Gengo Matsui: the contribution of a structural engineer to postwar Japanese architecture

Abstract

In Western practice, building design often results from a process of sequential involvement of an architect and a structural engineer. As such, the collaboration becomes a negotiation between pre conceived spatial qualities and structural requirements, in which the input of the engineer is confined within the dimensioning of a structural system retrofitted within an already projected spatial construct. Although efficient, this repartition of tasks greatly limits the potential of structural design. An alternative to this sequential approach is provided by the Japanese building culture, in which collaborations between architects and structural engineers led to the development of innovative solutions, merging the border between the two disciplines. The present paper aims at investigating this alternative design approach through the key figure of the Japanese structural engineer Gengo Matsui (1920-1996), one of the protagonists in the evolution of Japanese architecture during the 20th century. In particular, the paper discusses the genesis and the early developments of the void slab system as a tangible result of the collaboration with the architect Kiyonori Kikutake (1928-2011). Through a detailed analysis of existing literature and exemplary projects, the current research seeks to illustrate Matsui’s contribution as a structural engineer to the creation of elegant structural systems in which the pragmatic needs for load bearing capacity are seamlessly integrated within ambitious architectural visions.