Deakin home > Deakin University Library > Deakin Research Online > So flat, so cute! Robots, superflatness and asian architectural futures
Openly accessible

So flat, so cute! Robots, superflatness and asian architectural futures

Beynon, David 2008, So flat, so cute! Robots, superflatness and asian architectural futures, in SAHANZ 2008 : History in practice : 25th International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, [Geelong, Vic.], pp. 1-16.

Attached Files (Some files may be inaccessible until you login with your Deakin Research Online credentials)
Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads
beynon-soflatsocute-2008.pdf Published version application/pdf 735.84KB 177

Title So flat, so cute! Robots, superflatness and asian architectural futures
Author(s) Beynon, David
Conference name SAHANZ Conference (25th : 2008 : Geelong, Vic.)
Conference location Geelong, Australia
Conference dates 3-6 July 2008
Title of proceedings SAHANZ 2008 : History in practice : 25th International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand
Editor(s) Beynon, David
de Jong, Ursula
Publication date 2008
Conference series Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand Conference
Start page 1
End page 16
Publisher Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand
Place of publication [Geelong, Vic.]
Summary Many depictions of urban futures have a distinctly Asian flavour. There have been numerous visions of highly technological futures whose environments extrapolate present societies into futures technically, culturally and politically dominated by China or Japan, Such futures are portrayed as both exciting and threatening, to the point that the Japanese academic and cultural critic Toshiya Ueno used the term ‘Techno-Orientalism’ to describe the phenomenon. Nevertheless, whether Western interest is Orientalist or not, Asian architects are also increasingly looking to their own contemporary and future cultures for inspiration. This paper will discuss two manifestations of this. The first is Thai architect Sumet Jumsai’s Bank of Asia. Unlike contemporaneous English hightech buildings, with their coldly mechanistic representation of ducts and struts, Jumsai’s Bank of Asia, takes on the anthropomorphic character of Japanese scifi robots. It is endearing, friendly, even cute. The second example is what might be termed superflat architecture, from the term coined by the artist Takashi Murakami to describe an aesthetic of intrinsic flatness, eliminating depth in favour of skin and surface. The emergence of Techno-Cute and Superflat architecture suggest contemporary Asian architectural sensibilities that neither derive their aesthetic qualities solely from tradition nor from Western Modernism or Postmodernism.
Notes
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au
ISBN 9780958192545
Language eng
Field of Research 120199 Architecture not elsewhere classified
HERDC Research category E1 Full written paper - refereed
Copyright notice ©2008, SAHANZ
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30018068

Document type: Conference Paper
Collections: School of Architecture and Built Environment
Open Access Collection
Connect to link resolver
 
Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in Deakin Research Online is owned by the author, with all rights reserved.

Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au.

Versions
Version Filter Type
Access Statistics: 451 Abstract Views, 177 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics
Created: Fri, 14 Aug 2009, 14:04:28 EST