Contemporary Japanese architecture has, for over half a century, achieved worldwide recognition not only for its highly innovative and often futuristic qualities, but also for its sensitive response to Japan’s cultural and physical context, which has become especially challenging given the country’s increasingly urbanised environment. Today, Japan’s contemporary architecture is admired perhaps as much as its traditional counterpart, with which it often maintains a meaningful dialogue.

Botond Bognar’s Architectural Guide Japan introduces close to 700 of the most prominent examples of this fertile architecture, while outlining its development since the mid-19th century until the present in a concise historical essay. All texts and the individual entries are illustrated with about 930 color photos, all taken by the author, and and over 90 drawings. Detailed information about each entry is enhanced by geo-data in the form of QR codes.

Projects by Tadao Ando, Jun Aoki, Atelier Bow Wow, Shigeru Ban, Norman Foster, Sou Fujimoto, Hiroshi Hara, Itsuko Hasegawa, Herzog & de Meuron, Arata Isozaki, Toyo Ito, Kiyonori Kikutake, Kengo Kuma, Kisho Kurokawa, Kunio Maekawa, Fumihiko Maki, Togo Murano, MVRDV, Nikken Sekkei Ltd., Ryue Nishizawa, Jean Nouvel, Antonin Raymond, Junzo Sakakura, SANAA, Kazuyo Sejima, Kazuo Shinohara, Shin Takamatsu, Kenzo Tange, Yoshio Taniguchi, Rafael Vinoly, Frank Lloyd Wright, Riken Yamamoto.