Kisho Noriaki Kurokawa

Kurokawa, Kisho Noriaki (nôrēä'kē kē'shō kūrō'käwä), 1934-2007, Japanese architect, grad. Tokyo Univ. (Ph.D., 1964). The youngest founding member of the group of architects known as Metabolists, who perceived architectural works as living organisms, Kurokawa provided for the growth or change of his buildings with the addition or subtraction of modular units. The Nakagin Capsule Tower, Ginza, Tokyo (1972), Sony Tower, Osaka (1976), and National Ethnological Museum, Osaka (1977), are among the most noted of his early designs. Kurokawa was later associated with the Symbiosis movement, which also sees buildings as living things and advocates a synthesis of worldwide cultural influences in architecture. His other major commissions include the Nagoya City Art Museum (1987), Japanese-German Center, Berlin (1988), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (1989), Chinese-Japanese Youth Center, Beijing (1990), Pacific Tower, Paris (1992), Republic Plaza, Singapore (1995), New Wing of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (1998), and the National Art Center, Tokyo (2005). His sole project in the United States is the Sporting Club at the Illinois Center, Chicago (1990). Kurokawa's best-known work is probably the prize-winning Kuala Lumpur International Airport (1998), a futurist complex built around a rain forest. Also an influential writer and theorist, he was the author of numerous books, e.g., Metabolism in Architecture (1977), Intercultural Architecture (1991), and The Philosophy of Symbiosis (1994).