Maki, Fumihiko (1928-2024), was a Japanese architect known for his large public works projects. Maki was a founding member of the Metabolist movement in Japan. The Metabolists championed the use of advanced modern technology in a way that stressed architecture’s humane and organic qualities. Maki’s Metabolist origins gave his architecture a bright, optimistic quality. Even his large-scale projects have an intimate quality. His favored materials were glass, concrete, and aluminum. In 1993, Maki was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious international award in architecture (see Pritzker Architecture Prize).
Maki’s designs reflect Japanese tradition in their shifting planes and loosely connected spaces. His work was praised for its skillful interaction of interior and exterior space and human scale, even when his designs were part of large-scale projects.
Maki was one of the few Japanese architects of his generation to study outside Japan. However, most of his major projects were built in Japan. The Makuhari Messe Exhibition Hall (1989) in Chiba was the first of its kind in Japan. It includes an exhibition hall, event hall, and conference center—all under one arched stainless steel roof. A mall connects the individual halls. In spite of the building’s vast size, its structural simplicity and reflective surfaces give it a remarkable sense of lightness.
The Spiral Building (1985) in Tokyo is a striking geometric corporate structure that includes a semicircular atrium at the rear of the building, rising several stories. The complex includes cafes, restaurants, shops, and gallery spaces. It is also known as the Wacoal Art Center. Maki’s other major projects in Japan include the YKK Guest House (1982) in Kurobe, the Fujisawa Municipal Gymnasium (1984), the National Museum of Modern Art (1986) in Kyoto, the Hillside Terrace residential and commercial complex (1966-1992) in Tokyo, and the Kirishima Concert Hall (1994) in Makizono. One of Maki’s most significant projects outside of Japan is the visual arts building at the Yerba Buena Gardens Center for the Arts (1993) in San Francisco. He also designed the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (2006) in St. Louis.
Maki was born on Sept. 16, 1928, in Tokyo. He studied with the noted Japanese architect Kenzo Tange at the University of Tokyo, receiving a degree in architecture in 1952. Maki then earned master’s degrees in architecture in the United States from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1953 and Harvard University in 1954. He taught at Washington University in St. Louis from 1956 to 1958 and from 1960 to 1962 and at Harvard from 1962 to 1965, when he returned to Tokyo and opened his own office. Maki died on June 6, 2024.
