8 Buildings Architects Dreamed of and Engineers Made Come True

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Architects are dreamers. Period. They just don’t take “no” for an answer when it comes to realizing their designs. However, this doesn’t always come easy, owing to the physical limitations in construction and obstacles in finance.

Engineers are the ones who realize those dream-projects. They are the ones who deal with laws of physics and money. So, naturally, when an architect and an engineer collaborate, they often come up with a masterpiece that remains carved in the memories of many generations. Stick around to see some of these fruitful collaborations:

1)    Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan

Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architect – Photography: Hélène Binet

Engineer: Werner Sobek, AKT and Tuncel Engineers

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects

The undulating appearance of the center makes it one of the most remarkable works of Zaha Hadid Architects. The steel framework contributed to the structural strength of the building which accompanied its outstanding curvaceous design.

2)    Canton Tower, Guangzhou, China

Courtesy of Information Based Architecture

Engineer: Arup Associates

Architect: Information Based Architecture

Canton Tower ranks fifth on the list of the world’s tallest free-standing structures and is an iconic landmark in the Chinese city, Guangzhou. The 610-meter-high twisting structure is dubbed the “supermodel” by the people of the city.

3)    The Interlace, Singapore

Courtesy of OMA Architects – Photography: Iwan Baan

Engineer: Arup Associates and RSP Architects Planners Engineers

Architect: OMA

The residential building is composed of gigantic multiple-floor volumes which appear to be randomly distributed. This arrangement doesn’t only provide vast areas for outdoor activities but is also ideal for Singapore’s tropical weather.

4)    Busan Cinema Center, Busan, South Korea

Courtesy of Coop Himmelblau Architects

Engineer: Bollinger + Grohmann

Architect: Coop Himmelb(l)au

The flying roof of the cinema center makes it one of the biggest cantilevered buildings in the world. The center, that hosts several cultural activities, was realized by engineers from Bollinger + Grohmann, in addition to architects from Coop Himmelb(l)au.

5)    Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Courtesy of Adrian Smith Gordon Gill Architecture

Engineer: Langan International and Thornton Tomasetti

Architect: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Saudi Arabia’s ambition to top Emirates hasn’t just stopped at the economic arena. It has also extended to include a contest of skyscrapers. Built to exceed the height of Burj Khalifa, Jeddah tower is set to be the tallest building in the world and is expected to open in 2020.

6)    Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, United States

Courtesy of HOK Architect

 Engineer: BuroHappold

Architect: HOK

The retractable roof of the stadium is composed of eight gigantic segments of ETFE, mimicking the wings of falcons. They are left open in fine weather so that people can enjoy the breeze and the views.

7)    Sky Pool at the Embassy Gardens, London, United Kingdom

Courtesy of HAL Architects

Engineer: Arup Associates and Eckersley O’Callaghan

Architect: HAL Architects

The architects and the engineers of the project teamed up with Reynolds for aquarium design to create a one-of-a-kind pool. The 90-feet-long pool is designed to be hanging in the air between two towers and is completely transparent like a fish tank.

8)    Queen Alia International Airport, Amman, Jordan

Courtesy of Foster + Partners – Photography: Nigel Young

Engineer: BuroHappold

Architect: Foster + Partners and Maisam Architects and Engineers

The concrete canopies at the new terminal of the Jordanian airport resemble palm trees which the country is famous for. They feature shallow concrete domes that act like palm leaves, as they shade the facade while letting daylight pass through. That was all possible thanks to the structural strength of the heavyweight-concrete building.

 

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How Architecture School Strengthens You as an Individual

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Your life at architecture school would be totally different from other university students. This is because architecture is not just your education, it becomes your way of life! So, make sure you really want to do it before you commit to it.

All things considered, the architecture school experience is highly rewarding. Besides learning countless valuable skills, you learn to become the strong individual you never were. Basically, if you’ve been through architecture school, you can encounter anything!

So, let us now demonstrate how you come out of architecture school not just ready to build but ready to face life.

Architecture School Teaches You Real-time Commitment

People have a tough time making commitments. Due to this, businesses fall apart, hearts break, and sometimes global wars occur! In the middle of all this chaos, if you can be an individual of solid commitment, you can be an inspiration for great reforms.

