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Lecture with Botond Bognar: From Metabolism to Minimalism- A Japanese Architectural Genealogy of Space and Architecture
July 26 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Free
Join us for a special AIA Japan lecture by Professor Botond Bognar on the evolution of Japanese architecture, from Metabolism to Minimalism. More details below!
Date: Saturday, July 26, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: Gensler Tokyo office
In-Person: Please register via our Peatix app here!
For online:
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87802973280?pwd=0comZSeNPIEEwDGmcvh7tUc7GY4zy5.1
Meeting ID: 878 0297 3280
Passcode: 418403
Lecture Description
In this richly illustrated talk, Professor Botond Bognar investigates a spatial genealogy in modern and contemporary Japanese architecture—tracing the evolution from Arata Isozaki’s visionary “City in the Air” to the refined minimalism of SANAA. His lecture explores how ideas of space and form have transformed across generations of architects, guided by shifting cultural and conceptual frameworks.
Topics will include:
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Explorations of inside–outside relationships, the contrast between serving and served spaces as defined by Louis Kahn, and the idea of “parallel” spaces that define each other like yin and yang
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A discussion of Kenzo Tange’s legacy and the influence of the so-called “White School” in Japanese architecture
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Reflections on how structuralist spatial conceptions evolved into minimalist architectural expressions
Through this lens, Professor Bognar offers a compelling account of how spatial thinking in Japan has navigated between complexity and simplicity, structure and void—ultimately reshaping the architectural landscape.
About Botond Bognar
Born and educated in Budapest, Hungary, Professor Bognar is currently Edgar A. Tafel Endowed Chair in Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he has been teaching graduate design, lecture, and seminar courses for 40 years. He received his B.Arch (1968) and M.Arch (1972) degrees at the Budapest University of Technology, and his MA in Architecture and Urban Planning (1981) at the University of California, Los Angeles. As a Japanese Mombusho Scholar, he conducted research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (1973-1975). As a licensed architect he worked in both Hungary and Japan, where he lived for several years.
Today, Professor Bognar is an internationally renowned scholar of the history and theories of Japanese architecture with a long list of publications: over twenty books and monographs, many book chapters, and innumerable essays and articles in professional journals. He has been a keynote speaker and panelist at numerous major international conferences and has lectured all around the world.
Professor Bognar is recipient of numerous awards and grants, including two Graham Foundation Fellowships; William and Flora Hewlett Fellowship; Social Science Research Council Fellowship; Visiting Endowed Chair at Tokyo University; Japan Foundation Fellowship, Tokyo; and two Excellence in Teaching Awards. In 1986 he was named University Scholar and in 2000 appointed Associate in the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois. In 2005 he received the Cultural Appreciation Prize from the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) and in 2018 he received the Honorary Gold Diploma from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
