Japan

Contemporary Japanese architecture has, over half a century, achieved world-wide recognition not only for its highly innovative, often futuristic qualities, but also for its sensitive response to Japan’s cultural and physical context in the challenging setting of its increasingly urbanised environment. Today, it is admired perhaps as much as its traditional counterpart, with which it often maintains a meaningful dialogue. Botond Bognar’s Architectural Guide Japan introduces over 700 of the most prominent examples of this fertile architecture, while outlining its development since the mid-nineteenth century until the present day in a concise historical essay. This updated, second edition of the book presents around 100 new buildings, reflecting the rapid pace of development in the country. All texts and entries are illustrated with hundreds of colour photos, all taken by the author, and many drawings. Detailed information about each entry is complemented by geo-data in the form of QR codes.