Kengo Kuma: Substance

Kengo Kuma: Substance explores the work of the acclaimed Japanese architect through six materials—wood, bamboo, metal, paper, textile, and stone—and presents the ideas behind each work.

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.

About the Author

Kengo Kuma was born in 1954. Before establishing Kengo Kuma and Associates in 1990, he received his Master 's Degree in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, where he spent more than a decade as Professor of Architecture and where he is currently a Special / Honorary Professor. Inspired by Kenzo Tange 's Yoyogi National Gymnasium, built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kuma pursued architecture at a young age, and later entered the architecture program at the University of Tokyo, where he studied under Hiroshi Hara and Yoshichika Uchida. During his graduate studies, he made a research trip across the Sahara, exploring various villages and settlements, observing the unique power and beauty. After his time as a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York, Kuma established his office in Tokyo. Since then, Kengo Kuma and Associates has designed architectural works in more than twenty countries and received prestigious awards, including the Architectural Institute of Japan Award, the Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award (Finland), and the International Stone Architecture Award (Italy), among others. Kengo Kuma and Associates has offices in Tokyo and Paris.