context: architecture > sources

Amazing Architecture from Japan by Hiroshi Watanabe

Twenty buildings that do live up to the title, each illustrated by several photos and a few pages of text. The writing is amusingly opinionated at times (rants about used-car salesmen are, for instance, not essential to the content), and often provocative, but it's the selection that makes this so enjoyable. I've had no luck finding the most interesting buildings online, but we get a shinto worship hall that looks like a giant space cannon, a kindergarten that looks like the SHIELD helicarrier (Marvel Comics reference) and a house that looks as if it is made of a child's wooden blocks, among many other extraordinary structures. At the very least, worth a good browse if you come across it.

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