Monumental or minuscule, the oeuvre of Kengo Kuma could be described as pixelated craftsmanship. Its creative explosion, encompassing all scales and extending over four continents, is governed by a devotion to the material rigor of construction and t
In the world of fashion, luxury is the ultimate quality, but it must be understood that it is not possible to create a luxury brand ex novo. Luxury has two inseparable ingredients: brand tradition, centenarian in many cases, and the careful use today
The writer Haruki Murakami, a friend of mine, has written that both short stories and novels are indispensable for him. He develops the ideas that he discovers during the process of writing short stories in order to write novels. And when he is writi
The V&A Dundee is the first branch of this prestigious museum of art and design outside London. From the beginning, the project was set forth as an opportunity to reactivate the promenade by Tay River – an industrial area – and blend it with the city
A wavy skin of textile appearance wraps this 134 meter-tall office building located in the district of Hongkou, in Shanghai. The tower contains 95,000 square meters of office space in 29 stories (private units in the higher floors, shared workplaces
On the southern shore of Huangpu River, in the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, an old shipyard built in 1972 is transformed into a mixed-use complex with shops, a theater, and an exhibition space. The main challenge of the project was to ma
Zhang Xiaochun In September 2015, with an exhibition themed ‘Heavenly Creations: A World of Southern Rural Crafts,’ the Folk Art Museum of the China Academy of Arts – a project designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma – officially opened to the
Located by the Rolex Learning Center built by SANAA on the campus of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), ‘Under One Roof’ is a project that gathers three programs: an art and science pavilion, a technology and information gallery, an
Assembled together with wood strips, a series of stacked boxes house the new Odunpazari Museum of Modern Art in the Turkish city of Eskisehir, a university town with a large young population and a lively and active atmosphere. The plot is on the boun
Surrounded by high-rises and residential blocks with shops in the lower podium, the project is conceived as a hub centralizing the circulations in the busy area of Darling Harbor, in Sydney. The cylindrical form addresses the need to create an urban
Surrounded by a small forest and a prairie, this hospital specialized in rehabilitation is located next to Narita International Airport, Japan’s largest, 50 kilometers west of Tokio. This low-rise hospital, with just two floors, is arranged around tw
Yangcheng Lake – located three kilometers from Suzhou in Jiangsu Province – is famous for producing the best mitten crab in China, a seawater crustacean that is considered to be a rare world delicacy. The growing interest in gastronomic tourism has s
Yusuhara, a small town on the border of the mountainous province of Kochi, in the southwest of Japan, is often described as a ‘village above the clouds.’ Over the past years, the studio of Kengo Kuma has developed a compound of buildings there, such
At Portland Japanese Garden, designed by professor Takuma Tono in 1967, the new Cultural Village connects a sequence of buildings to offer a complete and uninterrupted journey from the city to the top of the hill. The ensemble includes a first pavili
The new headquarters of Blue Ice, a company that designs and makes climbing and mountain equipment, is in Les Houches, a small village in the French Alps, close to the Mont Blanc. A wide roof marks the design, and follows the natural slope of the sit
The complex is located in the small town of Yufuin, known for its thermal baths. Built for Comico, one of the largest digital comic websites (‘webtoons’) in Japan – part of NHN Japan Corporation –, the ensemble includes a small museum for contemporar
The Japanese textile manufacturer Komatsu Matere has developed an innovative carbon-fiber based product for seismic reinforcement. This element consists of several interwoven carbon-fiber strands (with an outer layer of synthetic fiber and inorganic
Located in Akita Prefecture, close to the National Park of Towada-Hachimantai, the city of Kazuno is famous for the Oyu Onsen hot springs, with a history of over 800 years. The construction of the new community center is meant to improve the region’s
Opened in the year 2017, the Japan House in São Paulo is the first example developed within the ‘Japan House’ initiative, developed by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote various aspects of Japanese culture in the world. The building
Zuishoji Temple (Minato-ku, Tokyo) is the main temple in Tokyo of the Obaku Sect, one of the three Zen schools brought to Japan from China by the Priest Ingen during the Edo Period. The building, listed in 1992 as jubun or Important Cultural Property
