Kengo Kuma: a LAB for materials

Saturday, March 3 - Sunday, May 6, 2018

With enormous projects inside and outside Japan, world-class architect Kengo Kuma (b. 1954) is constantly on the move. This exhibition is a major survey of his projects from the past 30 years, projects underpinned by Kuma's intimate knowledge of Eastern and Western thought, both past and present, and his own innovative concepts, which include his ideas on “makeru kenchiku (defeated architecture)” and “shizen na kenchiku (natural architecture).” The exhibition focuses in particular on materials, which Kuma has dialoged with extensively through his work, and is organized by category of primary material, including bamboo, wood, paper, stone and earth. It attempts to provide an overview of Kuma's work from the standpoint of “things.” The liberation of “things,” it is proposed, creates the possibility of an architecture that mediates between human sensibility and awareness and the larger environment.