kengo kuma. architecture between tradition and innovation. selected work 1994 - 2004 .................................................................................................

......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary




kengo kuma

architecture between tradition and innovation
selected work 1994 - 2004
29 june - 30 september 2005
palazzo del governo, siracusa, italy

---
the first travelling monographic exhibition in italy
dedicated to the work of kengo kuma -
the forms of architecture are presented in relation to some
‘root themes’ which form some ‘non-variables’ in the oeuvre
of kuma:
nature/artifice;
light/shade;
simple/complex;
opaque/transparent;
temporary/permanent;
massive/light;
surface/depth;
unique/multiple;
warp/woof;
continuous/discontinuous;
repetition/variation;
high/low.
resorting to a sort of ‘rhetorical system’, kuma cancels out all
contradiction: the construction becomes narrative and its
unity is generated by the repetition of the parts.
this way of working may be compared to the rhetorical nature
of language, seen as an ‘interrogative multiplicity’,
a place for differences to be contrasted.

6 works are on show :
- the ando hiroshige museum, batou, nasu-gun, tochigi, japan 2000
- the takayanagi community center, takayanagi, kariwa-gun,
niigata, japan, 2000
- the nasu history museum, nasu, tochigi, japan, 2000
- the stone museum, the great (bamboo) wall, beijing, china, 2002
- the plastic house, meguro, tokyo, japan, 2002
- and the adobe repository for wooden buddha statue,
toyoura, yamaguchi, japan, 2002

the exhibition’s layout, designed by kuma himself,
comprises six boxes serving as both display cases and
containers for the transfer of the exhibition to other venues.
the boxes, which all differ, are made using the same materials
as those employed for the construction of the buildings displayed.
this choice aims to render the ‘generative principle’ underlying
the works displayed even more evident, including from a
tactile point of view.
the boxes are formed for fixed and moveable parts:
by opening drawers, sliding and overturning tops, it is possible to
‘unveil’ what they contain: design plans, studio models, sketches,
photographs of phases of the construction.
this interaction determines continuous changes of the object itself,
which changes in relation to the way in which we relate to it:
a mechanism that, once again, evidences the ambiguous nature
of kuma’s works, an ambiguity that takes on ever different
connotations and shades, because what Kengo Kuma investigates
is a multiform, multiple, fleeting reality with a thousand facets.
thus, the two-sided correspondence between the object and the
subject exhibited, between the display boxes and the works
displayed stimulates the user to ‘discover’ a reality that is broader,
to go beyond what appears on the surface, to act upon the meanings
that enter the ‘construction of the forms’.
through the generative principle he enables us to discern the
archaic nature of architecture, the existence of stable structures
of meaning.
because, as the names of the works themselves indicate
- plastic house, adobe museum, stone Museum, great bamboo wall -
these indicate less a work than a generative principle,
a figurative research effected on the expressive possibilities of matter,
which in kengo kuma’s work renders evident the dialectic between
the ‘has been’ and the ‘not yet’.


aftersiracusa, the exhibition will travel to other italian cities
(naples, rome, ascoli, florence, genoa, milan, bolzano)
and international venues ... with the last being the arkitekturmuseet
skeppsholmen in stockholm, sweden.


---
exhibition catalogue
published by ELECTA, italy
this volume investigates 21 works by kuma realised
between 1994 and 2004 in order to explore the shift in his
work from a position marked by the idea of ‘chaos’ to one in
which architecture ‘dissolves’ as an object and becomes
an integral part of the surroundings.
http://www.electaweb.it


---
kengo kuma
was born in kanagawa, japan in 1954.
he graduated from the graduate school of engineering at the
university of tokyo in 1979, and continued his studies in new york
in 1985-86, at columbia university and the asian cultural council.
the following year, he founded the ‘spatial design’ studio and,
in 1990, ‘kengo kuma & associates’;
between 1998 and 1999, he was a professor at the faculty of
environmental information at keio university.
http://www.kkaa.co.jp




---






-------
monthly designboom newsletter
-------





-------
? comments and contact us ?
-------



kengo kuma



forest floor


forest floor interior view




great bamboo wall


great bamboo wall interior view




stone museum


stone museum interior view