A study of the history of the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo Festival Hall) through the documentation relating to the renovations of its facilities

In recent years, various activities have been undertaken for the conservation of modern architecture by docomomo and other organisations while, at the same time, post-war modern buildings constructed less than 50 years ago have begun to receive greater attention as part of our cultural heritage. However, based on the concept of conserving architecture while still in use, it has become clear that some of these buildings need urgent renovation work (the repair of deteriorated elements and the replacement of equipment) due to their aging and the functional degradation that they have suffered as a result of new demands. Since there is a danger that the original architectural values of such buildings may be lost during renovation work, the Japanese ICOMOS National Committee established a set of guidelines for conservation in 2011, which are known as the "Madrid Document". The document stated that we should assess and identify the cultural significance of the architecture itself and establish limits for acceptable changes, prior to commencing work, underlining that this value will be discovered and consequently updated as a result of contemporary assessments. In Japan, cultural activities became so important that the first predecessors of the presentday multipurpose halls began to be constructed from around 1960 onwards. However, due to the aging of this equipment and its functional degradation resulting from the new demands placed on these buildings over time, they were renovated, and may consequently have lost some of their original values. One of the most famous Japanese architects who designed theatres in the 1960s was Kunio Maekawa. The Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo Festival Hall) was completed in 1961 and has since gained a reputation as a typical music theatre, where good conservation practices were promoted until recently¹. Completed in 1960, the Kyoto Kaikan was similarly designed by Kunio Maekawa, and has also enjoyed considerable appreciation as a theatre. However, despite the constant maintenance and renovation work that the building has received over the past 50 years or so, contrary to the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, the Kyoto Kaikan is considered to have been afforded insufficient treatment for conservation purposes2, and is currently undergoing important maintenance work. Unfortunately, however,some people say that this simple maintenance work may cause the building to lose some of its historical architectural value. Moreover, the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management and other institutions have undertaken research into the notion of architectural value, and have suggested that such a value depends upon a number of other factors, such as historical value, cultural value, functionality and availability, stating that a building's historical value is discovered over the course of time. In this document, I seek to demonstrate that architectural value consists of a series of precise multiple values that all add to one another over time, so that we may describe architectural value as a multi-tiered system.