Over the past decade, the publication of several notable books, including historical accounts, a collection of interviews, and an exhibition catalogue, has attested to growing academic interest in the history of Metabolism, Japan's postwar avant-garde architectural movement.1 Departing from the movement's earlier historiography, which centered on criticism of modernism and megastructure, these recent accounts have attempted to shift attention to the movement's influence on and implications for the city of the present and the future. William O. Gardner's The Metabolist Imagination is the most recent addition to this literature, focusing specifically on the intersection between Metabolist urban imageries and works of science fiction generated during the 1960s. Alongside his examination of this dialogue, which continued into the following decades, Gardner presents many relevant examples of architectural, literary, and film production.
The book is organized into six chapters that can be roughly divided into two parts. The introduction and first...
University of California Press