Archinect - News

Kengo Kuma mysteriously replaces Marlon Blackwell to lead design for the Global War on Terrorism Memorial

2024-10-01T13:13:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma has just been named as the lead architect for the forthcoming Global War on Terrorism Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Stating that his passion for the work stems from the loss of a personal friend on September 11th, Kuma said: "This Memorial will help the entire world contemplate the war of global significance that has followed that day of sorrow and the experiences of those who have participated in it."

The wartime experience of roughly 2.7 million American servicemembers who took part in the conflict since 2001 will indeed play a role, along with a consideration of the war’s impact on the broader society in whose name it was administered. According to a survey of 20,000 veterans and civilians from all 50 states performed by organizers at the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation, the following elements were preferred by a majority (80%) of respondents:

More than 60% of respondents wanted green space around the Memorial, and 50% of respondents hop...

Kengo Kuma completes Lisbon art center with sweeping canopy

2024-09-25T07:30:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates has completed an overhaul of the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM) in Lisbon, marking the acclaimed architect’s first completed project in Portugal. Delivered in collaboration with OODA (Oporto Office for Design and Architecture), the scheme draws inspiration from the Engawa, a sheltered walkway typical of Japanese dwellings.

Image credit: Fernando Guerra, Canon Ambassador

The original CAM center was designed by British architect Sir Leslie Martin and opened in 1983, housing one of the world’s most significant collections of modern and contemporary Portuguese art. The center sits within the wider grounds of Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation, a multi-disciplinary campus of 1960’s buildings in an 18-acre woodland.

Image credit: Fernando Guerra, Canon Ambassador

Kuma’s new iteration of the center is defined by a 330-foot-long sweeping timber canopy. The canopy was in...

Just in time for the Summer Olympics, Kengo Kuma's Saint-Denis–Pleyel metro station opens in Paris

2024-07-26T18:55:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma’s completed design of the Saint-Denis–Pleyel metro station in Paris is one of the largest and most significant new projects highlighting the city’s push for sustainable urban renewal as a consequence of its turn as the host of the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Images shared following its inauguration on June 24th with President Emmanuel Macron in attendance showcase a horizontal composition distinct from the verticality of its surroundings. (It will later boast a sculptural installation from the French artist Prune Nourry.)

Image: © Kengo Kuma & Associates - Photography by Michel Denancé

The station measures 377,000 square feet, making it the largest in the Grand Paris Express rail network. It’s designed to service 250,000 passengers a day from the new Metro lines 14 through 17, with connections to both RER D and GPE 4 commuter trains.

Image: © Kengo Kuma & Associates - Photography by Michel Denancé

Image: © Kengo Kuma...

Kengo Kuma's new Seoul audio museum opens as an 'architectural instrument'

2024-07-10T14:37:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates has inaugurated what could be this year’s most interesting new cultural project, the new Audeum (or Audio Museum) in Seoul, South Korea, following a two-year construction period.

The world’s first museum experience dedicated to sound is approximately 2.4 million square feet and supports sensory healing while offering visitors a unique experience of both its architecture and exhibitions in a design that's meant to evoke the forest canopy surroundings it appears to be a metallic natural outgrowth of.

Image courtesy Namsun Lee

The design team describes it as a "place where you can not only see but also experience sound firsthand. [...] it is not just a place to listen to sound; it is an architectural instrument that returns humans to a natural state, allowing them to experience the five senses of the body."

Image courtesy Yongbaek Lee

Image courtesy Namsun Lee

The idea for its establishment can be credited to Korean acoustics equipment s...

Kengo Kuma to design new mixed-use shopping center for Miami's Design District

2024-04-24T17:36:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma Associates has shared the announcement of a new mixed-use project in the Miami Design District.

The MIRAI Design District is a $1 billion development to be realized at 65,000 square feet with 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and another 40,000 square feet of high-end offices located above.

