#51 November 16, 2022
I had a chance to visit the shop of Christian Dior, and was shown the flagship Dior store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris. The thing that impressed me the most about the store is the fact that Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, has incorporated an archive of the work by Christian Dior (1905-1957). Christian Dior was only active for 11 years between 1947 and 1957, but this archive provides a real glance at his design process for an unbelievably large number of designs that he left behind. He always checked the flow of the shape and cloth using pure white fabric, and then applied this to the actual fabric that would be used after deciding on the form. This method which evokes the 3D modeling used for architecture was very interesting.
The atelier and desk that he used have been replicated at this flagship store, and seeing the archive enabled me to understand its importance, and I feel that Dior and Bernard Arnault taught me the significance of the archive that KKAA has been working on for a number of years.
Dior lives on at number 30 on Avenue Montaigne where this archive is located. Designers do their designs while feeling his presence, and customers are attracted to the “living” designs. I really want the KKAA archive to live on like this. I have been given the courage to make this a reality.
ProjectsIshigaki City Hall
Ishigaki City Hall, which was in a tsunami inundation zone, was relocated to a higher ground. The aim was to revive the Ishigaki landscape: layers of traditional red-tile stucco roofs surrounded by lush greenery. The planning was inspired by the settlement pattern of Ishigaki, where villages formed … Read MoreProjectsWooden Haze
N*THING IS POSSIBLE Exhibition at the National Design Centre of Singapore, curated by POTATO HEAD, OMA & FRIENDS, features the future of sustainable living. By processing waste wood into a cylindrical shape, three basic components were designed (length 1000mm, 600mm, 360mm). By combining them, an en … Read MoreProjectsBamboo Passage
Bamboo Passage is an installation designed as the approach space for KKAA's tour exhibition in China, "Architecture for the Five Senses." Using more than 10,000 pieces of 15mm wide and 3mm thick "flat bamboo" pieces, we created an installation like a tunnel piercing through a bamboo grove. It is mad … Read MoreProjectsBamboo Flow
Bamboo Flow is a tea house designed for KKAA's China tour exhibition "Architecture for the Five Senses." To create a dynamic contrast with the main circulation, we placed this tea house with tranquility to generate an even more "garden-like" exhibition space with both busy and quiet vibes. The tea r … Read MoreProjectsKKAA tour exhibition “Architecture for the Five Senses”
"Architecture for the Five Senses" — is a tour exhibition by KKAA in China. The first exhibition in Beijing was shown at the Guardian Art Center, and it is scheduled to travel to multiple cities in China, including Shanghai. Especially because we live in an era where visual information has become sa … Read MoreProjectsKAI Yufuin
Yufuin onsen, a well-known hot spring region with human-scale streets, was a farming village with rice paddies and pastures until the mid-Showa era. Here we designed a ryokan-style inn that features the terraced rice field landscape as the main character, allowing visitors to experience the original … Read MoreProjectsAlbert Kahn Museum
Art museum located on the south side of the Bois de Boulogne, a large public park on the western side of Paris. This museum was founded by Albert Kahn (1860-1940), a trading merchant who recorded scenes from his travels around the world in 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 meters of film. These … Read MoreProjectsHulic & New Ginza 8
Along Ginza Chuo-dori Avenue, we designed a wooden 12-story fire-resistant commercial building. Acetylated wood fins with varying lengths extend out of the façade at five different angles, appearing to float outside a glass curtain wall. The façade design takes cues from tree foliage, subtly capturi … Read More