Thanks to Architecture school, you can develop this amazing trait! Once you’re in it, you must eat, drink, and breathe architecture, and dream about it as well. I mean, talk about some real hardcore commitment!

You Get Your Act Together!

Youngsters cannot help but get indulged in all sorts of redundancies. YouTube any video about creativity or learning and compare its views to a video of a singing cat, you’ll know what I mean.

An Architecture student is different, though. You learn to get your act together no matter what. The school work covers your to-do list from top to bottom. It further pushes you to get rid of all useless things and only pay attention to matters that concern you. This quality makes you a wiser individual in the long run.

Courtesy of Mercedesa Wing

You Get Stuff Done in No Time!

If there’s one thing you do not find at Architecture school, that’s time! All your dreams of producing high-quality renders are shattered with one blow of a reality check: there is no time! You see your peers doing awesome and this increases your frustration.

Thereupon, you start your becoming-a-robot journey. Sooner or later, your body gets adapted to working like a machine and you literally get stuff done in no time. People think it’s unbelievable what you do.

Courtesy of Bartlett

You Become a Multitasker!

Not only can you do stuff in no time, but you can pull-off multiple tasks all at once. You have the burden of finishing studio work, AND your history class assignment, AND all the writing assignments for your electives in a limited time. This becomes your daily life and you grow into an all-star multitasker.

Courtesy of Paul Bradbury

You Sacrifice for What You Love!

People usually like to take benefits from the person or the thing they love, but only a few chosen individuals would like to give anything up for their beloved.

Guess what? Architecture school teaches you to sacrifice for what you love! How beautiful. The moment you enroll in it, you better start loving it more than your sleep, food, and social life. That’s because you need to sacrifice these luxuries for its sake!

Courtesy of 9gag

You Stand-up for Yourself!

For you to have a commanding personality, you must learn how to stand up for what you believe in. Don’t worry, the school has got you covered. The jury will always get it all wrong, compelling you to stand up for your ideas and to defend your work.

Courtesy of Shannon Chance

You Master Patience!

Nothing in life could be worse than submitting 3 models, 5 renders and 10 architectural drawings in a day and a half only to face rejection. The jury insults your work more than constructively commenting on it. Such reoccurring events eventually make you rock solid.

Not to mention the gazillion hours you spend at the model shop to wait for your turn to use the laser machine. The ultimate test of patience comes when it’s finally your turn, BUT the guy tells you to go home because you are not wearing the right shoes. You feel like bursting into tears at his face, but you hold back. Overall, the amount of patience and calmness architecture school instills in you is beyond compare.

Courtesy of Fotolia

You Move-on!

At school, there is the success, but there’s the inevitable failure as well. There is no scope for remaining hung up on the work you spent centuries to produce. Thus, you would have to move forward to catch up. Later in life, you will thank your school for making you someone who can easily move on.

Courtesy of Gratisography / Ryan-McGuire

You Become Unrealistically Optimistic!

There is no other option. You are almost forced to imagine the best possible outcomes for the all the tragedies that happen at architecture school.

You’ve got a submission in 5 minutes, but you cannot make it in less than 2 days. Therefore, you assume that the professor will accept late submission without any problem. Likewise, your posters are not printed and the jury is in a minute. You try your best to think that the plotter will print 10 A0 sheets within this minute. Of course, this is a fairytale, but it will keep you calm.

Courtesy of Jurusan arsitektur

Believe me, with unrealistic optimism, you can accomplish things way beyond your league.

You Forgive Yourself!

Many people fail in life for being unable to forgive themselves for the mistakes they committed. You, on the other hand, are accustomed to making blunders in the spirit of doing things quickly. The fact of the matter is, you will make mistakes in design and in life. The school prepares you to figure these mistakes out quickly and to forgive yourself for making them in order to move forward.

Courtesy of Frank Kunert

You Apologize!

You fall short on your duties in both your studio and life. A real strong person is one who acknowledges his/her fault and apologizes for it. You cannot let ego get in the way when your professor catches your short-cut cheats. Rather, you sincerely apologize and promise to work harder and with integrity.

Courtesy of Justin Sullivan

You Gain Knowledge & Confidence!

