St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo
Kenzo Tange · Tokyo, Japan · 1964
Kenzo Tange's cathedral replaces the traditional basilica image with a cruciform plan and soaring stainless-steel shells. The four hyperbolic wall surfaces rise toward a luminous central cross, giving the interior an unusually vertical, almost geological character. It is one of Tokyo's most important postwar religious buildings and a compact study in how structure, symbolism and reflected light can become a single architectural idea.