Ōita Prefectural Library [1966]

Arata Isozaki, along with other Japanese architecture greats Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki was taught by Kenzo Tange as is evidenced within key designs that were to follow (and inclusive of) his first work – a library in his hometown of Ōita Prefecture. Isozaki’s library marked the beginning of a career that displayed a bold Japanese Modernism consisting of simple extruded and arrayed concrete geometric forms. The library has since been located, and Isozaki himself was tasked with a conversion that would see this structure enter its second life as the Ōita Art Plaza.