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Takeyama, Minoru
(b Sapporo, Hokkaido, 15 March 1934). Japanese architect, writer and teacher. He graduated from Waseda University, Tokyo, in 1958 and continued his studies as a Fulbright scholar (1959–60) at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. He then worked for Josep Lluís Sert in Cambridge, MA (1960–61); for Harrison & Abramovitz in New York (1961–2); and for Jørn Utzon, Arne Jacobsen and Henning Larsen in Copenhagen, Denmark (1962–4). On his return to Japan he established his own office, Minoru Takeyama and the United Actions, in Tokyo in 1965, opening a second office in Sapporo in 1975. One of the New Wave of avant-garde Japanese architects and one of the early representatives of Post-modernism in Japan, Takeyama was interested in semiotics and the language of architecture. In 1971, with Takefumi Aida, Takamitsu Azuma, Mayumi Miyawaki and Makoto Suzuki, he formed the counter-Metabolist group ARCHITEXT. His first significant buildings were Ichiban-kan (‘Number One Building’; 1969) and Niban-kan (‘Number Two Building’; 1970), multi-rental stores in Tokyo. Ichiban-kan is a tall, black-metal and glass structure, with horizontal stripes, and Niban-kan originally featured a combination of Op art and catalogue elements on its multi-faceted exterior (later repainted). Takeyama used the term ‘heterology’ to describe the relationship between entities, establishing links based on metaphor and symbol. His designs continued to be inclusive and complex, rather than exclusive and simple. Such buildings as Hotel Beverly Tom (1973), Tomakomai, Hokkaido; Takeyama’s studio Atelier Indigo (1976) and the Nakamura Hospital (1978), both in Sapporo; the Sweet Factory (1985), Nara; and the Renaissance Building (1986), Kyoto, were created as ‘kaleidoscopes of signs’, which display ambiguous and contradictory qualities: Hotel Beverly Tom, for example, is encased in black metal and parodies the buildings of the heavily industrialized region in which it is situated. The spectacular large-scale Tokyo Port Terminal (1991) is again a testimony to his skill and artistry in ‘reconciling polar opposites’ in the paradoxical urban conditions of the Japanese city. Takeyama also taught architecture, both in Japan and abroad, and was the author of many books on the subject.
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