The New Generation of Architects in Japan

The latest issue of the Asian edition of NEWSWEEK has a cover article that takes a look at the current generation of Japanese architects who are building a reputation outside of Japan, including names like Sejima Kazuyo and Nishizawa Ryue (SANAA), Ban Shigeru, Aoki Jun, Kuma Kengo, and Kishi Waro.

If you stroll down the chic boulevard of Omotesando in Tokyo, you’ll find plenty to catch your eye. Nearly every major fashion house has a boutique here, and the hip kids in fabulous outfits who amble along the leafy avenue compete with the lavish shop windows. But what really makes Omotesando the epicenter of Japanese style is the architecture. Prada’s famous new store by the Swiss team of Herzog & de Meuron—a luminous box of crisscrossed glass—is at one end of the street, but beyond that is an amazing assemblage of cool buildings by some of the best contemporary designers in Japan. From Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa’s diaphanous Dior building—as elegant and sexy as a silk slip—to Jun Aoki’s silver-mesh Louis Vuitton store to Kengo Kuma’s wood-slatted headquarters for LVMH, Omotesando is a design buff’s street of dreams.

Unfortunately, the online posting doesn’t include any of the pictures from the article (or any of the sidebars)