Hilversum & Kurashiki - Het onbekende verhaal van Dudok en Urabe

Urabe encountered Dudok’s work during his architectural studies and was particularly impressed by Hilversum Town Hall. His fascination extended beyond Dudok’s distinctive architectural language to his attention to craftsmanship and detail, urban planning, and the relationship between architecture and everyday life. Later, working in Kurashiki, Urabe was able to develop these ideas within his own architectural practice. Rather than simply copying Dudok, he translated aspects of his approach into a Japanese context and adapted them to the circumstances of his own time.

'Recipro-Cities: Hilversum – Kurashiki' explores this remarkable architectural relationship and reveals how ideas about architecture and urban development can travel across great geographical and cultural distances. Through the work of Dudok and Urabe, the book brings together two cities with very different histories and shows how architectural ideas can be transformed through exchange, interpretation and local conditions.

The publication is part of the Dutch-Japanese Recipro-Cities project, in which Hilversum and Kurashiki investigate the legacies of Dudok and Urabe and exchange knowledge about the preservation and future development of modern architectural heritage. In doing so, the book not only uncovers an overlooked episode in the international reception of Dutch modern architecture, but also reflects on the continuing significance of architectural exchange between the Netherlands and Japan.