Throughout your coursework, you are required to effectively communicate your design in front of large crowds. In your first few times, you might lag, but with more experience, you realize that you are the most knowledgeable one about your design. This helps you gain the ability to convey your ideas with confidence.

Perhaps the best experience you earn at the school of architecture is this knowledge and confidence. These two qualities make up people who change the world.

Courtesy of Bartlett

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Elon Musk Is Selling Flamethrowers for 500$

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Although Elon Musk has previously blown our minds with his rocket, Tesla cars, and tunnels, this time he is selling fire-breathing weapons. The business tycoon announced that his tunneling startup known as The Boring Company is selling flamethrowers and is officially accepting pre-orders.

Founded in 2016, The Boring Company is an infrastructure and tunnel construction company. Prior to Musk’s announcement, The Boring Company has been teasing the public with videos about the flamethrower and Musk has showcased the device on his Instagram account.

Courtesy of The Boring Company

Interestingly, the same company digging traffic-skipping tunnels is now offering its customers a weapon that breathes fire. Priced at 500$ each, these flamethrowers are said to be safe. The company even calls them “The world’s safest flamethrowers”, but just to be extra safe, you can also buy the branded fire extinguisher for 30 $.

Musk has already taken 7,000 pre-orders in a total of 20,000 flamethrowers less than a day after the products been put up for sale.

This means he’s close to making $4 million. Although the company will not start shipping the products before spring, they gave their buyers glimpse of the flamethrowers in action using this video which plays on the company’s official website. Additionally, Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO promotes the product on twitter and keeps his followers updated.

However, there is a catch. These flamethrowers are technically not considered guns. the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) says that any flamethrower that has a flame shorter than 10 foot is not officially considered a weapon.

To know more about Elon Musk’s crazy ambitions, check out Arch2O’s in-depth article titled “Elon Musk Sets a New Vision for Our Future Cities”.

Questions about what motivated the tunnel boring company to sell legal weapons remain a mystery. However, it seems like the flamethrowers form a good source for funding The Boring Company as it is still a startup.

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Deal Gone Wrong: Trump Gets a Golden Toilet instead of a Van Gogh

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When Donald Trump requests New York’s Guggenheim Museum to borrow a Van Gogh painting for the white house, he receives an unexpected response.

The first couple had asked the leading US museum if they could borrow Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Landscape in the snow’ artwork for the first lady’s private quarters. However, the Guggenheim decided to strike a different bargain. They were offered a fully functional 18-carat solid Gold toilet instead of the requested painting.

Requested Van Gogh Painting “Landscape with Snow” – Photo courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation/© Solomon
R. Guggenheim Foundation

According to the Washington Post, Trump received a strict yet polite reply via an email refusing to lend the 1888 Van Gogh artwork. ‘Many thanks for your request to the Guggenheim museum to borrow Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Landscape in the snow’ for the president and first lady’s private quarters in the white house,’ wrote museum curator Nancy Spector who has been critical of Trump.

She adds that the museum “would like to offer it [the Golden toilet]  to the White House for a long-term loan. It is, of course, extremely valuable and somewhat fragile, but we would provide all the instructions for its installation and care.”

On the other hand, there is more to this toilet than what meets the eye. Designed by contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan, this usable toilet is an art installation titled “America”. It was installed in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Museum in September 2016 where it was open to the public in a temporary exhibition.

Art critics believe that his golden toilet is a paradoxical object. ” The use of gold satirizes not just American values but references a long discourse about the vanity of wealth, the belief of rich people that everything they do is transmogrified by money,” says Philip Kennicott from the Washington Post.

Additionally, gold fixtures are not new to the US president or his wife Melania Trump. In fact, they might appreciate this toilet, given their previous history of gold properties which include gold-plated items in their residences and their airplane. However, they would have to live with the fact that this toilet was used by the public during the exhibition. Click here for a quick tour of the Trump residence!

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Nature Meets Workplace: A Peak into Amazon’s New Spheres

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‘Lose yourself in a little piece of nature’-Horticulturalist Ben Eiben

Ever imagined working in an office that is also a jungle with over 400 species of stunning plants? Scheduled to open to the public for the first time on January 30th, Amazon’s new spheres are making their appearance in Seattle, Washington.

