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.