Kengo Kuma: New Works
Kengo Kuma
Kengo Kuma is one of Japan’s leading architects and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo. Widely known as a prolific writer and philosopher, he proposes architecture that opens up new relationships between nature, technology and human beings. In this book, Kuma's second monograph, forty projects are arranged according to building use, with a timely focus on those that respond to natural disasters and the pandemic, build on the importance of local communities and address our need to come together with other people.
The projects range in scale and ambition, from Japan's Olympic Stadium – where Kuma used timber from every region in the country to build the nation's largest arena – to a small community centre in Yusuhara and a fairytale museum in Denmark. Each celebrates Kuma's skill using natural materials, as he pushes these to their limits to create exciting and surprising forms.
A substantial introduction by Grace La considers Kuma's progression since the last book, as well as exploring the themes of his work and how they relate to the architecture world today. The projects for inclusion – stadiums and cultural centres, museums and houses, cafés and parks, temples and pavilions – have been chosen by Kuma himself as best representative of this stage in his career. None appear in the previous book.
KENGO KUMA is one of Japan’s leading architects. He established Kengo Kuma & Associates in 1990 and later became Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Tokyo, in 2009, before being named Emeritus Professor in 2020. He is the author of several books, including Architecture of Defeat and Small Architecture / Natural Architecture. He has published a number of books with Thames & Hudson, including his first monograph as well as Kengo Kuma: My Life as an Architect in Tokyo and Point, Line, Plane.
GRACE LA is Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She is co-founding Principal of LA DALLMAN, an American practice internationally recognized for integrating architecture, engineering and landscape. Author of the book The Middle Front and a frequent speaker on architecture, she hosts the Talking Practice podcast.
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