Courtesy of NBBJ

Designed by NBBJ as part of Amazon’s vibrant urban campus, the project consists of three gigantic domes that form a biomorphic greenhouse spanning an area of 650,000 square feet. These gigantic glass bubbles were first approved in 2013 and are now opening their doors to the employees five years later.

Courtesy of NBBG

The Amazon spheres function as a very significant workspace with vibrant meeting rooms and conference areas for the lucky Amazon workers in Downtown Seattle. Additionally project acts as a new architectural landmark for the city that might even be more catchy than Seattle’s signature skyscraper, the Space Needle.

This lively jungle includes co-working spaces that indulge within tropical plants along secluded meeting nooks and benches that can take up a capacity of up to 800 people.

Courtesy of Kurt Schlosser

Courtesy of Kurt Schlosser

Made of glass and steel, the spheres come in different sizes, with the largest bubble spanning 130 feet in diameter and topping out at 95 feet tall.

According to the Seattle Times, Amazon envisions the building as a game changer for their coworkers, a place to “feel differently, to think differently,” said Ron Gagliardo, the Spheres’ lead horticulturist, who leads an in-house team of four others.

For full information on the project, check out here our previous article named Amazon’s Biodome Headquarters | NBBJ.

Inside these three spheres, there is a jungle consisting of 400 species of carefully selected plants from around the globe. The landscape design is tailored to make Amazon’s employees in direct contact with nature. In addition to the 60-foot-tall living wall that is seen from most of the offices, the gardens feature many exotic and uncommon plants.

Courtesy of NBBJ

 

‘Lose yourself in a little piece of nature’, says a Horticulturalist and plant geek Ben Eiben. He states that the living wall is one of a kind due to its large scale and technology.

The majority of the plants are native to from South America, central Aerica, Africa, Southeast Asia. An enormous 40-year-old Port Jackson fig tree acts a central internal landmark inside the garden that you can not miss.

Courtesy of The Seattle Times

“There’s an amazing teaching moment here, and we envision being able to open these Spheres to the public occasionally for field trips and for educational purposes with different schools and universities,” said John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president of global real estate and facilities.

Courtesy of NBBJ

“This is our office space, and we don’t invite the public into any of the towers. This is just an alternative working space for our employees.” says the vice president of the tech giant.

Courtesy of Kurt Schlosser

Related: Eden Project Bio Domes | Grimshaw Architects

 

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How Lighting Can Give Your Building a New Soul? 4 LED Lighting Applications

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Architectural Facades are what the eyes of the public see first, and when those eyes look, they need to see something good, for people tend to judge a book by its cover. Architects go to great lengths to design attractive and memorable facades that reflect the spirit and the function of the building. They mix and match various materials, introduce colors, play with shade and shadow, solid and void, and the list of valid options go on. One more approach that has been on the rise recently is introducing lighting elements to the façade, and most specifically: LED lighting

What is LED Lighting?

LEDs, or Light-Emitting Diodes, are tiny semiconductors that emit light when an electric current pass through them. The diodes are made of two thin layers of semi-conducting materials, such as gallium arsenide or gallium phosphide. Electrons move from one layer to another, resulting in the emission of light.

Why is LED Lighting so popular?

• LEDs do not heat up like other like lighting types; e.g. fluorescent and incandescent lights.
• They do not have filaments that burnout so they can last as long as 50,000 hours, whereas other lighting types only last for hundreds of hours.
• They are more efficient than other lighting types, since they convert almost 95% of the electricity into light, while other types convert only 5% to light.
• Moreover, they emit the light in a certain direction, and not in all directions like incandescent and fluorescent light. So, little goes to waste.
• LEDs are very tiny, and that makes them useful for a wide range of applications.
• They may be initially expensive because of their semiconductor material; however, their long lifespan makes them the more economic choice in long-term.
• Due to their efficiency and long life spans, LEDs save energy up to 80%, and that makes them, furthermore, a sustainable choice.
• Color-changing LEDs have multiple various applications in architecture, urban, and interior designs as well as electronics; e.g. LED backlighting for HDMI TV screens.

