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.