Customer Reviews

Jon Jerde in Japan: Designing the Spaces Between

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JON JERDE IN JAPAN: Designing the Spaces Between

I highly recommend Jon Jerde in Japan: Designing the Spaces Between by Cathie Gandel (Balcony Press, Glendale, CA, 2000) for anyone interested in public architecture; working with the Japanese; and the thinking behind the best in today's mixed-use developments. Ms. Gandel has produced a highly readable book that makes sophisticated concepts accessible to the lay person while providing meaty material for the professional.

Wonderfully produced on good quality, high gloss stock, the book is chock full of illustrative material that effectively conveys the excitement of Fukuoka's Canal City Hakata. Readers do not have to puzzle over the term "wiggle wall" or strain to imagine what the "wayfinding sculptures" might look like. They can see them clearly in both the wide angle and detail shots.

Jon Jerde in Japan starts with the project's genesis in 1977 as the first mixed-use development outside one of Japan's major cities, takes it through opening day in 1996 and concludes with an analysis of its amazing popularity-over 43 million visitors to date! It also traces the development of architect Jon Jerde and his deepening commitment to creating original spaces that add something valuable to the human experience. As Cathie Gandel wrote of Canal City Hakata:

A visitor writes his or her script not only by choosing where to shop and where to eat, but also by choosing whether to see a movie, play a video game or have a drink in the Grand Hyatt lounge; walk under the overhang or out in the open; sit, stand and watch, or wander; jump in surprise at the champagne cork-popping noise of the fountains or wade into the tidal pool. Whatever the decision, the visitor is writer and actor as well as audience."

I have had such a satisfying time just reading about this "urban theater," I can only wonder what it must be like to experience it in person. This book made me want to do just that.

Barbara Greenleaf, Santa Barbara, California