Helix City Project, Tokyo, Japan (Plan)
Kisho Kurokawa
Japanese, 1934–2007
1961
A speculative architectural plan rendered as a collage of cut-and-pasted gelatin silver photographs and ink on tracing paper, in which Kisho Kurokawa maps a modular, helix-like network of interconnected nodes as a flexible urban proposal.
At a glance it reads like a living organism—glossy circular photo-stamps cluster into dense cores while ribbon-like chains of tiny images stretch outward, producing a taut interplay of mechanical repetition and organic flow across the pale sheet.
As an early Metabolist work, it embodies the 1960s idea of the city as a growable, replaceable organism and helped make visible modular, prefabricated, and adaptable strategies that influenced postwar architecture and urban thought.
Medium
Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver photographs and ink on cut-and-pasted tracing paper on paper
Dimensions
21 1/2 x 17 1/2" (54.6 x 44.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architect
Accession
427.1992
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
