Kengo Kuma: New Works Kengo Kuma in Conversation with Grace La
About This Event
Join us for an event celebrating the release of Kengo Kuma: New Works (Thames & Hudson), the second monograph on one of the world’s preeminent architects, showcasing projects completed around the world between 2012 and 2024—a long-awaited follow-up to the acclaimed Kengo Kuma: Complete Works.
Kengo Kuma is one of Japan’s leading architects and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. A prolific writer and philosopher, he proposes architecture that introduces new relationships between nature, technology, and human beings. This book surveys forty projects 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 others.
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 center in Yusuhara, and a fairytale museum in Denmark. Each celebrates Kuma’s skill using natural materials, as he pushes them to their limits to create exciting and surprising forms. Take for instance, The Exchange, a community center in Sydney, which has wooden “threads” which wrap around the building, giving the impression of a bird’s nest and the UCCA Clay Museum in Yixing, China, with an undulating organic form that mimics a mountain, covered with 3,600 handmade, clay terracotta tiles.
In the book’s introductory essay, Grace La considers Kuma’s evolution since his previous monograph and explores the themes of his work and how they relate to the architecture world today. The projects included in Kengo Kuma: New Works—stadiums and cultural centers, museums and houses, cafés and parks, temples and pavilions—have been chosen by Kuma himself as best representative of this stage in his career.
The Harvard Book Store will sell books on site following the conversation. This event is also part of the Architecture Department’s _positions lecture series.
Speakers
Kengo Kuma was born in 1954. He proposes architecture that opens up new relationships between nature, technology, and human beings, and established Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA) in 1990. The firm currently has projects underway in more than 50 countries. Kuma is a University Professor and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, after teaching at Keio University. His major publications include KENGO KUMA New Works, Kengo Kuma Onomatopoeia Architecture Grounding (X-Knowledge), Nihon no Kenchiku (Architecture of Japan, Iwanami Shoten), Zen Shigoto (Kengo Kuma,Complete Works, Daiwa Shobo), Ten Sen Men (Point Line Plane, Iwanami Shoten), Makeru Kenchiku (Architecture of Defeat, Iwanami Shoten), Shizen na Kenchiku (Natural Architecture, Iwanami Shinsho), Chii-sana Kenchiku (Small Architecture, Iwanami Shinsho), and many others.
Grace La is professor and chair of the department of architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She is cofounding principal of LA DALLMAN, a practice internationally recognized for integrating architecture, engineering, and landscape. Author of the book The Middle Front and a frequent speaker on architecture, she hosts the Talking Practice podcast.
Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.
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