4 Architectural applications of LED Lighting

Here are 6 buildings whose designers mastered the game of light. They used LED lighting to its full potential in order to impress the passers-by with their eye-popping facades.

1. Chungha Building in Seoul – MVRDV

The Dutch firm revamped this 27-year-old building in the South Korean capital four years ago. They added an extra level and gave it this dynamic outlook, but that’s not all of it. The LED-framed storefronts, sealed with fritted glass, transform the building’s appearance at night.

Courtesy of MVRDV – Photography: Kyungsub Shin

Courtesy of MVRDV – Photography: Kyungsub Shin

2. National Aquatics Center in Beijing – PTW Architects

Known as the “Watercube”, this aquatic center was a primary attraction during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It is remarkable for its Weaire-Phelan structured envelope, composed of a steel frame and ETFE cushions. However, the structure becomes remarkably worthy of its name when the LED lights are in effect.

Courtesy of Jennifer Wen Ma + Zhen Jianwei – Image via littlemeat.net

Courtesy of Jennifer Wen Ma + Zhen Jianwei – Image via littlemeat.net

3. Greenpix Media Wall in Beijing – Simone Giostra & Partners

Not far away from the Watercube lies the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, China. The center’s front façade is covered by a massive LED screen, known as the media wall. The wall was installed on the occasion of the 2008 Olympics to display shows by worldwide artists. Photovoltaic cells, integrated into the façade’s curtain wall, operate this massive advertising screen.

Courtesy of Simone Giostra & Partners

4. Mood Ring House in Fayetteville – SILO AR + D

This house in North Carolina was designed with site and price limitations in mind. The architects used modest “off-the-shelf” materials like fiber-cement panels and polycarbonate, to keep down the costs. On the other hands, they made an effort in giving the building’s overall subtle look something catchy. They concealed LEDs within the house’s soffits to distinctly light the house at night with a range of colors and intensities which the inhabitants can control via smartphones.

Courtesy of SILO AR + D – Photography: Timothy Hursley

Courtesy of SILO AR + D – Photography: Timothy Hursley

 

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Best Mobile Architecture Apps for 2018

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Architects are spending more and more time on their devices each day. To our luck, there is a continuous rapid creation of mobile architecture apps built to help out architects wherever they are. In our fast-paced world, they occasionally need tools and gadgets that make them productive and efficient.

Accordingly, using these apps can actually help us work “smart” rather than work hard. Here are the must-have architecture apps for 2018.

If you are interested in knowing more architecture apps that can increase your productivity. Check our previous awesome articles on architecture apps.

See more:

Top Free Architecture Applications to Have in 2017

Apps and Architecture: How Updated are You?

10 Apps that every Architect must have in 2015

iRhino 3D (iOS)

Sick of carrying your bulky laptop wherever you go to work on your 3Ds?  The iRhino 3D app allows you to pan and zoom effortlessly. The interface is very easy to use.

The best part is that you can actually load Rhino models from other resources. These include websites, Google Drive, Dropbox, email attachments, or from iTunes.

Download from: https://www.rhino3d.com/ios

MagicPlan (iOS/Android)

This is one of the most practical architecture apps. It works like magic when you want to need to measure a room but you do not have a measuring tape. This app uses your camera to measure rooms, create floor plans, and suggest work estimates. Later on, you can easily export then make any edits. And the best part? it is absolutely free.

Download from: Google Play or iTunes

Construction Master Pro (iOS/Android/Windows)

Let’s face it, not all architects are good at math calculations. This is one of the architecture apps that assist you in any calculations like areas and volumes. Not to mention that it saves you from carrying a physical calculator.  Solve those tough calculations and decrease errors on site or in the office. It offers many possibilities from laying out stairs to figuring out how much drywall to use.

Download from: Construction Master Pro App

Morpholio Trace (iOS)

You know that moment when you are brainstorming and find yourself in desperate need of a tracing paper? Now you can do any editing you like anywhere you are. As you would do in actual tracing paper, you can sketch on top of images. However, unlike regular tracing paper, your layers of ideas will safe and sound, accumulated above each other. The free app is perfect for sharing ideas with your team.

