Junzo Sakakura

[9] In 1936 Kishida Hideto (1899–1966) a professor at Tokyo University was put in charge of organising a limited entry competition for the design of the Japanese Pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition.

[10] Sakakura returned to France to supervise the project but unexpected site conditions forced him to change the design and he sought Le Corbusier's advice on this.

The building comprised a grey walled box on a black piloti with a free formed plan and ramped access and was voted the "Grand Prix" of the Exposition.

Although he locked himself away in a Parisian hotel to complete the work on the pavilion later in life he favoured the style of Corbusier's office, entrusting his plans to other architects in the practice.

The building comprises a second storey white box containing the gallery spaces supported on thin steel red and green piloti.

Le Corbusier's three Japanese apprentices: Kunio Maekawa, Junzo Sakakura and Takamasa Yoshizaka were responsible for executing the plans and supervising the construction.

[15] The principle of using so-called local architects to implement his designs was so successful here that Le Corbusier insisted it should be done for the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts in Harvard.