Kengo Kuma: My summary

Since my last review I have started looking at the work & writings of Kengo Kuma, a Japanese architecture whose practice emerged at the end of the "Bubble" period in Japan.  To help organize my thoughts I am using this entry as a summary of what I have learned and been exposed to thanks to Kuma.

These thoughts and ideas stem from the following readings:

"The Warp & Weft of Architecture: Wearing, Joining, Overlapping, Folding" by Luigi Alini, in Kengo Kuma: Works & Projects (2006)
"A Return to Materials" by Kengo Kuma, in Kengo Kuma: Works & Projects (2006)
"Introduction" by Kengo Kuma, in Kengo Kuma: Selected Works (2005)
"An Architecture of Dissolution?"

"I want to erase architecture. I have always wanted to do so, and I am not likely to ever change my mind." 

-Kengo Kuma

Kuma's work deals very directly with the inside~outside binary condition that exists within architecture.  His approach is to create an architecture that "dissolves" as an object allowing to to become an integral part of its environment.  Erasing architecture means to remove architecture from its normal role as "object."  Kuma has a strong desire to integrate nature and architecture and he uses his philosophy of erasing architecture do try to accomplish this goal.  Most of his work shows great control of "framing visions" where is able to control how the architecture is approached and viewed in order to reduce its objectivity as well as framing visions of the environment beyond the enclosure.  Kuma works to remove the typical "outsider condition" that makes architecture an object from his architecture.  He strives to design "by reversing the direction of viewing where the perceiver would always be in the position of an insider.   

"To erase architecture, we must reverse our form of perception.  Instead of looking at architecture from the outside we must look at the environment from the inside.  Architecture must be planned as a frame for viewing the environment from within."

-Kengo Kuma

According to Alini, Kuma places high importance on materiality and the meaning of material.  "He cuts, splices, superimposes, weaves, folds, replicating ad infinitum a principle of construction that in his works turns into a narrative that unfolds by polarities, by 'archetypal pairs': light/shade, simple/complex, opaque/transparent, temporary/permanent, massive/light, surface/depth, single/multiple, weft/warp, continuous/discontinuous, repetition/variation, high/low.  These are associated with on anther with the aim of showing that a relationships of necessity holds between the part and the whole."  The materials that Kuma uses are typically natural materials with the exception of glass.  He prefers the "human scale" of wood. 

Through my process of understanding the dynamics between the interiority and exteriority my initial focus was on the vertical elements of architecture: the enclosure or wall that becomes the boundary between the inside and outside.  However, Kuma through both his design and writing has helped me realize the great influence the horizontal plane has on this condition.  The horizontal plane allows for a "continuity of space" furthering the erasure of the architectural element of enclosure.  Kuma focuses his attention on the floor and roof planes as a way to connect those inside with their exterior surroundings.  "Planning is not a matter of simply partitioning off spaces in accordance with a prescribed schedule of floor area.  That is only planning spaces.  Time will never flow through such spaces.  One intervenes in action of the subject by moving over the floor.  Changing levels, slopes, and creating frictional resistance, planning simultaneously time and space."  One strong example of this is his Water/Glass (1995) house project located Kyoto, Japan.

 

Water/Glass by Kengo Kuma, image: http://www.kkaa.co.jp

 

Water/Glass by Kengo Kuma, image: http://www.kkaa.co.jp 

 The extension of the horizontal plane of the roof, with its slatted construction offering diffused lighting conditions similar to a cloudy sky, blends into the sky and horizon while the extended floor plane of water reaches out to connect the building perceptually with the ocean below.  The vertical elements of  transparent enclosure only reinforce and support these relationships rather than being the primary element that blurs the interior and exterior.  This focus on the horizontal plane brings traditional Japanese concept of space back into Kuma's architecture.  Kuma separates himself from Modern architecture and its use of transparency due to their use of transparency in architecture while juxtaposing the architecture against the environment while Kuma strives to be fully integrated with the environment.  

"Transparency is not merely a visual continuity.  It is a condition in which the building and the environment dissolved into one."

 -Kengo Kuma

Glass does play a role in Kengo Kuma's architecture and its ability to disappear.  "Glass has always been caught up between the various phenomena that takes place on its two sides."  In a sense, glass reveals as much as its conceives and this depends on the shifting interior and exterior conditions and how they are reflected or transmitted through the medium blurring the boundaries of "both the inside and outside as well as the real and virtual." 

Kuma has developed his own design process called "particlization."  Materials are broken down into smaller and smaller pieces or particles allowing light, wind, sound, to penetrate freely.  The amount of particlization is determined based on the distance and speed of activity of the user/occupant of the space.  The particlizing helps the "architecture melt away" and blend with its environment.  Particlization is reflected in Kuma's architecture through his extensive use of louvers, slats, and high use of repeated of elements.  Particlization offers a "discontinuous continuity."  Boundaries become screens that start to "filter the surrounding environment into the interior of the structure."  Particlization also removes architecture's monolithic quality.  This has been compared to pointillism, pixelation, digitization and low-res images.  "Rather than fragmenting form, Kuma fragments materials." 

"I want to create a condition that is as vague and ambiguous as drifting particles."

-Kengo Kuma

The blurring of boundaries in architecture may come from the fact that with Modernity came the increase in rapid progress and evolving technologies.  Through this progress the boundaries of today's society have become blurred.  Thanks to cell phones, laptops, wireless, etc we no longer need to be physically present to be active within society.  Hierarchies are beginning to be questioned and removed.  The distinction between private and public is starting to disappear.  Current communication technologies give us the possibility of "occupying a multiplicity of spaces simultaneously."  This starts to further breakdown our perception and understanding of reality and the conventional notion of space.