Check out the app here to see how it works:

Download from: iTunes

Harvest (iOS/Android)

No one can deny that time management is a huge challenge for most architects. Although this app is not related to drafting or designing, it is the best when it comes to time tracking. Additionally, it helps with billing and budgeting with the option of syncing the files to other apps.

Download from: Harvest

Leafsnap (iOS)

Courtesy of Natural History Museum

This simple landscape architecture app that recognizes a plant just by looking at its leaf! This app is quick and handy whenever you notice an unknown plant that you are curious to know more about. Luckily, it does not just mention the species name. Leafsnap does not only give info about the details of fruits and flowers but also the bark. Consequently, you will know everything you want about any plant you randomly meet.

Download from: iTunes

Sun Seeker (iOS/Android)

Site analysis just got interesting! The Sun Seeker app features a virtual compass that helps architects identify the sun’s position, angle, and path during the day.

Accordingly, Sun Seeker uses an interactive 3D view. This enables you to immediately determine the amount of sunlight the building will receive.

Download from: Google Play and iTunes

AutoCAD 360 and Autodesk FormIt 360 (iOS/Android)

As architects, we sometimes get too attached to our drawings that we need them with us all the time. This Autodesk app is a lifesaver. It allows you to access your AutoCAD and Revit files wherever you are.

You can mark up files while you’re with a client and share with the team. Afterwards, you can easily update the work when you’re back at work. This is definitely one of the essential architecture apps that you must have.

Download from: Autodesk

Planimeter (iOS/Android)

Planimeter is a maps ruler tool that saves your time and energy. You can use this anywhere to measure area, distance, perimeter, bearing, and angles.

Additionally, it has a GPS tracking tool which helpful on site to measure coordinates. It serves many users such as landscape designers, urban planners, and construction engineers.

Download from: Planimeter 

Penultimate (iOS)

Although this architecture app is crazy simple, it is probably going to be the one you end up using the most. Basically, you can use it instead of your notebook and sketchbook.

It is a great way to organize your ideas. Like other apps, it can be synced with other apps. For example, you can sync it with Evernote account which enables you to view and share the files anytime, anywhere.

Download from: iTunes

 

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Unveiled Renderings: “The Grand” by Frank Gehry emerges in front of Disney Concert Hall

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The wait is finally over. After a lot of delays, the highly anticipated mixed-use complex by Frank Gehry is finally about to be constructed. Directly overlooking his Walt Disney Concert Hall, the construction work of “The Grand” is expected to start by late 2018 and will be finished by 2021.

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

Set in a strategic location, overlooking the Disney Concert Hall and LA’s Broad museum, Gehry cleverly uses one building to promote and highlight the other. This is predicted since both buildings are designed by the renowned architect. Accordingly, the Walt Disney Concert Hall is expected to be used as a screen for light projections beaming from the new development right across the street.

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

The scheme will include a mix of retail, hotel, dining, entertainment, and residential components anchored by a central public plaza above five levels of parking. The residential section is a 39-story tower containing a total of 436 units. As for the entertainment part, a movie theater complex and a 20-story, 314-room equinox hotel also form part of the plans.

According to the LA times, subsidized rents are going to be offered to low-income residents for 20% of the apartments.

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

Currently, the site exhibits an outdoor parking zone named “the Tinker Toy garage” which everyone in LA just hates to look at. Luckily, the Tinker Toy days are about to end.

The famed architect believes “The Grand” will stand out from other LA. mixed-use developments which he finds uninspiring. He also talks about the idea of experiencing bulky vs lighter buildings in architecture.  “You’ll see a lightness in the building,” Gehry tells the LA Times. “That’s in the way we are relating to Disney Hall. We are not building heavy stuff.”

Related: Construction of Long-Delayed Grand Avenue Development by Gehry Partners Begins in 2018

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

“You close that piece of Grand Avenue, put some chairs out there and you’ve got something special. We’re not just building buildings, we’re building places.” Gehry claims.

See More: Frank Gehry’s Collapsed Roof is Coming Back to Life

Gehry Partners Design New Sustainable Office Building Adjacent to Their Headquarter in Los Angeles

8 Buildings We Are Waiting for in 2018

 

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6 Unusual Facts About Kengo Kuma

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With a vision of reviving Japanese traditions and reinterpreting them for the 21st century, Kengo Kuma is not the celebrity type of architect. Some of his most popular and controversial works include the Asakusa culture and tourism center in Tokyo and the Nagasaki prefectural art museum.

