists dreamed up I think they shared a forward-looking vision for what the modern…
It reminds me of Canada's Habitat 67, which is also made up of prefabricated concrete rooms and sealed bathroom units. Designed as cheap housing for the future, it is now luxery housing but residents have to put up with similar problems such as a pipe burst in one apartment causes major problems. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67
It allows to make up something fancy very, very quick, and no risk that $10 per hour worker messes up somebody's gold plated loo.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least from a Japanese point of view, the 70s were a bit depressing because that was the end of their economic boom.
Maybe you’re thinking of the 90s? The ‘lost decade’ is considered to have started in 1991, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan) and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_economic_miracle .
> The economical miracle can be divided into four stages: the recovery (1946–1954), the high increase (1955–1972), the steady increase (1972–1992), and the low increase (1992–2017).
The period of highest growth ended in the 70s, which ended some of the optimism of that period.
Travelling to the 70s must feel like going to the future: these futuristic capsule buildings existed, supersonic air travel was commonplace, and there were humans travelling to the moon. The epitome of modernity these days is how fast your car videos can load.
There was much less future, it was less advanced but it felt more special, yes.
I think that "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the metabolists failed because the buildings they produced weren’t metabolic enough to cope with the ever-changing needs of the city’s inhabitants. Surely, preservation of their work as some kind of cultural relic would be the last thing that the young radicals of the late ’60s and early ’70s would have wanted." is the key quote. I'm sad to see an interesting buil…
Travelling to the 70s must feel like going to the future: these futuristic capsule buildings existed, supersonic air travel was commonplace, and there were humans travelling to the moon. The epitome of modernity these days is how fast your car videos can load.
To me, this building is made famous by Transport Tycoon, and I am so sad to see the end.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe you’re thinking of the 90s? The ‘lost decade’ is considered to have started in 1991, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan) and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_economic_miracle .
From that article (edit: second article): > The economical miracle can be divided into four stages: the recovery (1946–1954), the high increase (1955–1972), the steady increase (1972–1992), and the low increase (1992–2017). The period of highest growth ended in the 70s, which ended some of the optimism of that period.