two World Wars, and an article covering the Western influences in Japan. Next is the segment for urbanism: an article for the historical town-planning in Japan by Manabu Tajima, a young Japanese architect that at the time studied in Italy; and an article that analyzed the changes in the Japanese urban environment as a result of the new, modern architecture. Another article focuses on the work of the Metabolists and their utopian projects. The presentation finishes with two articles, Civilization of Japan and A Picture of the Japanese Architecture. The first focuses on the relationship of life in Japan and architecture, having a more social and cultural approach. The second is an overview of the latest architectural production, focusing not only on design, but also the clients who invest in these developments. The whole presentation is set with a tone that does not approach the material critically, but creates a monograph of Japan. The goal of the issue is educational and therefore it is centered around the subject of Japan, and not on the production of specific architects. The parts covering the Modern movement in Japan and Japanese urbanism are the most valuable architectural lessons in the issue. These presentations have a good historical understanding of Japan. The architectural part of the presentation is the weaker part; the architecture production in Japan is presented in general, without a focus. Even the article on the Metabolists is neutral, without accent. This is the down side of the non-critical, but informative approach in this presentation. A positive aspect in this presentation is that this issue constitutes one of the less eurocentric issues dedicated to Japan.
After this issue, in the second half of the decade, Casabella published few more articles mainly focused on the Metabolists. One of the articles published 1967 is by the professor and art historian, Udo Kultermann. Kultermann published a book in 1961 called “New Japanese Architecture,� and later in 1970 he published a book on Kenzo Tange’s work. The other four articles were written by Italian architect Paolo Riani. Riani was based in Tokyo at the time of
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