“I want to find a balance expressing form and material. The form of the building should be as subtle as possible because then the material’s character can reveal itself. If the balance is there, it’s beautiful.” —Kengo Kuma

Here are 5 interesting facts about the life of the Japanese architect which shaped who he is today.

1. He considered Kenzo Tange his Godfather

Courtesy of Kengo Kuma

Kuma’s father, also an architect, loved modern architecture and took him to buildings by Kisho Kurokawa, Kunio Maekawa, and others. However, Kuma was particularly impressed by Kenzo Tange and saw something extra in his designs that didn’t exist in other modern designs. This was because Tange knew how to create Japanese symbols with the available technology.

Kuma was very impressed at how Tange combined Japanese tradition with contemporary vocabulary. He has even stated that Kenzo Tange and the buildings he designed are among the reasons why he became an architect in the first place. His deep influence by Tange is particularly obvious in his latest works.

2. He had a thing for wood

Kengo Kuma Climbable wooden beam structure. Photography is by Antoine Baralhe.

Kuma, among others, is one of the most successful architects working in Japan today. However, he is particularly well-known for his use of wood. He incorporated wood into multiple buildings. These include the Yusuhara wooden bridge museum, the Garden Terrace Nagasaki hotel in southwest Japan and the Yunfeng Spa Resort in China.

Courtesy of Kengo Kuma

He is even using wood to construct the stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where he won the competition. Additionally, he used the wood sourced from Japanese cities that are destroyed by the 2011 tsunami. In fact, Kuma believes concrete and steel were the materials of the previous century. He has declared that the key material for the 21st century will be wood again.

For more information about the wooden Olympic stadium, check out this interview with Kuma.

Courtesy of Kengo Kuma – Photography: fujinari miyazaki

3. He admits his mistakes

As mentioned before, Kuma is not your typically arrogant starchitect. His approach is different. In fact, he is not quite fond of his old experimental-style buildings, such the M2 building in Tokyo which showcases an eclectic mix of styles. The eccentric post-modern building received a wave of negative publicity and criticism.

Photo via @wakiiii Flickr

“My method is to avoid heroic gestures because you get to a point where the heroics kill the beauty of the material,” he openly states.

5. He is an advocate for Japanese traditions

After designing the “embarrassing” M2 building in Tokyo, Kuma studied at Columbia University in New York. He started to think in a different way. In fact, he realized that traditional Japanese wooden architecture is as great as Ancient Roman architecture. Accordingly, the result of his American experience was to go back to his Japanese roots.

He even designed an Eco-luxury hotel featuring wood and greenery in Paris, France.

Photography: Justin Krug

This is reflected in his more recent buildings. For instance, his design for Suteki house, in Portland, Oregon; is based on the principle of shakkei–translated as “borrowed scenery”. It involves using natural landscape elements to complement the architecture. Although Shakkei dates back to the 17th century, some architects adopted the principle later on in the 1960s to create continuity between indoor and outdoor spaces.

6. Kuma is Obsessed with Nature

“My buildings are always part of the place, part of the location. I want to merge buildings into the environment as best I can. Harmony is always the goal of my practice,” says Kuma.

“I think my architecture is some kind of frame of nature. With it (architecture) we can experience nature more deeply and more intimately. Transparency is a characteristic of Japanese architecture, I try to use light and natural materials to get a new kind of transparency.”

Kuma designs buildings that, above all, emphasize natural light and natural materials. He strongly believes that they bring physical and non-physical comfort to their inhabitants. Undeniably, his signature is fusing nature with architecture so that they integrate together in harmony.

Courtesy of Kengo Kuma – Photography: Takeshi YAMAGISHI

Kuma’s design approach is to improve and add up to the surroundings, rather than dominate them. This is particularly shown in the outstanding Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center in Tokyo.

However, even in a simple house in New Canaan forests in Connecticut, he is consistent in his approach. Even on a residential scale, he makes spaces that are integrated with nature. The design employs a discrete wood-and-glass house that is visually linked to the surrounding landscapes of forests.

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