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Kengo
Kuma: Selected Works, by Botond Bognar.
This monograph by the well-known
scholar of Japanese architecture Botond
Bognar features 23 built works and one unbuilt project
by someone the author defines as "an architect to be
watched." But looking at the diverse range of projects
collected here, the highly refined designs of Kengo
Kuma exhibit a maturity that is impressive for an architect
relatively young while coming of age in the difficult, post-Bubble
era of his home country. The architect's introduction clearly
explains his intention: "to 'erase' architecture, because
I believe that a building should become one with its surroundings."
While the default position may be to erase architecture
via the use of glass walls, Kuma views this erasure in different
ways - ways that have changed over the short course of his
career - from fractured Postmodernism to "particlizing"
to "digital gardening". This second method is
what the architect is widely known for, particularly in
built works like the Ando
Hiroshige Museum and Stone Museum in Japan, and the
Bamboo Wall Guest House in China. The use of slatted screens,
mainly of wood and other natural materials, creates a more
complex interaction of architecture and nature than clear
glass (a material Kuma has also used to great effect), a
device that may not achieve total erasure but one that has
become a signature trademark in an ever-evolving architecture
that's highly sensitive to place.
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