Katsura Imperial Villa is the definitive architectural study of the seventeenth-century Kyoto palace that has shaped the course of modern architecture — from Bruno Taut and Le Corbusier to Tadao Ando and Kenzo Tange — through detailed drawings, maps, and historical analysis.
About This Book
Few buildings carry the weight of Katsura Imperial Villa in architectural discourse. Long regarded as a precursor to Modernist tendencies, this Kyoto palace has been a touchstone for architects across generations and continents. This volume — newly reissued in a fresh format — assembles an extensive body of maps, measured drawings, and photographs to deliver what no site visit alone can: close, sustained access to the palace's spatial logic and historical layers. The result is a reference work that positions Japanese architecture not as aesthetic counterpoint to Western Modernism, but as one of its formative sources. Essential for anyone working in architectural history or spatial theory.
Key Features
- 336 pages of maps, measured drawings, and archival and contemporary photography
- Contributors include Arata Isozaki, Yoshiharu Matsumura, Manfred Speidel, Bruno Taut, Walter Gropius, Kenzo Tange, and Francesco Dal Co
- Published by Phaidon, ISBN: 9781837290147
What You'll Discover
- How Katsura's spatial principles directly informed the development of Modernist architecture in Europe and Japan
- The palace's design and history examined through detailed measured drawings unavailable elsewhere in this format
- Essays and analyses from multiple scholarly and architectural perspectives, spanning Western and Japanese critical traditions
- The enduring tension between Katsura as living cultural site and as an object of architectural projection and interpretation
About the Author
This volume brings together contributions from Arata Isozaki, Yoshiharu Matsumura, Manfred Speidel, Bruno Taut, Walter Gropius, Kenzo Tange, and Francesco Dal Co — a remarkable assembly of architectural thinkers whose engagement with Katsura spans the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 336
- Dimensions: 290 x 214 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781837290147
- Publisher: Phaidon
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and architectural historians with an interest in Japanese architecture, the origins of Modernism, or the relationship between Eastern and Western spatial thinking.