Fumihiko Maki (1928–2024), the 1993 Pritzker Prize laureate and a founder of Japan’s Metabolist movement, spent seven decades quietly fusing Eastern restraint with Western modernism — from the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium to Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum and 4 World Trade Center at Ground Zero. A Harvard-trained theorist of “group form,” Maki built cities in fragments; these 25 projects show the whole.
Fumihiko Maki’s Famous Works at a Glance
| Project | Location | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Sea World Culture and Arts Center | Shenzhen, China | 2017 |
| Aga Khan Museum | Toronto, Canada | 2014 |
| Shimizu Cultural Hall (Marinart) | Shizuoka, Japan | 2014 |
| Floating Pavilion | Groningen, Netherlands | 1996 |
| Kirishima International Concert Hall | Aira, Kagoshima, Japan | 1994 |
| Makuhari Messe & Pedestrian Bridge | Chiba, Japan | 2009 |
| Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat | Ottawa, Canada | 2008 |
| Toyama International Conference Center | Toyama, Japan | 1999 |
| Mediacorp Campus | one-north, Singapore | 2015 |
| TV Asahi Headquarters | Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan | 2003 |
| Republic Polytechnic | Woodlands, Singapore | 2007 |
| Fukui Prefectural Library and Archives | Fukui, Japan | 2003 |
| Nagano City Hall & Performing Arts Center | Nagano, Japan | 2016 |
| New Machida City Hall | Tokyo, Japan | 2012 |
| 4 World Trade Center | New York City, USA | 2013 |
| Rolex Nakatsu Building | Osaka, Japan | 2009 |
| 51 Astor Place | New York City, USA | 2013 |
| National Institute for Japanese Language | Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan | 2004 |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium | Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan | 1990 |
| Fujisawa Municipal Gymnasium | Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan | 1984 |
| Fukushima Gender Equality Centre | Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, Japan | 2000 |
| Toyama Shimin Plaza | Toyama, Japan | 1989 |
| Skyline @ Orchard Boulevard | Singapore | 2015 |
| Passivetown 2nd Block | Kurobe, Toyama, Japan | 2016 |
| Jewish Community Center of Japan | Tokyo, Japan | — |
Fumihiko Maki is a Japanese architect who was born in Tokyo in 1928. Maki taught urban design and architecture at Harvard and Washington University while he was living in the United States. He returned to Japan and worked at Tokyo University as a professor. Prior to returning to Tokyo in 1965 to open his own firm ‘Maki and Associates’, Maki worked for Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill in New York City and Sert Jackson and Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His writings were published in the volume, Nurturing Dreams by MIT Press. Maki won variously honorable awards for his work. He won the Wolf Prize in Arts in 1988, Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1993, Gold Medal in International Union of Architects in 1993, Praemium Imperiale in 1999, and AIA Gold Medal in 2011. Here are the 25 remarkable projects by Fumihiko Maki:
1. Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Arts Centre, Shenzhen, China,2017
Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Arts Centre was designed by Fumihiko Maki as a cultural core of a large-scale multi-use (retail, commercial, residential) development in the Sea World area undertaken by our client, China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings. The building hosts a variety of cultural functions including a museum, theatre, multi-purpose hall, and private art gallery, along with various culturally affiliated retail spaces. 
The form of the building consists of a podium and a pavilion, with three volumes protruding to the natural features of the geography, facing the ocean to the south, the adjacent park, and the mountains to the north. The circulation loops around the internal atria, all of which are closely tied to the exterior plazas. The park extends onto the roof garden via two grand stairways, creating a holistic public experience appropriate for a culture center.
2. Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada,2014
The Museum has been designed by Fumihiko Maki as a celebration of light and the mysteries of its various qualities and effects. Utilizing a series of natural materials with differing light-reflecting properties, the building will act as an ever-changing canvas for the display and accentuation of light. In this regard, the building has been envisioned as a kind of precious stone, which can exhibit reflectivity, color variations, translucency, and a visual mystery. 
The program consists of four primary functions (museum, auditorium, education, and restaurant) organized around a central courtyard, which will act as the heart of the building and will integrate the different functions into a cohesive whole while allowing each space to maintain its independence, privacy, and character.
3. Shimizu Performing Arts Centre, Shizuoka, Japan 2014
The Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre, destined to become a new landmark on the developing Shimizu waterfront. Its glazed foyer faces the port and affords views of Mount Fuji in the distance. Surrounding the large and small auditoria inside, this highly transparent façade reflects the building’s open atmosphere. 
The large concert hall is built using a traditional shoebox form, and seats 1,500; its multi-purpose design can also support shows and full-scale opera productions. The smaller 300-seat hall is intended for a variety of uses, from concerts to plays 
4. Floating Pavilion, Groningen, Netherlands 1996
The Floating Pavilion is a multi-purpose structure designed by Fumihiko Maki to stage a variety of experimental productions. As the pavilion is pulled by tugboat from city to suburb, it supports a wide range of plays, musical festivals, and poetry recitations. Unlike a typical fixed structure, the stage and double spiral canopy evoke a multitude of images as they move through the landscape, simultaneously shifting itself and shifting the image of its surroundings.
5. Kirishima International Concert Hall, Aira-gun, Kagoshima, Japan,1994
The Kirishima International Concert Hall, mainly used for chamber music, is located in a fold of the foothills nearby the magnificent Kirishima mountain range. Its foyer is designed by Fumihiko Maki as part of a spatial sequence developed to maximize the views, creating a sense of expectation and festivity for the audience. The 800-seat main hall interior started as a shoebox form and transformed into a leaf-shaped plan and bilge section to better diffuse and reflect sound. The result is the sensation of being fully surrounded by performance.
