Metabolist Architecture Group

Info links:
Wikipedia
Metabolism Role in the Modern World

Major Project: Hero Architect

Fimihiko Maki

Maki is a Japanese born architect who studied both in Japan and America.

He was one of the establishers of Metabolism Group.

Biography:

(b. Tokyo, Japan 1928)

Fumihiko Maki was born in Tokyo in 1928. He studied at the University of Tokyo, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. After he worked for Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill in New York and for Sert Jackson and Associates in Cambridge he spent several years teaching and working independently. In 1965 he established Maki and Associates in Tokyo.

Maki returned to Japan in 1960 and helped establish the Metabolism Group. With an obsessive interest in new technology and rational design, Maki uses modular systems in planning and standardized building components in construction. His favorite materials are metal, glass, and poured concrete. Despite his keen interest in theory and technology, Maki is a populist, and his buildings display a warmth and sense of excitement that is rarely found in contemporary architecture.

Maki's designs exhibit carefully manipulated shapes and textures that humanize their total effect. Maki displays a constant concern with contextual response. Maki applies his belief in standardized parts and adaptability in a very pragmatic way. His design attention is not the glorification of his theories, but the successful employment of them to create effective architecture that meets human needs.

Maki has been studying traditional Japanese architecture which he has begun incorporating into his design work. Maki's design work is remarkably mature, not merely in choice of concept, but in terms of compositional sophistication as well.

Some photos:

Kaze-no-oka crematorium, Nakatsu City

Tepia Plaza, Tokyo

Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis

Republic Polytechnic, Singapore

Spiral house in Tokyo

Links to more photos of buildings by Maki and his new tower project:

Fumihiko Maki
Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate

Four Months of Design, Three New Towers

Development of Flinders St. Craning panels

Craning up of a precast panel

False work and safety screens on the building.
Thickening of the floor slab where the columns meet the floor to transfer the loads from the upper floors.

Precast concrete panel structure

Olympic Swimming Pool

1952 - Mr Peter McIntyre, Mr Bill Irwin and
Mr Kevin Borland with the award winning design model

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Unusual shape of the building is created a very fascinating engineering design. It’s steel structure consists of truss system and some tensile elements. The weight of the trussed roof is bored by steel girders and stabilised by steel rods.

Concrete is used as base for stairs and also articulates the envelope of the building.

This picture shows steel trusses or girders connected via the braced steel plates with the roof trusses. The steel plates are also connected to the tension rods.

This picture shows pinned connection of the rods with the plates. Rods stabilise the uplift reaction of the trussed roof.

The rods are concreted in the ground (the detail is unfortunately covered by a steel cap)

The interior shows roof truss system with rigid connection. Interestingly, rafter is a truss that runs perpendicular to main structural trusses. The close up detail is shown below.

Additionally, the structure is braced by triangular steel tubes.

Interior view

Steel Frame

Here is a very beautiful steel and stained glass roof of NGV on St. Kilda Road by Roy Grounds.

Here are the links discussing engineering advances/planning disadvantages of the NGV renovation. http://www.arup.com/australasia/project.cfm?pageid=1427

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/14/1071336809104.html

Melbourne Central Dome

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