Image courtesy Kengo Kuma and Associates

The development's marketing arm describes the spaces as "each in meticulously curated, modular bays for luxury brands and trophy offices," designed to "allow each brand its own identity."

From there, a "series of micro-experiences" will define the concept, which is located at the intersection of Northeast 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue. The building's two main transparent mesh facades are angled to create a mix of shadows and greet users from different angles, while the shops underneath are serviced by a wooden soffit pedestrian walkway.

Image courtesy Kengo Kuma and Associates

The design district was also recently announced as the location...

Kengo Kuma completes Japanese farmhouse resort surrounding rice terraces

2022-09-20T11:10:00-04:00

Work has been completed on the Kengo Kuma and Associates-designed KAI Yufuin, a hot spring hotel on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The resort sees a landscape of rice terraces enclosed by several buildings containing public functions, a bathhouse, guest rooms, and villa suites.

Exterior. Photo credit: Hoshino Resorts

The scheme’s three anchor buildings, namely the public building, bathhouse building, and guest room building, are defined by long gabled roofs with low eaves heights. The buildings’ exteriors are clad in charcoal grey to blend with the deep green hue of the surrounding forest, while the entrance is distinguished by a series of bamboo exterior walls.

Entrance. Photo credit: Hoshino Resorts

Rice Terrace. Photo credit: Hoshino Resorts

The interior architecture surrounding the rice terraces is based on the concept of a “fine farmhouse” presenting a bespoke interior that nonetheless follows the spatial structure of vernacular Japanese farm...

Kengo Kuma hopes to 'blur the line' between outdoor activity and office work in San Jose

2022-05-12T13:45:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates has unveiled plans for a new biophilia-laden office complex in downtown San Jose, California.

Under the monicker “Park Habitat,” the massive new 1.3-million-square-foot development offers 20 stories of office and retail spaces which are beset by a network of internal and external parks and gardens.

In a new manifesto published by the group Westbank Campus, the international development group’s founder Ian Gillespie outlined his reasoning for choosing the influential Japanese architect for a design whose scope purportedly entails a focus on user wellness and local environment.

Previously on Archinect: BIG, Kengo Kuma, and Studio Gang tapped for Westbank's San Jose masterplan

“I chose Kengo for a very deliberate reason: Kuma-San has risen to the pinnacle of his profession by blurring the lines between nature and the built environment. His practice is dedicated to making buildings less definitive or solid and more ephemeral. In essence, creating a particular co...

Take a look inside Kengo Kuma's newly-opened Hans Christian Andersen Museum

2022-04-14T15:34:00-04:00

One of Denmark’s most highly publicized cultural projects has now officially begun its public operation after being previously inaugurated in a soft opening last June.

Set amongst a massive new public park that opened earlier in the fall, Kengo Kuma and Associates’ design for the new H.C.Andersen Hus museum in Odense is a “fantasy world” of interconnected circular forms which give shape to the museum’s more than 60,000 square feet of education centers and subterranean exhibition space.

Photo: Rasmus Hjortshøj - COAST

Visitors can experience the physical dualities endemic in the architecture and inspired by classic Andersen tales like The Tinderbox and The Little Mermaid. After entering through an extension of the writer’s adjacent birth home, they begin their journey on the timber-clad upper level and descend into an unraveling underground labyrinth containing a “unique artistic experience” designed by Event Communications dotted with evocative commissi...

Kengo Kuma sets in stone an impressive stereotomic-inspired cathedral intervention in Western France

2021-10-28T19:17:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKAA) has begun construction on a much-needed cathedral addition that will add a contemporary feel in "harmonious dialogue" with a 12th-century structure set on the edge of the historic Loire Valley in France.

The cathedral is host to several important polychromatic sculptures from the Middle Ages which will be protected by the new intervention.

With preservation in mind, KKAA’s design will transform the western portal of the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice in Angers into an improved entrance that presents the stone relics in an open gallery with sculptural archways and improved wayfinding from the outside into the bifurcated portal.

