Parallel Nippon: Contemporary Japanese Architecture 1996-2006

Parallel Nippon focuses on 110 representative architectural specimens selected from among buildings constructed primarily in Japan in the 10 years from 1996 to 2006, presenting them against the backdrop of Japan's socio-cultural environment.

The exhibit retraces how Japan's architectural scene has answered with fine-tuned designs to the demands of the age amid the transition from the period of the Japanese speculative "bubble" economy to the post-bubble period.

Parallel Nippon is built around the idea of contrast: expanding metropolises versus local communities plagued by declining birthrates, grand cultural facilities with an international focus versus small but sensitive community facilities for local children or for the local elderly, and so forth.