Time for difference

Abstract

After the second world war two movements evolved as a reaction to the developments the war brought into society and built environment. The comparison involves the movements metabolism and structuralism both from the lenses of the protagonists of these movements: Kenzo Tange and Herman Hertzberger respectively.
This thesis aims for an understanding of the core principles of each movement, the origin of these and how they translates themselves into the design of building through the lens of the protagonists of both movements. By doing a literature study, a case studies and a comparative analysis this thesis tries to understand how these movements relate to one another.
The research revealed that structuralism critiques the fast paced and functionalistic approach of the CIAM for the reconstruction of cities. It puts an emphasize on the human scale: in particular user experience and the personalisation of spaces.
Metabolism reacted to the scarcity in land parallel with the rapid growth of the population of Japan. It focusses on the future change of demand in space by allowing buildings to grow and adapt: unlimiting metabolism for biological organisms only.
The Centraalbeheer Achmea building shows the high level of thinking in detail for the user experience in contrast to the Shizuoka Broadcast Centre. Another contrary aspect is the direction of creating spaces in which one colonizes land while the other colonizes air by building higher. Both movements have their own experimental creative approach in which they question the way people thought about architecture.
By understanding the principles of these movements and how they translate into design, this thesis offers an insight on how different society and built environment can shape architecture differently.