Kengo Kuma

Kengo Kuma’s work masterfully engages experimentation, traditional Japanese design, and advanced technology. This results in highly innovative yet beautifully simple, evocative, and human-scaled structures. Kengo Kuma: Substance features thirty-five ambitious, small-scall projects, from around the world, ranging from captivating wood pavilions, ethereal metal installations, and sculptural woven structures to experiential stone monuments, intricate bamboo tea houses, and luminous shape-shifting domes.
Among the featured projects, Domino 3.0 reimagines a forest made with salvaged timber, while Kodama emphasizes a harmonious relationship with nature. The changing shape of Krug x Kuma introduces a variety of spatial experiences, and Bamboo Passage invites people to experience the structure from the inside. Through these experimentations with materials and ideas, Kuma seeks to restore the relationship between people, buildings, and nature, and foster a greater sense of humanity in architecture. Kengo Kuma: Substance will be a prized addition for architects, designers, and fans of Kengo Kuma. It is also a valuable resource for those interested in the fusion of traditional and contemporary architecture, design, craftsmanship, and technology. 

Kengo Kuma decided at a young age to pursue architecture, having been inspired by Kenzo Tange’s Yoyogi National Gymnasium, built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He studied architecture at the University of Tokyo and received his master’s degree in 1979. In 1990, he established Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA). Headquartered in Tokyo, the firm also has offices in Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul, and Kengo Kuma & Associates projects are currently underway in more than fifty countries. Kengo is currently a university professor and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, and a member of the Japan Art Academy after teaching at Keio University and the University of Tokyo.