Packed full house at DeCafe as Kengu Kuma lectured today at AUD about the discourse of his recent work. With offices in Tokyo and Paris, Kuma aspires to recover the tradition of Japanese buildings and to reinterpret these traditions for the 21st century. Kuma states “creating architecture is like a cloud, from natural materials disassembled into particles.”
He covered his intriguing designs based on japanese Chidori sticks, and adopting the simple logic to create vastly different structures- using the logic both in skin and structural conditions.
He went on to describe how they learned from these processes and started becoming more and more obsessed with patterns and pattern logics ( as in the cccloud).
But that's not all Kuma's practice as been obsessing over-- he spoke of his love for natural materials and construction methods. As in his Xinjin Zhi Museum practical perforated facade that can only be created in that region because of the way the local craftsmen produce the roof tiles- which he utilized to create the perforated facade. In a way this is a commentary on current construction methods, often hauling raw goods for hundreds if not thousands of miles. Kengo finds it possible to not be jaded with an ubiquitous-but-often-overlooked notion within the practice of architecture to speak in local vernacular and local craft.
He went on to describes his attempts to always "preserve the land, to not cut the land". More often than not, architects and developers level the site and grade according to such parameters as drainage flows etc. Kengo spoke of his Great Wall House in Beijing. The idea of fusion of architecture and land - which Kuma constantly reiterates- guides the plan for the Great (Bamboo) Wall House. He stated "our intention was to apply the nature of the Great Wall to the act of dwelling. This is why the house is titled 'WALL', instead of 'HOUSE'".
His local material and construction methods were not overlooked in this project either. Bamboo, rice paper, slate and glass are the materials used to link the house with its location. Bamboo in particular - the traditional local building material - becomes the house's skin, covered with a curtain of canes set at variable distances apart. The internal space is more protected in some parts, opening up in others where it is "filtered", or offering itself completely to the landscape in a masterful play of light and shadow, used as true building materials.
Kuma is the principal at Kengo Kuma & Associates. Recent works include FRAC Marseilles, Besançon Art Center, Kabuki Theatre, Nagaoka City Hall, Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center, Nezu Museum and Suntory Museum. New projects are underway both in Japan and abroad. His latest writings, Chisana Kenchiku (Iwanami Shoten, 2013) and Kenchikuka, Hashiru (Shinchosha, 2013) among many others, are being published outside Japan. Kengo Kuma is a Professor at the University of Tokyo.
This lecture is oganized in conjunction with the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles.
