Kengo Kuma: The Latest Architecture and News

The Butrint Management Foundation (BMF) has revealed the four teams that will design the new visitor center for Butrint National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Albania’s Ionian coastline. Kengo Kuma & Associates, Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects, Philippe PROST / AAPP, and William Matthews Associates were selected to create concept designs for the 1,000m² visitor hub at the country’s most iconic cultural destination, home to artifacts and structures dating from the Iron Age up until the Middle Ages. The proposals will be judged in 2023, and the new visitor center is due to completion in 2025.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is celebrating its 25th anniversary this October 2022. Set on the edge of the Nervión River in the Basque Country, Spain, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim boosted the city's economy with its astounding success and changed the museum's role in city development. Twenty-five years on, the Bilbao Effect continues to challenge assumptions about urban transformations and inspires the construction of iconic pieces of architecture that uplift cities' status, calling investors and visitors.

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The International Award for the Commission of Architecture “Dedalo Minosse” promoted the Italian association for professional Architects returns after three years on hold, to tribute worldwide architects. Firms like ODDO architects, Ryuichi Ashizawa, and The Kresge Foundation - Detroit are some of the winners for their promotion and contribution to the discipline. The Anniversary is also de 12th edition of the Dedalo Prize, which will be held From September 16 to October 2, 2022, in Vicenza, Italy. The event will host forums and workshops about and around the city, opening with the spectacular award ceremony at the iconic Teatro Olimpico, and continuing with a Multimedia exhibition at the Basilica Palladiana.

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It is expected that by 2050, the rapid depletion of raw materials will leave the world without enough sand and steel to build concrete. On the other hand, the cost of building continues to soar, with an increase between 5% and 11% from last year. And with respect to its impact on the environment, the construction industry still accounts for 23% of air pollution, 50% of the climatic change, 40% of drinking water pollution, and 50% of landfill wastes. Evidently, the construction industry, the environment, and the human race are facing several challenges that are influenced by one another, but it is the human being who is at the greatest disadvantage.

As a response to global challenges such as climate change, discrimination, and physical vulnerability, designers and engineers from across the world have developed innovative construction materials that put the human wellbeing first in urban, architecture, and interior projects.  

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Japan-based architectural office Kengo Kuma and Associates has unveiled the design for what will become the studio’s first residential tower in the United States. Located on the oceanfront of Miami Beach, the 18-story structure will accommodate private condominiums for hospitality brand Aman. The project is adjacent to the Versailles building, a 1940s Art Deco hotel currently under restoration by architect Jean-Michel Gathy. The Art Deco architecture of Miami’s Faena district has a unique rhythm, which, according to the architect, was translated into the geometry of the new building through its vertical and horizontal lines.

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The Open International Competition for the Development of an Architectural Concept for the Galiasgar Kamal Tatarian State Academic Theatre has announced its results. The consortium including Kengo Kuma & Associates was granted the first place, while the second place went to a proposal led by Asif Kahn Studio and the third place to Coop Himmelb(l)au and his team.

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As part of the Architectural Competition For European Film Center CAMERIMAGE Building, Kengo Kuma & Associates and Ingarden & Ewý Architects proposed a new iconic landmark that celebrates film and architecture as "universal forms of expression", in the center of Toruń, Poland. The design, which ranked in second place, illustrates metaphorical falling curtains through the dynamic movement of the structure's organic forms, and offers artists, visitors, and locals a unique space infused with musical and visual experiences.

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The Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow, Poland, is holding an exhibition titled “Kengo Kuma, Experimenting with Materials”, which features a selection of Kengo Kuma & Associates projects, mock-ups, and installations shipped from the firm's office in Tokyo, along with a large "cloud-like" wooden pavilion designed by the architecture office and the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts of the Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University. The exhibition is open to visitors until May 2022.

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Muz Yer, a permanent public exhibition in Rennes, France, has invited 8 internationally-renowned architects to design birdhouses that highlight the relationship between contemporary architecture and nature. Each birdhouse serves as a response to one or more of the 13 bird species designated by the Birds Protection Committee (Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux - LPO), and raises awareness of the architectural heritage of Rennes and its urban ecology. The list of exhibitors includes Julien De Smedt Architects, ADEPT, a/LTA, Duncan Lewis, Marion Normand, Kengo Kuma & Associates, Tham & Videgard, and Dominique Perrault Architects & Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost Design.

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Back in 2019, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma won the contest to design the expansion of the gardens of the Gulbenkian Foundation and the new entrance of the Modern Collection of the Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. According to the architect, the museum can be a "wise example of the future as coexistence with the Earth and us", taking inspiration from nature and its relationship with architecture. In a recent No País dos Arquitectos podcast, Sara Nunes interviews Kengo Kuma and Rita Topa, architect at Kengo Kuma Associates, to talk about the expansion of the gardens and museum, along with the mission of architecture and the role of the architect, processes, and work references developed for the project.

The winning proposal for redesigning Thessaloniki’s ConfEx fairground features a series of pavilions with large overhanging roofs that float within a park, creating the infrastructure for international events while providing locals with a robust public space. Designed by Sauerbruch Hutton, together with Gustafson Porter + Bowman as landscape architects and Elena Stavropoulou, the project builds on the existing network of landmarks creating a new hybrid landscape that caters to the Northern Greek city’s goal of becoming the region’s primary business and tourist attraction.

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Kengo Kuma was asked to preserve the western portal of the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice in Angers, France, to protect 12th and 17th century polychromatic sculptures displayed within the historic structure. The proposed design creates a "harmonious dialogue" with a subtle contemporary arched intervention that preserves its medieval architectural heritage and pays tribute to the original builders' regulatory framework and unified proportions. Construction of the new arched portals have begun and are expected to be complete in 2024.