KKAA Newsletter #13 (May 7, 2024) See in English 日本語で見る

#13 November 9, 2018


I’ve had some interviews and talks about V&A recently, and a comment I found quite interesting was that V&A is similar to Bunraku. Bunraku employs a method of making the puppeteers in black attire visible to the audience, rather than hiding behind a curtain, which is similar to V&A Dundee as it exposes the structure behind the precast concrete louvers.

Indeed, KKAA has long made it a point to show the “backstage” of buildings – namely, their structural elements. The approach can be called structural, or renovation-like. In this way our practice does not design a new isolated object. Rather, we design an entire environment; one that had been there all along and will continue into the future. KKAA’s principle is that all of our work should be approached as a “renovation” in one way or another. We add something fresh to the environment while rewinding it by painting gray in various parts in order to provide a loosely layered space.

Kengo Kuma © Onebeat Breakzenya

ProjectsTomioka City HallThe new Tomioka City Hall is scaled to the human experience, and well suited to both the city and the Tomioka Silk Screening Mill, a World Heritage Site which conveys the passion of the Japanese people from the Meiji era. Instead of locating the city hall in one large volume we distributed the rooms under a gathering of small roofs so that people can pass in between. Taking advantage of the location, the programs are arranged so that visitors can walk through the site as they travel between Tomioka Station and the Tomioka Silk Mill, thus the building like a public street. The sloped roofs have deep eaves, yielding a softness and dynamism to the streets below while also providing shelter from the sun and rains. Where the roofs meet each other, large clerestory windows allow for air movement and shading, taking a hint from the koshiyane, a type of roof-lantern which is common to silk production in the region. For the facade, we applied hybrid louvers, using wood on one surface and aluminum on the other. Walking through the meandering streets one perceives the rhythmic texture of the buildings. Read More
ProjectsObu / Agui PAWe designed a parking area (PA) for the highway connecting Chubu International Airport and Nagoya City. It runs along Chita Peninsula, known for its abundant nature, so visitors can enjoy the natural beauty of the area. A large wooden eave welcomes visitors inside and extends through the space, joining restaurants by famous chefs, shops displaying local products, as well as rest rooms for weary travelers. The furniture is composed of wooden planks with a motif of trees, so that the nature of the peninsula can be experienced from inside as well as outside. Read More
ProjectsCasa Wabi CoopWe thought of conceiving this coop in a way that could relate to collective housing projects. While the sheltered space within this pavilion would be used for the general activities of the coop; the structure itself, built-up by interlocking wooden boards together, would create individual cells within for each of its inhabitants for their resting. In addition, the permeable nature of this interlocking system makes this become a well aired and shaded house. With this interlocking system of 30mm boards we can create lattice-kind walls and roof that would be able to stand the main loads. For the horizontal loads, we tried to avoid the usual structural bracing by inserting rigid elements within each of the lattice cells. These rigid elements would locally limit the deformation of the lattice and therefore provide the overall bracing of the structure. It’s a pixelated kind of bracing.” Read More
NewsCompetition Won for the New Exhibition Park of Strasbourg, FranceKengo Kuma & Associates won the 1st prize for the international competition to design the new Exhibition Park of Strasbourg (France) in collaboration with OTE (engineering), Elioth (façade engineering), Egis Concept (Sustainability), Lucigny Talhouet & Associés (quantity surveyor), 8’18’’ (lighting design) and l’Autobus Imperial (Signage). The privileged position of the Exhibition Park in the North of the European Capital gives us the opportunity to create a new representative image for the city. The project named “Lisières” = “Edge of the forest” is composed by wooden vertical elements, both structural and filtering, which support the natural ventilated roof covering the Halls. This design gives the project a unique and sober identity that echoes its environment. © Kengo Kuma & Associates - Images by Lunance - Video by Lautreimage strasbourg.eu Read More
NewsKengo Kuma: a Lab for materials in ShanghaiKengo Kuma exhibit at PortMix Shanghai. September 04, 2018 - November 30, 2018 (close on Mondays) 10:00-18:00 Last admission 17:00 kumanomono shanghai ©Photography by Eiichi Kano Read More
NewsApple furniture for SunnyHills JapanApple furniture for SunnyHills Japan's brand new apple cake. sunnyhills.com Read More