born in 1954
He aims to recover the tradition of japanese buildings' and to reinterpret it for the 21st century. Main ideas evidenced in his works were:
- stylistic postmodernism
- fragmentary compositions
- subterranean constructions
- uncommon applications of materials
- vernacular features
- evocation of lightness
- engendering the virtual
Kengo Kuma started working before the bubble burst, when architects had unlimited budget to work with and unrestricted freedom to create. However, after the bubble burst he was forced to reorganize his work in order to meet more restrictive conditions of the economic recession.
Kengo Kuma is described as: "One of those Japanese architects who are capable of successfully blending the best of their long standing Japanese aesthetic sensibilities with those engendered by contemporary life experiences and the latest high technology."
The only two monumental and heavy buildings that are out of the context (and are not considered very successful) are DORIC and M2 buildings in Tokyo (1991).
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| Doric building/ side |
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| Doric building |
Tokyo, Minato-ku
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| M2 Tokyo, Sedagaya-ku |
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| M2 |
Japan after the bubble burst could be described with two distinct characteristic: it was plagued by the difficulties and onslaught by the new technology. This caused a change between people and their environment and imposed a demand on a different type of architecture.
Kengo Kuma's design starts to be minimalist, light and ephemeral. He aimed to engender the environment, to blur the distinction between inside/ outside and to make the perceiver an insider. He notes that "I try to listen as carefully as possible to the site."
Kengo Kuma had gone through different approaches when trying to "erase" architecture:
1. Burrying architecture (subterranean)- the first approach, which literally erased the buildings from the side by "burrying" them underground.
Works:
Kiro-san observatory, 1994
Proposal for the new Japan Museum in Tokyo, 1992
Kansai-kan national Diet library, 1996
The memorial park in Gunma, 1997
The Kitakami Canal Museum, 1996 (picture below)
How:
While from the top museum blends with the ground, Kuma left a careful opening of the museum's upper level toward the view of the river and the nearby canal.
Quality:
This is an effective example of expressing the need for and possibility of nurturing a judicious relationship between man-made structures and the natural environments.
2. Visual ambiguity/ glass- the second approach, where Kuma used glass as an element for the "disappearing" architecture.
Works:
The Water/ Glass, 1995 (Atami) (picture below)
The Glass/ Shadow, 1996 (a golf club in Tomioka, Miyagi-ken)
The Grass/ Glass tower, 1997 (Tokyo)
The Awaji Service Area, 1998 (Hyogo-ken)
How:
Extensive use of glass and water: one- story- high glass surface connect the interior effortlessly with the surrounding pool of water on the roof deck below.
It is a reference to traditional elements of Japanese architecture.
Quality:
Openness, weightlessness, visual extension that joins the surface of the pool with that of the ocean.
3. Filtered space- the third approach, in which Kuma largely uses slats in order to create "particlizations" (the way he named it). Kuma: "If materials are thoroughly particlized, they are transient like rainbows". He aimed to: "de-emphasize the solidity of architecture and replace it with the transparency of a floating image of glass.
Works:
The River/ Filter, 1996
The Noh Stage in the forest, 1996
The Wood/ Slats, 1996 (a small guesthouse in Hayama)
The museum of Ando Hiroshige in Batu, 2000
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| Wood/slats |
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| the museum of Ando Hiroshige |
How:
Strategy of repetition by using slats.
Quality:
Creating fragile architecture that can- theoretically- dissipate like a cloud and become continuous or one with the landscape.
4. Relativity of materials/ challenging traditions- the fourth approach when Kuma is experimenting with new materials. He tries to transfer japanese traditional mood of lightness and ephemerality to his projects.
Works:
The Plastic House, 2002
5. Topos/ digital gerdening- the fifth approach where Kuma puts emphasis on horizontal planes and partitions and continually strives for establishing seamless connections with the environment at large. He increasingly uses gardening as [in case of a garden] there is no distance between the [gardener] and the garden. The subject and object are joined and continuous (perceiver becomes an insider).
Works:
a.The Water Glass, 1995
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| the Noh Stage in the forest |
b. The Noh Stage in the forest, 1996
How:
a. floor and a flat roof with extensive overhangs of glass and metal
b. floor and roof in their simplest forms
This is similar to the construction principles of traditional Japanese architecture (sukiya), which aims to involve all human senses and to connect the inside with the outside, architecture with nature.
Quality:
Visual and tactile continuity between inside and out, between his architecture and nature in general.
The interior of the Venice Biennale Japanese Pavilion, 1995
How:
Small space was converted into a japanese stroll garden... shallow pool of water over which he arranged wooden decks and walkways that extended to the wooded area around the pavilion.
Quality:
involving all human senses, connecting inside with outside
Eco Particle Project, 1997
How:
A tapestry of network- like surfaces that act like parks and architecture in an inseparable symbiosis. All this is laid in an ecologically effective way.
Quality:
Landscape design is rendered as a membrane that is stretched over a large area and textured by natural vegetation and built elements... "particlization" on a different scale
1998 proposal for the Nagoya's expo: Nature's wisdon and coexisting with it
How:
Making the hilly site as a natural park, in which pavilion-type architecture is eclipsed by the topography of the land.
Quality:
The undulating surfaces of the architecture are made continuous with the similarly fluid topos of the natural environment. With the dichotomy of figure and ground thus eliminated, architecture too is erased.
Osaka City Downtown Redevelopment
Tianjin urban project in China
Great Egyptian Museum Project
Nam June Park Museum
(to be continued...)
References:
*this information is my notes from the readings and the text in most cases is direct quotes from the books/ websites*
http://uratti.web.fc2.com/architecture/kuma/doric.html (pictures of doric and M2)
http://www.archilab.org/public/2000/catalog/kengo/kengoen.htm
Kengo Kuma: selected works, by Botond Bognar
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