Viewed from the western entrance, the addition presents an astounding visual symmetry with the 900-year-old rebuilt Gothic cathedral. The grooved rectangular intervention is a few meters removed from the original structure, cast using stonework processes that...

BIG, Kengo Kuma, and Studio Gang tapped for Westbank's San Jose masterplan

2021-05-06T11:42:00-04:00

Vancouver-based developer Westbank has unveiled plans for a collection of mixed-use projects in downtown San Jose, California. The development will feature six new or renovated buildings by leading architects including Kengo Kuma and Associates, Bjarke Ingels Group, Studio Gang, James K.M. Cheng Architects, and WRNS Studio. The buildings within the Silicon Valley initiative will combine to deliver 700 new residences and 5 million square feet of workspace, in what Westbank sees as an effort to “inspire the next generation of innovators by creating a healthier, more beautiful community.”

While blending a variety of architectural forms, the six projects are linked by an effort to respond to the climate crisis, with each building targeting deep carbon reductions for both operational and embodied carbon. “What we are proposing is a collection of net zero life cycle carbon buildings adjacent to inspiring residential,” says Westbank. “We propose workspace that merges nature and office spac...

L.A.'s 1111 Sunset Boulevard development shows signs of life again

2021-03-15T18:46:00-04:00

After three years of quiet, a proposal to redevelop the former headquarters of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) with a trio of high-rise buildings has taken a key step forward: the release of the project's draft environmental impact report.

The project previously on Archinect: Kengo Kuma to design boutique hotel for downtown L.A.'s 1111 Sunset Boulevard development. Rendering: Kilograph, courtesy of SOM/Palisades.

Kengo Kuma unveils design for Ibsen Library in Skien, Norway

2020-10-28T19:09:00-04:00

The Ibsen Library, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates in collaboration with Mad Arkitekter and BuroHappold, was commissioned in celebration of the renowned playwright Henrik Ibsen, who was born in Skien, Norway, the location of the new library.

Selected as the winning entry of a design competition, the Ibsen Library introduces a new cultural hub to the city of Skien that houses a robust program to engage the surrounding community.

The footprint of the library covers the entire site boundary, giving it a generous floor area at the ground and underground levels. Both levels have open plans with no fixes walls and low bookshelves that act as soft dividers. The ground floor is seamlessly connected to the park on the outside, encouraging a connectedness between the indoor and outdoor environments.

The underground level offers adult and children-focused program with an outdoor amphitheater the raises up toward the exter...

Kengo Kuma-designed Ace Hotel Kyoto will open this spring

2020-01-28T14:14:00-05:00

Ace Hotel Kyoto is getting ready to welcome its first guests, and just in time for the high-travel season for the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. The boutique hotel chain collaborated with Kengo Kuma and Commune Design for the 213-room hotel, which is part new-build and part historic structure that formerly housed the Kyoto Central Telephone Company, which was originally designed by iconic modern architect Tetsuro Yoshida in the 1920s. First announced in 2018, Ace Hotel Kyoto marks the company's first location in Asia.

Guest room seating area. Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson.

Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson.

Inspired by the ancient capital's abundance of nature, art, attention to craft, and profound history, the hotel will feature a lobby, multiple garden courtyards, a gallery, event spaces, collaborations with local artists, a cafe, and three standalone restaurants. Kengo Kuma updated the historic building with a wooden grid system and louvers and meshes that gently filter in natural light ...

Kengo Kuma-designed Odunpazarı Modern Museum opens in Turkey

2019-09-09T19:59:00-04:00

The Odunpazarı Modern Museum, designed with a synthesis of traditional Ottoman and Japanese architecture, opened on Sept. 7. [...] The museum, founded by construction firm Polimeks chairman and collector Erol Tabanca, was designed by the famous Japanese architectural firm Kengo Kuma and Associates.

