Kengo Kuma

Bognar describes in detail the work of Kengo Kuma whose designs have been attracting growing international attention. Kuma's work is characterized by simplicity and sensitivity to ecological issues taking account of the site and the materials used.

A detailed examination of the beautiful and sensitively realized addition to the famed Portland Japanese Garden by contemporary Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Kengo Kuma: Portland Japanese Garden introduces the star Japanese architect's first public project in the United States. Kuma won the Portland Japanese Garden invitational competition by proposing a design that, while executed with contemporary materials and the latest construction technology, also builds on the principles of traditional architecture and craftsmanship. The resulting group of small buildings superbly blends with its magnificent natural environment and provides an outstanding example of Kuma's artistry of seamlessly connecting nature and architecture as well as past and present without falling into the trap of mimicry or sentimentality. The book includes chapters on the reverence of nature and Japanese culture, on architecture and gardens in Japan, on the architecture of Kengo Kuma beyond the garden, and on craftsmanship and design, as well as on the new buildings and the garden itself, which is widely considered the most beautiful such garden outside Japan.

A stunning photographic survey of Japan’s most ingenious contemporary artisans. Generations of artisans in Japan have forged and refined their crafts to become the envy of the world. Each of the country’s regions are renowned for specific traditions relating to local materials and the natural world in which they are produced. While tourists and design enthusiasts have long acknowledged the unique history and quality of Japanese craftsmanship, very few crafts have made their way outside the country, preventing many from witnessing the quality of Japanese workmanship for themselves. With the aim of sharing these unseen treasures with the wider world, designers Uwe Röttgen and Katharina Zettl set out to find the finest examples of Japanese craftsmanship, traveling around the country to document the makers, their workshops, and the landscapes that influence them. Craftland Japan is the result of this extraordinary journey into the heart of Japanese culture. Featuring twenty-five expert artisans, Craftland Japan reveals the techniques and materials that are used to produce a wide variety of beautiful objects, from porcelain bowls to indigo-dyed fabrics to paper. This book is a celebration of how Japan’s union of craft, design, materiality, and landscape continue to flourish in contemporary interpretation, however much the world around them has changed.

Kengo Kuma, one of Japan’s leading architects, has been combining professional practice and academia for most of his career. In addition to creating many internationally recognized buildings all over the world, he has written extensively about the history and theory of architecture. Like his built work, his writings also reflect his profound personal philosophy. Architecture of Defeat is no exception. Now available in English for the first time, the book explores events and architectural trends in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in both Japan and beyond. It brings together a collection of essays which Kuma wrote after disasters such as the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City on 9/11 and the earthquake and tsunami that obliterated much of the built landscape on Japan’s northern shore in a matter of minutes in 2011. Asking if we have been building in a manner that is too self-confident or arrogant, he examines architecture’s intrinsic—and often problematic—relationship to the powerful forces of contemporary politics, economics, consumerism, and technology, as well as its vital ties to society. Despite the title, Architecture of Defeat is an optimistic and hopeful book. Rather than anticipating the demise of architecture, Kuma envisages a different mode of conceiving architecture: guided and shaped by more modesty and with greater respect for the forces of our natural world. Beautifully designed and illustrated, this is a fascinating insight into the thinking of one of the world’s most influential architects.

Presents more than thirty of the architect's recent works, including high-profile commissions such as the Suntory Museum in Tokyo and the Ondo Civic Center in Kure; the exlusive Lotus House in Zushi; large-scale urban developments in Sanlitun Village South in Beijing, and more.

Kengo Kuma is a globally acclaimed Japanese architect whose prodigious output possesses an inherent respect and value of materials and environment, often creating a harmonious balance between building and landscape. He masterfully engages both architectural experimentation and traditional Japanese design with twenty-first-century technology, resulting in highly advanced yet beautifully simple, gentle, human-scaled buildings. Often ranked among other esteemed architects, such as Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando, Kazuyo Sejima, or Kenzo Tange, Kuma is always in search of new materials to replace concrete and steel, and seeks a new approach for architecture in a post-industrial society, fusing interior and exterior realms to make spaces that create a calming and tranquil atmosphere. Known for his prolific writing, Kuma is constantly re-engaging with different aspects of the architectural discipline, whether it be construction or representation in order to give further progress to his ideas. This richly illustrated volume showcases close to forty high-profile works by Kengo Kuma & Associates (based in Tokyo and Paris), focusing on some of his most recognised works, including the Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center in Tokyo, the Mont Blanc Base Camp project, the Great Bamboo Wall, as well as progress for the design for Tokyo's main stadium for the 2020 Olympic Games. AUTHOR: Kengo Kuma was born in 1954. Before establishing Kengo Kuma & Associates in 1990, he received his Master's Degree in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, where he is currently a professor of architecture. Having been inspired by Kenzo Tange's Yoyogi National Gymnasium, built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kengo Kuma decided to pursue architecture at a young age, and later entered the Architecture programme at the University of Tokyo, where he studied under Hiroshi Hara and Yoshichika Uchida. During his graduate studies, he made a research trip across the Sahara, exploring various villages and settlements, observing a unique power and beauty. After his time as a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York, he established his office in Tokyo. Since then, Kengo Kuma & Associates have designed architectural works in over twenty countries and received prestigious awards, including the Architectural Institute of Japan Award, the Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award (Finland), and the International Stone Architecture Award (Italy), among others. SELLING POINTS: * Rich illustrations and informative discussions highlight how Kengo Kuma's architecture naturally merges with its cultural and environmental surroundings, with a close examination of the experimentation and use of natural materials and light, and how the buildings meet with their natural surroundings * Explores in detail up to forty high-profile projects, including work on Tokyo's main stadium for the 2020 Olympic Games, the renovation of the V&A Dundee waterfront museum in Scotland, as well as more human-scaled works, such as a coffee-house featuring origami-like ceilings designed to offer customers a theatrical experience 300 colour images

These books contain two extended essays by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, which together provide an overview of his key built works and a summation of his ideas about architecture developed over the course of his career to date.

Bognar describes in detail the work of Kengo Kuma whose designs have been attracting growing international attention. Kuma's work is characterized by simplicity and sensitivity to ecological issues taking account of the site and the materials used.