The war was over, but Tokyo was no longer what it had been. In 1946, a young man viewed the devastated scene before him and thought, "What will the future be like?" He would never have imagined that twenty years later he would construct Tokyo's first super high-rise, advancing Japanese architecture to a new level and creating a new face for Japan.

Kuo Mao-lin is 66 years old, born in Taipei, formerly a consultant with one of Japan's five largest architecture firms, and currently the president of KMG Architecture Co.

Kuo was born in 1921, during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. He graduated at age eighteen from the Taipei Institute of Technology and because of his high marks was recommended by the college president to audit architecture classes at Tokyo University.

At Tokyo University he studied under the noted architects Kishida Hideto and Yoshitake Yasumi. Because of financial straits, he often went hungry, and it was during the difficult war years that he cultivated his resolute spirit.

In 1946, he was selected by Kishida as a research assistant, a position he held for fifteen years, enabling him to lay a firm theoretical foundation for his later work.

Kuo's break came in 1962. Mitsui Real Estate Co. was looking for someone to design a building in the Sanchome district, and Kishida recommended that Kuo be given a try at it.

"We're not asking a lot, but we would like to leave some space around the building," the Mitsui people told Kuo.

"That's okay," Kuo replied, "but the building will probably have to be a little higher."

And that is how Kuo got started down his super high-rise "road of no return."

Super high-rises are buildings over 100 meters with more than twenty floors. They first appeared in New York seventy or eighty years ago, Kuo says, and gradually began to sprout up in other cities around the world. "Japanese architects always shared a common dream: that one day Tokyo would have skyscrapers like New York's."

The reason why it was just a "dream" is because of Tokyo's geography.

Situated in the Pacific earthquake belt, Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone areas in Asia. After the 1923 Kanto earth quake, the Japanese government prohibited the construction of buildings over 31 meters, the height of the Imperial Palace.

Traditional architecture tried to resist earthquakes by opposing force with force, which required ever larger and stronger pillars the higher the building. Kuo was inspired by an idea given him by the structural expert Muto Kiyoshi: "When the wind blows, the willow bends but doesn't break." Conventional architecture strove to keep the building from shaking: Muto's idea was to dissipate the force of the earthquake by allowing the building to sway.

That was the theory, but realizing it in practice was not so easy. The first problem was the materials. After several tests, Kuo found a specially flexible form of HIH steel, a suitable aluminum alloy, and soft, wind-resistant glass. Concrete was used as little as possible.

But just what degree of softness would enable the building to sway without collapsing? Solving this problem entailed a host of complex calculations related to earthquake force progressions and structural design variables.

"If it weren't for the development of the computer and the invention of earthquake simulation, these problems might still be unsolved," Kuo indicated, adding that structural calculations which would have required two years for a human "now take just ten minutes on a computer."

Mitsui's 36-story Kasumigaseki building was finished in 1968. The actual construction time was just two and a half years, but about ten years were spent on the project from conception to completion. "Five years of study, two years of design, and two and a half years to put it up," Kuo says, recalling that difficult period.

"He's made our dream come true!" acclaimed Yomiuri magazine when the Kasumigaseki building was completed. Kuo was hailed as the "man of the giant tower" and his story was made into a film.

After that, Kuo became Japan's "super high-rise" expert. He was involved in the construction of the forty-floor World Trade Center in Hamamatsucho, the sixty-floor Sunshine City building in Ikebukuro, and countless other super high-rises.

Having developed from Taipei to Japan, Kuo has brought his expertise back from Japan to Taipei. In 1970, two years after the completion of the Kasumigaseki building, KMG Architecture's first work appeared in Taiwan: the twelve-story First Commercial Bank building.

Seven years after that, when the Taiwan Power Company wanted to build a vast new office building, the task naturally went to KMG ("K" stands for Kuo, "M" for Mao, and "G" for group). That 27-floor Taipower building is currently the highest in Taiwan. KMG is also involved in constructing the 25-story New Kwotai building and has completed planning for the fiftystory Shin Kong building to be built in front of Taipei train station.

Kuo's friends sometimes kid him: "The ancient Chinese said that 'a mountain's not prized for being high but for being home to an immortal.' How come you keep wanting to put up super high-rises?" And Kuo always answers: "When I was small, I only knew I was good at drawing and never thought I'd become an architect. It's not that I'm always looking for a chance to put up high-rises. It's just force of circumstance--the people who hire me always want them!"

Be that as it may, if Kuo Mao-lin wasn't really born with a special knack, how did he come to be head and shoulders "above" the rest?

[Picture Caption]

Kuo Mao-lin, "the man of the giant towers," stands on the top floor of his masterpiece, the Kasumigaseki building. On the horizon is another of his creations, the Sunshine City building.

(right) Although no high-rise, the clubhouse that he designed for a golf course in Chiba, Japan, is one of Kuo's favorite works.

The Taipower building in Taipei stands like a giant. (photo by Chiu Sheng-wang)

Kuo is bright--and has a sense of humor. (photo by Chiu Sheng-wang)

Kuo is director of KMG Architecture in Japan. Many new concepts have been thrashed out around this conference table.

（right） Although no high-rise, the clubhouse that he designed for a golf course in Chiba, Japan, is one of Kuo's favorite works.

Kuo is bright--and has a sense of humor. （photo by Chiu Sheng-wang）

The Taipower building in Taipei stands like a giant. （photo by Chiu Sheng-wang）

Kuo is director of KMG Architecture in Japan. Many new concepts have been thrashed out around this conference table.