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seen in this building marks a elear relation to the Japanese tradition of the screen, although these effects are attained with very modern materials such as perforated aluminum. As Maki says, it would be impossible for any architect to impose a sense of order on the apparently chaotic urban environment that is Tokyo, but the quiet elegance and understated strength of Tepia shows that Japanese architecture is fully capable of attaining the delicate equilibrium between past and futurę that is surely the most significant hallmark of the best in contemporary buildings.

Three recent buildings and one computer-generated project give an idea of the evolution of the architecture of places of congress and worship in Europę.

Richard Meier's Stadthaus civic center in Ulm, Germany, was dedicated on November 12,1993. The 3,500 m^J three-story complex clad in Rosa Dante granite and white stucco, without any metal panels, houses exhibition spaces, a large as-sembly hall, a cafe and a tourist information center. It is notable not only for its own design, but also for the ways in which Richard Meier has resolved the complex prob-lems posed by the site in the Munsterplatz, which he was also called upon to re-design. The historie center of this town of 100,000 is dominated by the 161 m tali Ulm Munster Cathedral. Eighty-five percent of the historie city was destroyed by

Places or Catherinc 113