First mentioned on Archinect in March, the new private art museum by Turkish construction magnate and collector Erol Tabanca has now officially opened inside a delicate stacked-timber ensemble designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates.

Photo: NAARO

"The architectural design of the building also draws attention as it consists of a group of square-shaped blocks that are surrounded by laminated-timber beams stacked on top of each other," reports Hürriyet Daily News. "The Japanese designer took the historical characteristics of the UNESCO-listed Odunpazarı."

Photo: NAARO

In an interview with the project architects Kengo Kuma and Yuki Ikeguchi which the museum published on its website, Kuma said: "For the OMM building, I wanted to create a sense of intimacy by using small-scale units—to achieve a sense of warmth. Throughout the building, the geometry is not perpendicular. I think the fact that such a geometrical building can also be as organic will surprise people."

Kengo Kuma's Seattle tower dabbles in façadism

2019-07-24T15:11:00-04:00

A quasi-Gothic, Kengo Kuma and Associates-designed 40-story mixed-use skyscraper could be headed to downtown Seattle's Belltown neighborhood.

The project, developed in collaboration with architects Ankrom Moisan, landscape architects Berger Partnership, and developer Pacific Virginia, will not only preserve the facade of the historic Bebb & Gould's Terminal Sales Annex building from 1915, but will also work to use the tower's massing, exterior treatments, and vertically-oriented "regulating lines" to "reinforce the strong Gothic and art deco heritage of Seattle’s downtown."

Massing diagram showing how the new building's geometries relate to the historic building. Images courtesy of City of Seattle, Kengo Kuma & Associates/Ankrom Moisan

A design review submittal to the City of Seattle runs through a variety of options for how the tower's massing might shift to highlight and relate to the Annex. The proposals all share a common trait: The five-story Gothic Revival commercial structure...

Kengo Kuma: 'My dream is to start my own school'

2019-06-19T18:52:00-04:00

INT: Do you think sustainability in architecture is less of an issue in Japan? KK: Historically, traditional Japanese architecture uses very sustainable designs that incorporate features such as natural ventilation instead of air conditioning, and things like that. But in the 20th century, as Western culture came to Japan, we forgot these kinds of designs. That’s what I’m trying to go back to.

"My dream is to start my own school and pass my lessons on to younger generations in the same way that Frank Lloyd Wright did with his School of Architecture at Taliesin [in Wisconsin]," Kengo Kuma told It's Nice That when asked about his future aspirations. "He has inspired me in many ways, but I think this has been his biggest influence on me. It will be an international school in Tokyo, where students will be taught the art of building in harmony with nature."

The Kengo Kuma-designed V&A Dundee in Scotland opened in 2018. Photo: Beth/Flickr

Kengo Kuma-designed art museum to open in Turkey this year

2019-03-15T14:11:00-04:00

The Odunpazari Modern Museum (OMM), a major new institution designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, will open in the vibrant but ancient university city of Eskişehir in Turkey in June, The Art Newspaper has learned. With stylistic echoes of Kuma’s V&A Dundee, the museum’s stacked timber design reflects surrounding wooden houses from the Ottoman era, and is named after its historic “wood market” district—Odunpazari.

Image courtesy of Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM).

"The museum will house and show Turkish and international Modern and contemporary works from the 1,000 piece collection of Erol Tabanca, the architect and partner in Polimeks Holding, a leading Turkish construction firm," writes The Art Newspaper.

First photos of Kengo Kuma-designed Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo

2019-02-28T14:36:00-05:00

After announcing the launch of its Reserve Roastery in Tokyo back in 2016, Starbucks has now given a look inside the Kengo Kuma-designed space. The store is Starbucks’ fifth Reserve Roastery, and the second time that the concept has opened outside of North America, following the Milan location launched last year.

The four-story coffee temple in Tokyo's Nakameguro neighborhood opened to the caffeine-deprived morning crowds at 7 a.m. today.

