"The Power of Architecture Restored" is the philosophy imbued in Japanese architect Makato Sei Watanabe's 1990 Aoyama Technical College Building

"The Aoyama Technical College building is also intended to restore the fundamental strength that buildings ought to have. Ancient structures, from the Pyramids to the great cathedrals, possessed the awesome power of large spaces. Most of modern architecture, it seems to me, has lost this basic power. Architecture ought to be something capable of moving people's hearts and giving them a physical thrill in a way possible in no other art. That power deserves to be restored. Another purpose of this building is to assure that anyone who might see it experiences, both mentally and physically, a definitive feeling of excitement.

The completion of this building proved a potent stimulus to the disorderly, chaotic area in which it stands. The effect of this structure proposing a new principle for creating architecture in the city will spread, helping people to stop and think about the way they want their cities to be. They can thus change their communities, as well as Tokyo as a whole, into better worlds.” – Makato Sei Watanabe

source: makoto-architect.com