Chris Fawcett

The push and pull between tradition and modernity is the subject of this book by Chris Fawcett, the British critic who wanted to undo misconceptions in the West about Japanese houses. He focused on "Post-Metabolist" architecture, houses from the late 1960s and the 1970s that he presented as "ritual affirming" and "ritual disaffirming" houses. It's an intriguing book, but not one that seems to have had much of an influence all these years later; I wonder if Fawcett would have gone on to make more lasting and impactful books on Japanese architecture if he didn't die young. "The New Japanese House" can be bought inexpensively online, but harder to find is "GA Houses 4: Ontology of House, Residential Architecture of 1970s in Japan: (https://www.ga-ada.co.jp/english/ga_houses/gah004.html), which features an essay by Fawcett and dozens of houses from that decade.… (more)