"The Tokyo Roastery is the only Starbucks Roastery location designed in collaboration with a local architect from the ground up," explains the project description.

Image: Starbucks

"The exterior was brought to life in collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Envisioned by Liz Muller, Starbucks chief design officer and lead designer for all five Roasteries globally, the Roastery highlights the work of local craftsmen and women to create an enchanting destination for coffee exploration and discovery."

Image: Starbucks

"Upon entering the Roastery, customers are greeted by the world’s largest Starbucks Roastery coffee cask, four stories and more than 55 feet of blush-tinted copper adorned with hand-crafted copper cherry blossoms, which changes hues throughout the day in different lights. The expansive cask was built using the technique of tsuchi...

Kengo Kuma recycles 29 shipping containers for this new Starbucks store

2018-10-04T15:59:00-04:00

The Hualien Bay Mall Starbucks consists of 29 shipping containers and has a total floorspace of 320 sq m (3,444 sq ft), spread over two floors. The containers have been reinforced, modified for glazing, and are painted white. The building's interior, which wasn't designed by Kuma, includes a brightly-colored wall mural representing Taiwan's aboriginal Amis people and offers views of a nearby mountain range.

Kuma has worked with the global coffee giant before, having designed the, now iconic, store in Fukuoka, Japan, and will also be the exterior architect of the upcoming Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo.

Photo: Starbucks

Just last month, Starbucks announced its plans to design, build, and operate thousands of eco-friendly stores globally by 2025, and the company sees recycled-shipping-container stores as part of this strategy (there are already several other Starbucks stores built from containers, 45 of them in the U.S.).

Here some photos of the interior design, which Kuma however was not in charge of.

Photo: Starbucks

Kengo Kuma's V&A Dundee Museum opens; interiors revealed!

2018-09-13T14:04:00-04:00

The V&A Dundee Museum opens its doors tomorrow with the 3D Festival, a free two-day event on September 14 and 15. The grand opening will include performances, dance, design, and lighting collaborations.

The museum was designed by Kengo Kuma and is his first building in the UK. Along with the forthcoming opening, the museum has unveiled the interior architecture revealing a light filled wooden design.

As Scotland's first design museum, the space features 300 exhibits drawn from the V&A’s collections of Scottish design, as well as from museums and private collections across Scotland and the world.

Free tickets to the 3D Festival on ...

Winning airport design accused of plagiarizing Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum

2018-08-27T14:09:00-04:00

Duangrit Bunnag, the renowned local architect who won the bid to design Suvarnabhumi airport's second terminal, has denied plagiarising the work of a Japanese architect. "I didn't copy anyone else's work. Those who follow my work will know that I created a similar image in my previous designs, such as for a hotel in Sri Lanka," Mr Duangrit told The Standard, a local online news portal.

Duangrit Bunnag's firm DBALP Consortium, along with Nikken Sekkei, EMS Consultants, MHPM, MSE and ARJ Consortium, were recently announced as winners of the Suvarnabhumi Airport Terminal 2 Project design contest. Focused on expanding the Thailand airport, the competition design sparked online accusations of plagiarizing Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum in southern Japan.

DBALP Consortium's winning airport design:

Suvarnabhumi Terminal 2 competition entry by DBALP Consortium. Image: DBALP Consortium.

Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum:

Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum, located in southern Japan. Image: Takumi Ota.

New drone video shows off Kengo Kuma's soon to open V&A Dundee Museum

2018-08-23T17:03:00-04:00

The V&A Dundee Museum designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma is a massively dramatic stone-and-glass building. Located in the Scottish coastal city of Dundee, it will be the first institution outside of London to associate with the famous "Victoria & Albert" name and is the architect's first foray into the UK.

