Kengo Kuma

Born 1954 · Japanese · 21 buildings on the wall

Kengo Kuma (born 1954) is a Japanese architect and emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, known for buildings that thin and break up their walls into layers of timber, stone and glass so they feel light. He founded Kengo Kuma & Associates in 1990, and works with Japanese craftsmen in wood, earth and paper, keeping their techniques alive while adapting them to modular building. His book Anti-Object sets out the idea.

Read moreShow less

The Nakagawa-machi Bato Hiroshige Museum (2000) won the Togo Murano Award. The Japan National Stadium in Tokyo (2019), built for the 2020 Olympics, uses timber as a main part of its structure, sourced from all 47 of Japan's prefectures, in modular pieces that can be replaced as they age. The Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center in Tokyo (2012) looks like a stack of separate wooden buildings set at different angles, wrapped in cedar louvres. V&A Dundee (2018), his first building in the United Kingdom, was meant as "a living room for the city". Kengo Kuma's projects are studied for how natural materials and layered surfaces can make a large building feel close and soft.

See the 21 buildings ↓