Kagawa Prefectural Government Office East Building
Kenzo Tange · Takamatsu, Japan · 1958
Kenzo Tange combines a reinforced-concrete frame with proportions and projecting elements that deliberately recall traditional Japanese timber construction. The open ground level, deep sunshades and carefully articulated structure made the office a landmark of postwar civic modernism. Its interiors and assembly spaces also show Tange's attempt to give a modern government building a specifically Japanese architectural identity without historical imitation.