Drawing inspiration from the country's famously photogenic cliffs, the new museum is a modern design with a jagged exterior that has drawn comparisons to a Star Wars spacecraft. Positioned between the water and the city, the new museum is at the center of an almost $1.3 billion transformation of the city's waterfront intended to give fresh weight to the idea of Dundee as a destination.

Photo by Hufton+Crow.

Set to open next month, the V&A Dundee Museum will focus primarily on fashion, architecture, design and photography. Its inaugural exhibition, Ocean Liners: Speed & Style, will explore the design and cultural impact of ocean liners on an international scale.

The museum...

Ace Hotel will open its first Japanese location with a Kengo Kuma design

2018-04-09T14:13:00-04:00

The boutique hospitality chain, Ace Hotel has announced it will open its first-ever Japanese outpost next year with a Kengo Kuma designed building in Kyoto. According to the company's president, Brad Wilson, "it’s been [a] long-standing dream to put down roots in Japan." "We feel incredibly humbled and grateful to...make our dreams a reality, creating a space that honors the beauty and history of Kyoto while fostering global connection and cultural innovation" he said.

Known for taking over cool spaces, the hipster hotel chain will be moving into Tetsuro Yoshida’s 1920 Kyoto Central Telephone Officebuilding. Kuma, who is also responsible for Tokyo’s impending Olympic Stadium, will give the building a modern update with a wooden grid system and fine louvers and meshes that gently filter light and wind. The scheme will also feature various gardens which have existed since the Heian period.

According to the hotel, the surrounding neighborhood sits on the former grounds of the imperial ...

Kengo Kuma wants to change the definition of architecture

2018-02-15T17:31:00-05:00

Rejecting flashy forms in favor of buildings in harmony with their environment, the architect — poised to become world famous for his stadium for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo — is trying to reinvent his entire trade. [...] Kuma, a constant source of paradoxes and ironies, often makes demagogic statements on behalf of his own brand of architectural modesty. “I want to change the definition of architecture,” he told me; in a way, he already has.

Nikil Saval pens a beautiful profile of Kengo Kuma for T Magazine and investigates the architect's ongoing quest to ground his version of Modernism in authentic Japanese craftsmanship.

PLANE—SITE visits Kengo Kuma's Tokyo offices in new Time-Space-Existence video

2017-12-12T13:44:00-05:00

Kengo Kuma is one of Japan’s most significant living architects, thanks to his sophisticated integrations of traditional architecture with up-to-the-minute technologies. Unusually sensitive to materiality and technique, Kuma’s designs are irresistibly tactile, often resembling hand-woven fabrics or an ornate beehive. As part of our partnership with PLANE—SITE (a Berlin-based creative agency working at the interface of urban form, cultural space and social life), we are sharing another video from their Time-Space-Existence series featuring the prominent Japanese architect discussing his work.

In this new short video, PLANE—SITE travels to the Tokyo offices of Kengo Kuma & Associates to discuss the topics of time, space, and existence as they relate to his work. Widely regarded as one of Japan’s most eminent architects, Kuma's most significant buildings include Stone Museum in Nasu, which repurposed stone from old rice stores, the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum and...

Kengo Kuma designs an "eco-luxury hotel" for Paris-Rive Gauche

2017-06-30T12:50:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma & Associates have been commissioned to design an "eco-luxury hotel" building perched above the railways of the Paris-Rive Gauche district. Part of a larger development, the building is meant to serve as a landmark for the neighborhood.

Credit: Luxigon / Mir

“In the context of repetitive volumes along the avenue, our design strategy was to create a sculptural shape as formed by natural erosion that will let the sky come down to the street. The work on the volume is defined by the modularity of the wooden structure,” write the architects. “As particles, dispersed facade panels together with the volumetric decomposition come to blur the shape of the building. The warm materiality of the wood is combined with the soften reflection and aerial touch of the metal panels. The building will come alive with the light.”

Credit: Luxigon / Mir

In total, the building has a floor area of 12,700 square meters. It will include a sport facility, business center, youth ...