Photographer: Mitsumasa Fujitsuka | ArchDaily

“Built Environment: An Alternative Guide to Japan” Exhibition in Montréal Examines Resilient Japanese Architecture

Antonia Piñeiro — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 06:30:00 +0000

The exhibition Built Environment: An Alternative Guide to Japan at the Université du Québec à Montréal's (UQAM) Centre de design will be on view until January 25, 2026. Curated by Shunsuke Kurakata, Satoshi Hachima, and Kenjiro Hosaka, it features a selection of 80 projects from Japan's 47 prefectures, including works by renowned Japanese architects such as 2014 Pritzker Prize laureate Shigeru Ban, Kengo Kuma, the designer of the Museum of Modern Art's renovation in New York Yoshio Taniguchi, celebrated landscape architect and sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and 2019 Pritzker Prize laureate Arata Isozaki. The selection aims to offer a renewed perspective on Japan through innovative buildings, civil engineering projects, and landscape designs. Organized in collaboration with the Japan Foundation and presented with the support of the Consulate General of Japan in Montreal, the exhibition is conceived as a traveling project exploring the resilience of Japanese architecture and infrastructure in the face of natural disasters and climate change.

“The Kind of Architecture I Try to Achieve Is a Rainbow:” In Conversation With Kengo Kuma

Vladimir Belogolovsky — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0000

In my 2008 interview with Kengo Kuma in Manhattan—the Tokyo-based architect was in town for a lecture at Cooper Union and to oversee the construction of a house renovation in nearby Connecticut— he summarized the intention of his work for me, "The closest image to the kind of architecture I try to achieve is a rainbow." The architect designs his buildings as a chef would prepare a salad or a florist arrange a bouquet of flowers—by carefully selecting ingredients according to their size, shape, and texture. He then tests whether they should touch, overlap, or keep a distance to let the airflow pass through. The process is closer to a trial-and-error scientific experiment rather than an artistic exercise in projecting visionary forms and images. Although his buildings surely look strikingly artistic and utterly breathtaking. They are both precise and loose, primitive and refined, material and transient. The architect's fascination with materiality is startling, and despite having completed many dozens of buildings all over the world over the course of his distinctive career, in our conversation last month over Zoom, Kuma told me, "I stand at the beginning of a long process of material exploration."

Spotlight: Kengo Kuma

Dario Goodwin — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 04:30:00 +0000

Kengo Kuma (born 8th August, 1956) is one of the most significant Japanese figures in contemporary architecture. His reinterpretation of traditional Japanese architectural elements for the 21st century has involved serious innovation in uses of natural materials, new ways of thinking about light and lightness and architecture that enhances rather than dominates. His buildings don't attempt to fade into the surroundings through simple gestures, as some current Japanese work does, but instead his architecture attempts to manipulate traditional elements into statement-making architecture that still draws links with the area its built in. These high-tech remixes of traditional elements and influences have proved popular across Japan and beyond, and his recent works have begun expanding out of Japan to China and the West.

Kengo Kuma Explains How His Architectural Style was Formed by Financial Crisis

Ella Thorns — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 09:30:00 +0000

Japan's renowned architect Kengo Kuma is the latest to feature in PLANE—SITE's video series Time-Space-Existence, exploring the inner workings of his Tokyo office and how the Japanese financial crisis of the early 1990s shaped his firm.

House IM / Miyahara Architect Office

Daniel Sánchez — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

“I don’t know what lies ahead, but for now I’d like to be surrounded by my beautiful collection.” The client had two specific requests: he wanted a house that had a gallery space and the flexibility that would enable him to accommodate diverse changes in daily life. Thus, we wanted to create a residence that could achieve these functions in a high grade manner but also at low cost.

Jian Wai SOHO / Riken Yamamoto

Hana Abdel — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:00:00 +0000

This project combining collective housing and commercial facilities is located in an office development district about two kilometers east of Tianamen Square, the center of Beijing.

Future University Hakodate / Riken Yamamoto

Hana Abdel — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 03:00:00 +0000

This is a university of information science with two departments: complex systems and media architecture. We proposed a space similar to an architectural office or a studio of a department of architecture at a university since we found the way that researchers work very similar to the way we design, in that students and researchers of the two departments are substantially working together.

Shimonoseki-shi Kawatana Onsen Koryu Center / Kengo Kuma & Associates

Victoria King — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I Kawatana is a historic hot springs town from the Edo period. In recent years, however, the town is losing its liveliness for many different causes combined - decline in the number of visitors, closure of some uninherited inns or weak public transport. Under this circumstance, we proposed a building like a cave that organically follows the ground it stands and the mountain range behind the town, rather than simply maintaining the history and tradition of the town.

HH House / Miyahara Architect Office

Nico Saieh — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This is a residence designed for a brother and sister. The area of the site measures approximately 70 m , and the total 2 floor space, 80 sqm.