1913 –
Kenzo Tange is a Japanese architect whose styles had greatly affected the Western world. He was educated at Tokyo University studying architecture and engineering. Since 1946, he taught as a professor at Tokyo University. At ht same time he was working on a design that would win him international renown. This was in 1949 when he designed the Hiroshima Peace Center.
During the 1950's, Tange's style and use of shell structures lived in his large-scale public buildings. For example, in Ehima, Japan, he designed the Shizuoka Convention Hall in 1954, which features these aspects. Through experience, Tange was able to improve and perfect his designs by 1958 when he completed the Prefecture of Kagawa in Takamatsu, which was a multi-story office building structured with concrete.
In the 1960's, Tange bore more stylish especially in two of his designs. The National Indoor Stadium at Yoyogi uses and innovation called suspension roofing which can be compared to the same philosophies of suspension bridges. The roofs were suspended on cables. It was completed in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics. A year later in Tokyo, he completed a cathedral that featured the use of concrete, glass, and stainless steel.
Near the end of 1960's he designed the Theme Building arena for Expo '70 in Osaka. As a turning point, Tange primarily explored rounded styles. The turning point did climax further due to his visions of a futuristic plan to extend the city of Tokyo into Tokyo Bay.
Recently he worked on the Japan Olivetti Technical Center.
The majority of his buildings exhibit aspects of Japanese traditional architecture. From this we see that Tange was able to apply Japanese concepts to modern architecture. At the same time, Tange widely used concrete in his works, which happens to be result of geography. Japan is island that lies on a fault line, therefore it is subject to earthquakes. Frequent earthquakes prevent the large-scale use of steel or glass. In this case, concrete is the best resource. Fittingly, Tange became influenced by another architect who perfected his own use of concrete - Le Corbusier.