An exhibition showcasing 30 years of work by renowned architect Kengo Kuma is being held at the Tokyo Station Gallery at JR Tokyo Station through May 6, featuring the diverse construction materials used in Kuma's projects as a guide to appreciating his buildings.
Kuma has searched for materials that harmonize with the environment, and the exhibition "Kengo Kuma: a LAB for materials" tracks the history of his endeavors to achieve this goal.
Another highlight is one of his latest works, which the architect himself says "represents my career" and "made me break new ground" as a result of struggling with hard, imposing materials.
A Yokohama native, Kuma, 63, has designed buildings in more than 20 countries. Among his major works are the Nezu Museum, the Kabukiza theater and the new National Stadium, which is scheduled for completion in November 2019, all located in Tokyo. He has also been working on Hisao & Hiroko Taki Plaza, the students' international exchange center scheduled to open in October 2020 at the Ookayama campus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
The exhibition venue has 10 sections, each dedicated to a different material: bamboo, wood, paper, earth, stone, metal, glass, tile, resin and membrane/fiber. Seventy-five projects undertaken by the architect are presented through building models, parts, architectural drawings and other documents.
Some special assembly methods are also featured. "I believe no other architect has ever used such diverse materials," Kuma said.
His approach stems from the idea that constructing buildings with light materials lets them easily merge with the local landscape and culture of the building's location, minimizes the stress people might feel from these buildings and also contributes to recovering the rich natural environment in their neighborhood.
Diversity of materials
The exhibition starts with a section featuring bamboo.
For a hotel project in Beijing, Kuma chose bamboo as a structural material for both the interior and exterior. Bamboo is not durable but was given a long service life for this project through a reinforcing method using heat and oil. With its natural simplicity, the building was regarded as an appealing surprise in China, where there are numerous high-rise buildings, resulting in Kuma receiving many offers to work in the country.
Kuma is also known for using light, small parts as key elements.
The exhibition presents such projects as a house constructed with plastic water containers, a building with a green roof utilizing soil and ceramic panels made from industrial waste, and a large existing building that Kuma seismically strengthened with carbon fiber.
Some of the featured projects look experimental. A portable tea house, for example, consists of a large polyvinyl chloride balloon and polyester cloth, which is one of the lightest fabrics in the world.
Based on his theory that "Architecture could become closer to the flexible feeling of clothing," Kuma says he is most interested now by membranes and fibers.
A train station under construction between JR Shinagawa and Tamachi stations has a building with a large roof structure covered with a translucent membrane. The material is used to make the building's interior look like it's wrapped with the paper used for shoji sliding doors, which is similarly translucent and allows light to pass through.
"I hope the station building, with a warm touch, will reconnect the area divided by railway tracks," Kuma said.
In another building under construction, he used vinyl curtains for what was meant to be the exterior wall. The following morning, he was shocked to find numerous bugs stuck to the curtains' painted surface, just like flypaper, which was difficult to fix, he said. "Doing something new tends to entail unexpected things," he said with a smile.
Cliffs depicted by crushed stones
Kuma has been openly questioning the situation of urban areas filled with concrete buildings.
He has taken a new approach to designing V&A Dundee, a museum scheduled to open in Scotland in September. It's an unusual undertaking for Kuma's usual style: a concrete structure extending out over the local river. The design resulted from the need to use heavy, hard materials to cope with the rough local natural environment. To avoid the building simply looking like a concrete box, about 2,500 concrete panels attached to the exterior wall have been sandblasted to expose the gravel inside as much as possible.
That design followed inspiration from the rough, striated cliffs in that area and was intended to make the building harmonize with the surrounding natural environment.
Its materials and shape were also a challenge, Kuma said, adding that it is "a work that represents my career and has taken me to a higher level."
Kuma feels people are becoming more and more sick of cities' uniform landscapes filled with concrete buildings, while admitting that making buildings earthquake-resistant is necessary.
He has started to "receive more orders to design buildings using materials that fit nicely in their locations. That trend is happening even in China. In contrast, Japanese architects have yet to adequately meet this change in social awareness. I feel a danger that Japan may be left behind by this global trend."
In this society with a declining population, Japanese cities need a prescription for their own revitalization, Kuma says.
"We live in a difficult age when high-rise buildings have been becoming less needed and cities should be scaled down and redesigned," he said. "I want to work on such projects as redeveloping alleys in Tokyo, in addition to designing buildings. I also want to take up commercial projects that are closely related to their locations so I can contribute to changing townscapes."
Kuma has also been making great efforts to encourage young architects, partly based on a lesson he learned from his own experience: He couldn't get orders for projects in Tokyo for about a decade after his novel designs were criticized in 1990s.
He said: "On a global level, Japan has less diversity in its buildings. [Young architects] hate to be criticized for deviating from the trend of the times and to be regarded as dull, and there's a lot of focus on refining things in fashion. I want this exhibition to also convey my message of 'Why not do things more freely?'"
--"Kengo Kuma: a LAB for materials" will run through May 6 at the Tokyo Station Gallery in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. The gallery is closed on Mondays, except April 30.
Visit http://www.ejrcf.or.jp/gallery/english for more information.
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