KKAA Newsletter #17 (March 29, 2024) See in English 日本語で見る

#17 January 31, 2019


I spent the New Year at Luang Prabang in Laos. Situated at the confluence of the Mekong River, Luang Prabang is the former capital of Laos, and seat of the Lan Xang dynasty. It is a special place where the Mekong, appearing as ubiquitous deep brown surface, can be seen and felt anywhere in the city.

A great charm of this city is that many of its older narrow streets still remain. In my view, no matter how beautiful the green space is, a town cannot be perceived as attractive without walkable streets and alleys. Among Asian resorts, Chiang Mai and Hoi An share this feature, and I’ve found Luang Prabang quite comparable to the other two.

Another interesting aspect of the city is the culture of the sauna. I enjoyed an intense herbal sauna in a tattered shack-like bath.

It didn’t immediately occur to enjoy a sauna in a southern country, but it’s true that sauna has enhanced the unity of early communities, playing an important role also as a social and medical facility. From east Africa, humans migrated with the culture of sauna in hand, spreading the tradition to a global scale.

In Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, or Thailand the sauna has indeed existed since ancient times, In Thailand however, sauna culture disappeared 80 years ago with the influx of western culture, enduring only deep in the mountains of Laos.

I realized how influential mountains and valleys can be in preserving culture. In 2019, KKAA will keep our effort to protect and maintain the strength of the nature.

Kengo Kuma © Onebeat Breakzenya

ProjectsPortmix ShanghaiLocated adjacent to Shanghai airport, Portmix is a 43ha (430,000m2) business park. The box-shaped workspaces within the ‘amenity’ section of the site are loosely united by a ‘House,’ a multi-purpose space filled with warm and intimate atmosphere. We aimed for a welcoming and relaxing workroom supported by a landscape, common in Asia, of water and bamboo, rather than a typical business office. The exterior of the building is covered with an earthen wall, with stripes troweled at random widths. As a result, we were able to present a façade with a subtle and dynamic expression. Read More
ProjectsRenewal of Nihonbashi MitsukoshiMitsukoshi is the first and the oldest department store in Japan. We renewed their main store in Nihonbashi to a “white and shiny forest.” We placed a tree canopy on each pillar, which is made of aluminum panels set in different angles. The panels had been cut based on the data generated by a 3D program. The trees canopies are repeated to create a “forest” in the urban environment. An LED light is installed on each canopy so that we could get add an effect of komorebi (=light in a forest filtering through the tree leaves) in the space. The Mitsukoshi building, designed by Tamisuke Yokokawa, has been designated as Japan’s Important Cultural Property. With this project, the building regained its glamor and was reborn to enliven the downtown culture of Tokyo. Read More
ProjectsDelis YokohamaThe building is expected to be a new landmark in the east part of Yokohama station, the area drawing attention from the public as the base to promote Yokohama’s street culture. With 850 panels of aluminum grating that have different sizes and patterns and are combined as mosaic, we tried to translate the humane and unsorted atmosphere of this vibrant district alongside the canal into architectural vocabulary. Normally, multipurpose buildings in big cities are treated unfavourably. However, with the application of the industrial material as the particle, we succeeded in giving a fresh expression of “noise” to the building. Read More