Inspired by a bird’s flight, the Roof / Birds guesthouse blends into a wooded hillside overlooking Mount Asama, the most active volcano in Honshu, the main island of Japan. In a well-known habitat for wild birds, the building is divided into a series
The site in Qianmen East is located within walking distance of Beijing landmarks like Tiananmen Square and Chang’an Avenue, and it used to be a district with many classical Qing/Ming-styled courtyard-houses. However, with the explosive growth of popu
The Jan Michalski Foundation is a Swiss organization whose mission is to foster literary creation and the practice of reading. The foundation holds a small complex at the foot of the Jura Mountains, where it develops residency programs for writers an
Built with cypress columns with a cross-sectional dimension of 120 x 120 mm, this house stands out in the suburban environment of Tokyo for its uniformity. The beams, columns, and enclosure are all formed by prisms of the same size in section and dif
Akao Herb & Rose Garden is situated near Atami, a seaside town that is a popular tourist destination close to Tokyo and Yokohama. Famous for its exuberant rose gardens, the site of Akao Garden borders on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. To
A warping wood roof contains a sacred space devoted to Taoism in the Hsinpu mountains, 70 kilometers south of Taipei. The project is part of an initiative promoted by the company TLDC (Taiwan Land Development Corporation) to boost rural growth throug
By stacking fir tree strips, the Wood/Pile meditation space recreates the komorebi effect produced by sunrays when they are filtered through the trees, in a forest near Krün in Bavaria.
Assembled with larch wood pieces, Tsumiki Pavilion – designed for World Flora Exposition 2018 – is set out as a prototype of democratic architecture, where anyone can participate in the building process.
Art and nature come together at Arte Sella, an outdoor museum in the Province of Trento, where the spherical Kodoma Pavilion is assembled with solid larch wood pieces and no metal fittings or glue.
By the east gate of the Forbidden City, in the heart of Beijing, an old siheyuan-style house is renovated with four types of modular polyethylene blocks that let natural light pass through and fill the interior spaces.
Comissioned by the Italian company Casone Group, the two showrooms – Naturescape in Milan and Stonescape in Bologna – recreate a topography molded by the interaction of stone and water.
The Camper shop on Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona reinterprets the traditional jack-arch brick by creating a modular element that is used to complete all the furniture, from counters, to shelves or seating.
A succession of translucent acrylic cylinders resting on wooden bars surround the different spaces of the Nacrée restaurant and serve as support for bouquets of flowers that seem to float on the air.
Within the ‘Sensing Spaces’ exhibition held in 2014 at the Royal Academy of Arts, this pavilion wanted to generate the maximum effect on visitors with a minimum amount of material, through light and aroma.
The station, which evokes the railway tracks and the passage of time with the wood frames of its curtain wall, extends the adjacent public space and also houses complementary programs that will reactivate social and cultural life in the district.
Located on the left bank of the Seine River, by the National Library, the building is clad with a pixelated skin of wood and vegetation, and arranges a high-end hotel and a youth hostel around a lush interior garden.
In the center of Odense, the home city of fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen, a series of wood-clad cylindrical volumes are interconnected to create a continuous route from the gardens to the museum.
The 700 rooms of the Grand Morillon student residence in Geneva are organized in two volumes perforated by a footpath that ascends gradually from the ground level, giving access to the shared programs.
Water – its different states, the reflections of light and shadows on its surface, and the humid atmosphere it creates – is the guiding thread of this proposal that doesn’t intend to create just one object, but an experience in the form of landscape,
The position of the three longitudinal pieces, arranged along the harbor, creates a link between the new museum-lookout and the water. The superposition of the volumes and the configuration of the facade of zinc slats suggest movement and dynamism.
The vertical timber elements, which function at the same time as light- and structure-filtering pieces, support a ventilated facade that covers the exhibition spaces and gives the project a unique and sober image that echoes its surroundings. A lobb
Inspired in the edge strip surrounding traditional Japanese houses, known as engawa, the project creates a social space in the shade that connects the Modern Art Center and the gardens of the Gulbenkian Foundation.
The digital viewer from Arquitectura Viva gives you a new experience browsing our publications in a simpler and agile way in all your devices
Try now
