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Kengo Kuma & Associates
Clips 1

About

One of the greatest ideas we should owe to Japan is a holistic vision of creation. It is something that is rooted in its traditional beliefs and can be seen in all expressions of this culture. In such a context there’s no place for dicotomies like mind vs. body, culture vs. nature, so quintessential to westerners. For Japanese culture all things embody the same deep principles. Kengo Kuma’s architecture draws fully from this cultural source. Kuma Kengo (if spelled à la Japanese) is one of the most esteemed representatives of contemporary Japanese achitecture. A theorist, a writer and a teacher, he worked and theorized a recovery of Japanese traditional architecture. His work, which makes use of traditional materials like stone and wood, is somewhat light and ephemeral, as if made of air and light. While he worked on projects at all scales, from the pavillion to urban planning, the full measure of his approach to design is given by out-of-town buildings like the "Nakagawa-machi Bato Hiroshige Museum of Art". The building has the same physical presence of a torii arch: while denoting a human presence it is perfectly part of the landscape, as a tree or a stone could be. A perfect union of inside and outside is attained, no reason for the two to be distinguished: the building seems to have popped out from one of those Ukiyo-e prints. Born in Yokohama, Kengo Kuma studied at the Graduate School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo. After founding the Spatial Design Studio in 1987, he established Kengo Kuma & Associates in 1990. A European branch of his firm was established in Paris in 2008. He has been visiting professor in many universities and is now teaching at the Graduate School of Architecture of the University of Tokyo. As a theorist he is known for more than a dozen books. He received several awards and prizes both as an individual and as a practice.

Clips by Kengo Kuma & Associates

Strips including clips by Kengo Kuma & Associates

Bato-machi Hiroshige Museum
06:03 min

Bato-machi Hiroshige Museum

Published on Jan 20, 2015