Serving as a detailed portrait of the acclaimed Japanese architect, this film engages with Kisho Kurokawa, who employs Buddhist ideas in a symbiosis of traditional forms and western modernism to achieve an intercultural architecture. In a merging of philosophy, culture, space and narrative, Kurokawa has created a body of work that he defines as symbiotic, which he specifies as "the simultaneous expression of conflicting things in a symbiotic manner" (Kisho Kurokawa). Kisho Kurokawa: From Metabolism to Symbiosis follows him to many of his major accomplishments in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka, Berlin, Paris, Chicago and New York.

Kisho Kurokawa: From Metabolism to Symbiosis

A film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in the Japanese tradition and its impact on the Nordic building-tradition. Winding its way through visions of the future, traditions, nature, concrete, gardens and high-tech, KOCHUU tells us how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with the old philosophies in astounding constructions. Interviews with, and works by, Japanese architects Tadad Ando, Kisho Kurokawa, Toyo Ito and Kazuo Shinohara and Scandinavian architects Sverre Fehn, Kristian Gullichsen and Juhani Pallasmaa.