New Forms Taschen 201

now often carefully restored in Western countries, that of modern buildings that have outlived their initial usefulness will increasingly be posed to architects.

Portzamparc's Bandai Tower, an entirely new building to be located in Tokyo, is an unusual effort to use a system of variable colored lighting to "sculpt' the facade at night. This is a 7,000 m² complex including offices for the toy company, apart-ments, a restaurant and flexible events spaces. As Jean-Pierre Le Dantec, author of a recent monograph on Portzamparc has written about the Bandai project, 'This is art. It is an art of light and space as it is conceived of by such demanding creators as Robert Irwin, James Tyrrell or Robert Wilson.'⁴⁰

Officially inaugurated on June 29,1995, the European Court of Humań Rights in Strasbourg, France, by English architect Sir Richard Rogers, is an outgrowth of the European Convention on Humań Rights, signed in Romę on November 4,1950, and applied sińce 1953. Through two branches, the Commission and the Court of Humań Rights, this organization is in principle at the disposition of those persons who feel that their guaranteed human rights have been violated. Based in a 3,800 m² building in Strasbourg sińce 1962, the Court was granted a 2 ha plot of land, and asked to build a new 20,000 m² building by a resolution of the European Council of Ministers on April 26,1986TThe initially planned datę for the inauguration, May 5, 1989, was not maintained, partially because the proposed architectural plans were found lacking. The city of Strasbourg, which granted the land, then organized a competition, and Sir Richard Rogers was chosen on September 19, 1989. Rogers

Enric Miralles Takaoka Station Takaoka, Japan. 1993-95

Calling on a sculptural, tubular form that brings to mind his Unazuki Mcditation Center, Miralles innovates here in the area of the architectural signific-ance of the canopy or signage that often signals the presence of a public building such as a railroad station. This is particularly unusual in Japan, where railroad station architecture is by and large unexceptional. despite the design of Hiroshi Hara's extraordmary KyotoJR Station.