Kengo Kuma, legame stretto con l’Italia

Una mostra alla recente Biennale d'Architettura di Venezia. Il progetto di uffici green a Milano. Il celebre architetto giapponese sempre più impegnato nel nostro Paese.
The Way Magazine, December 13, 2023

An ever-closer bond with Italy and a series of cutting-edge projects in the name of a new architectural spirit. Kengo Kuma, the renowned architect from Yokohama, Japan, unveiled in 2023 Welcome, feeling at work (renderings by Kengo Kuma and Associates): the development in eastern Milan, on the edge of Parco Lambro, will transform Via Cazzaniga into a tree-lined promenade linking the Crescenzago metro station to Parco Lambro through a new public square. “Welcome” is conceived as an open and accessible place for all: everyone is invited to stroll beneath its large porticoes, through courtyards and galleries, on their way to the square and the park, thanks to car traffic being separated from public areas. The complex will include co-working spaces, offices, meeting areas, shops, restaurants, and a supermarket.

As biophilic architecture teaches—architecture that cares for life—this project looks after both people and nature, promoting an environment that respects the planet and where people can live and work.

 

 

Inspired by the words of Kengo Kuma, ACP Art Capital Partners – Palazzo Franchetti, in collaboration with the international studio Kengo Kuma and Associates, presented in Venice an original retrospective centered on a distinctive theme of the innovative contemporary Japanese architect and his projects around the world. Taking onomatopoeia—the act of creating or using words that phonetically imitate the sound associated with what they describe—as its starting point, Kengo Kuma gives shape to a physical sensation that expresses his idea of sustainable architecture, where materials are reclaimed and people and physical elements are reconnected. Drawing on Japanese traditions and his preferred materials—wood, paper, and metal—he applies them in his own unique and contemporary way. In his vision, surfaces interact not only with sight, but also with the senses of smell and touch. The exhibition featured models of some of his most significant buildings, inviting visitors to discover the resonance behind different materials.

In the exhibition at Palazzo Franchetti, organized on the occasion of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition 2023, the architect sought to demonstrate “how I create a dialogue with materials. In this dialogue I rarely use a language influenced by logic. And when I do, it is impossible to make myself understood. That is why I always use onomatopoeia. Material and body converse with one another and resonate when this primordial language is used.”

The intervention was conceived specifically for the site. The historic Palazzo Franchetti, home to ACP (Art Capital Partners), itself built on wooden piles, provides the perfect setting to appreciate Kengo Kuma’s vision of architecture and sustainability.

Kengo Kuma’s attitude toward materials is a key element of his originality. Born in Yokohama in 1954, the Japanese architect regards the world itself as material and studies the site of his projects in depth before producing even a single sketch, genuinely seeking to understand places and to create architecture that is both open to its surroundings and rooted in the site and its history. Notably, he believes that materials are inseparably connected to place. “Through materials we can come to know a place and approach its specificity. By becoming friends with materials, I have been able to learn the most important things,” he explains.