written by Victoria Lin
edited by CHIQIO
key words: architecture, nature, Kengo Kuma
Few names can speak to the land of contemporary architecture like that of Kengo Kuma. This Japanese architect has approached the role by coming up with buildings that dissolve into the setting of nature, defying conventional ideas about architecture and reshaping the relationship with the built environment.
Kuma’s philosophy is “losing architecture”—a building should not dominate a site but become something with it. Such a viewpoint, one of the buildings blending into the surroundings rather than sticking out, has created a portfolio that is very wide in the range—breathtaking works, each structure speaking of Kuma’s commitment to environmental harmony and cultural sensitivity.
One of Kuma’s most iconic works is the Nezu Museum in Tokyo, completed in 2009. The building well represents how one can establish modern architecture in communication with traditional Japanese aesthetics. Its low-lying profile and heavy use of natural materials like bamboo and wood allow this building to find a harmonic embedding into the surrounding garden. The clear result here is a structure that can organically weave itself into the environment from which it emerged, inviting visitors to experience art in a setting that is a work of art itself.
Another characteristic of Kuma’s work is the inventive use of materials. He does many experiments with different, often quite unexpected building elements, challenging the boundaries of architecturally possible design. Sunny Hills cake shop in Tokyo is a leading example of this. Its facade is made from an intricate lattice of wooden beams, arranged in a pattern reminiscent of traditional Japanese bamboo baskets. It not only gives a dramatic effect from outside the house but has yet another purpose: to admit the intensity of natural light and create, with its filter inside, an atmosphere of warmth. But beyond Japan, his influence has gone global. His first building in the UK, the V&A Dundee in Scotland, shows how he can translate this philosophy across cultures. Taking its cue from the rugged cliffs that dramatic Scotland’s northeast coast, with its hull form, it rises from the River Tay like some mighty nautical beast. A
facade of tiered concrete panels gives the building a highly evoked stratification of the cliff face, like a structure that was both some kind of bold architectural expression and a natural outgrowth of its landscape.
But what differentiates Kuma is not just an aesthetic sense; it is, more importantly, the seriousness about sustainability and local context. Traditional building techniques and locally sourced materials are often used to ensure that every building he designs will be ecologically sound and culturally relevant. This can be noticed in works such as the Great [Bamboo] Wall
house, near Beijing, where he used bamboo—a deeply Chinese material—to create a modern home that belongs innately to its place. It challenges Kuma to rethink our relationship with the built environment. At a time of climate crisis and rapid urbanization, his architecture enjoins a vision of how humanity might live in greater harmony with nature. Kuma blurs interior and exterior, natural and man-made, into spaces that are both sheltering and expansive, inviting us to experience surroundings anew and more deeply.
The work of Kengo Kuma thus speaks to the future of architecture and draws us back to the issue at hand: that of possibility. It reminds us that buildings can do more than be functional places or beautiful things they can be presences living and breathing, enhancing our bond to the world around us. For Kuma, it is in losing architecture that we perhaps might find a new way to inhabit our planet: more sustainable and more harmonic, and thus, ultimately more human.
The short- and long-term influence of Kuma, however, extends beyond the projects realized. As a professor at the University of Tokyo, he is giving shape to a new generation of architects, imbuing them with a sensitivity to nature and culture that will doubtless leave an impression on the future of architectural design. His writings and lectures further diffuse his ideas, provoking architects and laypeople alike to reconsider assumptions that have been made about what buildings can and should be.
In a world increasingly dominated by glass and steel monoliths, Kengo Kuma’s architecture is like a breath of fresh air. But even beyond surface aesthetics, it serves as a reminder of the deeper human impulse toward connection—to nature, tradition, and the materials around us. From climate change to cultural preservation, the work of Kuma provides not just inspiration but a concrete—or perhaps bamboo—path forward for the challenges of the 21st century.
No products in the cart. 