World Observation

An Architectural Exploration into the Rich Visual Archive of Ito Chuta. World Observation pursues a world history of architecture, arguing for an alternative origin point for what we call "global history" in the rapidly transforming environment of nineteenth-century Japan. Mullane focuses on the career of Ito Chuta (1867-1954), the most influential Japanese architect, historian, theorist, and colonial bureaucrat, and his mission to create a Japan-centric world history of architecture through translation, field study, and the design of new architecture. Drawing from Ito's rich visual archive, much of which has never been reproduced, World Observation critically examines the political and epistemological connections between his world project, empire, and the prospects of global history today. AUTHOR: Matthew Mullane is an Assistant Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture at Radboud University in Nijmegen, NL. He received his PhD from Princeton University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, and Tokyo College, The University of Tokyo. 47 colour, 68 b/w illustrations