GK spoke with Paul Tange, Chairman of Tange Associates, about the timeless principles of Japanese design and his vision for the firm’s next chapter on the global stage.
In your opinion, what can Japan teach the world about its design principles?
I think the Japanese are a serious people, who focus on their tasks and give attention to details. They take pride in what they create. When we talk about Japanese design, there is beauty in its simplicity. If we consider how it’s connected to tradition, such as the Japanese tea ceremony, for example, we can understand the connection to a certain spirituality. As a generalization, we are not a very religious people, but the appreciation of the “spirit” of an object and the connection with nature is at the core of that spiritualism and belief in Japan.
Simplicity can be very rich. If we compare the western idea of richness, for example, the Palace of Versailles, and the Japanese idea of richness, for example, the Katsura Villa, it’s quite different. I think Japanese design philosophy is much more deep-rooted in spiritual richness.
In architecture, for example, in western design, there is a clear division between outside and insides spaces, that tends to be defined by a hard line or wall. That’s just the basic concept of designing a building. The Japanese idea, however, is to coexist with nature or the environment. We don’t have a clear line that says, “we are inside now”, it’s the idea of continuous and ambiguous space. I like to think that our natural mental state is that of coexistence.
How has Japan’s aging infrastructure influenced architecture?
Of course, the issue of aging infrastructure cannot be avoided. Japanese people are a meticulous group, so even though we build things to last, we are also constantly maintaining them. For example, Yoyogi National Gymnasium, which was built in 1964 for the first Tokyo Olympics, has been constantly upgraded over the last 50 years. When the 2020 Olympics came around, we went in at full force to completely revamp the facilities.
So yes, our infrastructure is aging but because we have not neglected maintenance and upgrades, the situation is maybe better than in other countries. We have learned a lot through this process about how to improve our infrastructure. Yes, it is a challenge, but I believe that in the case of Japan, we will be tackling this issue better than other urban areas in the world. If you travel around Japan, you’ll find that streets and buildings are relatively well kept. Again, that comes with the Japanese mentality we spoke about earlier.
How does your company plan to move forward, and what do you have in mind for your midterm strategy?
Right now, about 50% of our projects are in Japan and the other 50% overseas. We have been a global company since the 1970s, so we will carry on in this direction wherever the opportunities are. Our company is not limited by national borders at this point.
We are always challenging ourselves to use new materials and technologies to advance knowledge, while never forgetting our traditional roots. We continue to evolve. As we are Japanese, we, of course, have Japanese sensibility. In our design we incorporate that sensitivity together with the traditional culture of the area where we build.
We are people centric. Our philosophy is to create architecture with people in mind, those people being the Client/Owner, the users, and visitors of the architecture we design. In fact, our motto is, “With vision, we create buildings for people.”
