Kengo Kuma was born in 1954. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Tokyo in 1979. From 1985 to 1986, he studied at Columbia University as Visiting Scholar. In 1990, he established Kengo Kuma & Associates. Kuma has also taught at Keio University from 2001 to 2008, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008, and in 2009, he was installed as Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Tokyo.
Among Kuma’s major works include Water/Glass (1995, received AIA Benedictus Award), Stage in Forest, Toyama Center for Performance Arts (received 1997 Architectural Institute of Japan Annual Award), Stone Museum (received International Stone Architecture Award 2001), Bato-machi Hiroshige Museum (received The Murano Prize). Recent works include Great Bamboo Wall (2002, Beijing, China), Nagasaki Prefectural Museum (2005, Nagasaki), The Suntory Museum of Art (2007, Tokyo) and Nezu Museum (2009, Tokyo). A number of large projects are now developing in Europe and China, including an arts centre in Besancon City, France; Granada Performing Arts Centre, Spain; and a development of the Sanlitun District in Beijing, China.
Kuma was awarded the International Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award in 2002 (Finland), International Architecture Awards for the Best New Global Design for “Chokkura Plaza and Shelter” in 2007, and Energy Performance + Architectutre Award in 2008 (France), and in 2009, he was given the title d’Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, from the French Government.
The aim of Kengo Kuma & Associates is to blend architecture with nature, where you find a rich and firm link between a building and the “place” it stands. To achieve this goal, the firm uses natural materials that are locally available in each “place”, such as wood, stone or paper, and attempts to retrieve warmth and tenderness to the architecture. For further fusion between architecture and its surrounding environment, great importance is attached in designing to the unity between landscape and architecture, bearing awareness that their harmony would resonate throughout the building’s details, interior, furniture and accessories.
