Review Of "The Architecture Of Yoshio Taniguchi" By Y. Taniguchi

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

10-1-1999

Published In

Choice

Abstract

This is an exceptionally beautiful book worthy of its author and subject, Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, recently selected to design the renovation and expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, his first major work abroad. Architecture, addressing the visitor, may be loquacious, or else declamatory, or even histrionically assertive. Taniguchi's architecture is singularly courteous; it speaks softly, surely, and sensitively. Trained in engineering in Tokyo and subsequently in architecture at Harvard, he puts structural sophistication to the service of his poetry of shifting spaces and subtle lighting that is distinctly Japanese. In visual experience, going through his building resembles a stroll in a Japanese garden; but he accomplishes this without undermining functional logic. The book presents his 17 works, two from the 1970s, five from the 1980s, and ten from this decade, each exquisitely illustrated and accompanied by the architect's succinct but informative commentary. Seven of them are art museums, and the MOMA project is showcased with analytical notes and plans. Fumihiko Maki, the architect's senior, contributed a thoughtful critical essay that articulates with precision the sources of Taniguchi's architectural aesthetics. In this modest autobiography, Taniguchi reflects on his career as a learning process. Recommended for all libraries. General readers; undergraduates through professionals.

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