japanese interior design philosophy

that has never happened to mebefore, where i step somewhere, and suddenly theroom gets quiet. thank you. good evening and welcome. i'm both thrilled andhumbled by the opportunity to introduce our guest speakerthis evening, kengo kuma. my name is mark mulligan. i'm an associate professorin practice here at the gsd. i also want to confessi'm a little bit

nervous by this assignment. i don't think i've ever spokento such a large crowd here. usually i'm on thesteps somewhere. so i'm a little nervousbecause, although i've known kuma-san for manyyears, and i consider him a friend and akind of mentor to me, it's also possible thatmany of you here also have known him for a long time. over his nearly 30years in practice,

kengo kuma has attracted asubstantial international following amongarchitects and students. his global reputationowes not only to his prolific, geographicallydiverse, spectacularly photogenic, and experientiallyrich body of built works, but also to theunique voice embodied in many of his writingson architecture. with the possibleexception of arata isozaki, probably no architectin japan today

has shown greater dedicationto the development of critical theory anddiscourse than kengo kuma. beginning with early essays thatexpressed his desire to, quote, "make architecture disappear,"and more recently solidifying his theoretical positionswith a 2013 book, anti-object, which has beentranslated, by the way, into english, chinese,and many other languages, kuma has providedinsightful commentary to help us interpretcontinuities in his work

despite wide disparities incontext, scale, and tectonic expression. even more to the point,his underlying conception of architecture, notas sculptural object, but as a fluid spatialmedium that connects us to our environmentspeaks, i believe, to the aspirations of many youngdesigners today, including, i expect, some herein the audience. his tokyo-based firmkengo kuma and associates

currently employs more than200 architects and designers and has around 100 projectsin some stage of development in japan, the us, europe,south america, china, and elsewhere in asia. despite this scale ofoperation, kuma-san maintains personalinvolvement in each project from beginning to end. this level of attention isbest understood, i think, when you visit his buildings.

i actually counted, and, sofar, i've been to at least 18% of his projects in japan--12 in metropolitan tokyo and six in more remoteprovincial settings. these include simple structuresof wood, stone, and earth, luxury hotels, high-end retail,exclusive retreats, also modest budgetspaces for students. the qualities that describerepresentative spaces in each of theseworks-- modesty, calm, generosity, are preciselythose personal qualities

that i ascribe to the architect. his works have receivedcountless awards from professional andcultural institutions in japan and around the world. in addition, kengokuma has been named an honorary fellow of theaia, the american institute of architects, an internationalfellow of the riba, the royal instituteof british architects, and an officer of the orderof arts and letters in france.

since 2009, kengo kuma has beena professor of architecture at the university of tokyo. now, so what else can i tell youthat's sort of the resume, what insights can i introduceat this point that will justify delaying,by a few minutes more, the person youactually really came to hear? so i'd just like to mentiontwo thoughts i came up with to use today. the first thought is a responseto tonight's lecture title,

"from concrete to wood--why wood matters." we already know thatwood is dear to kuma-san from seeing how frequently,and how many guises, he uses it in his work. but he's also a kindof an evangelist for the virtues of woodconstruction more broadly. three years ago, he was the headjuror for international student design competitioncalled retreat in nature, whosechallenge was to design

a 21st century sustainablehouse for a rural site in hokkaido, thenorthernmost island in japan. kiel moe and i teamed up toadvise a group of gsd students who went on to win thiscompetition with a design based on sustainabilityprinciples inherent in wood, using it as biofuel, thinkingabout carbon sequestration, low embodied energy inpractices such as local sourcing or recycling of wood, and so on. the design's mostradical idea, however,

involved replacing typicalconcrete foundation walls with a solid woodraft foundation made of recycled railroad ties. the gsd team was invited tospend the summer in tokyo working onconstruction documents for the so-called horizon housewith members and consultants of kengo kuma'soffice, and the house was completed in november 2013. in the end, the impulse to doaway with concrete foundations

could not be perfectly realizedin the compressed construction schedule, i'm sorry to say. but i'd like to believe thatthe idea's audacity might have endeared us, in somesmall way, to the head juror. the second thought i had is areflection on the experience that my students and i hadjust this last week with one of kuma-san's frequentcollaborators, structural engineer jun sato. professor sato leda workshop in which

he challenged us to designa pavilion structure that could produce somethingcalled [japanese], in japanese, which looselytranslates to forest light. it's the kind ofdappled, flickering light that filters through treecanopies in a light breeze, producing a kind ofmagical, lively environment below, ephemeraland ever changing. the film director akirakurosawa was very fond of this kind of light.

it played an important narrativerole in many of his films. i realized thatkuma-san must have had this kind of vibratinglight in mind, somehow, when he designed so manyof the interiors i visited, ambiguously enclosedin layers of glass, metal louvers, woodenor bamboo screens. in these spaces, thereis a spiritual quality of liveliness, somethingin japanese that's called [japanese], that remindsus of the passage of time,

and we must enjoythe present moment. inhale deeply. so let's enjoy thismoment now by welcoming kengo kuma to the podium. [applause] thank you mark, for a verydeep, deep introduction. today, i have manyslides, as i hope that i can share everything. there are more than 200 slides.

and so then i havemany things to talk. but i was just talkabout my generation. i was born in 1954. in japan, my generation wascalled the fourth generation. the first generation,kenzo tange, you have a big archive ofkenzo tange, was born 1913. so he is first generation. and the second generation isprofessor maki, [inaudible]. maki was 1928 [inaudible]'31, [inaudible]

'33, so that kind of generation. the third generationis [inaudible]. and my generation, [inaudible]me, and [inaudible] is almost 1954, 1956,something like that. and the [inaudible],the [inaudible]. my, as kengo kuma, philosophycame from two disasters. and it's reallyinteresting article. the kenzo tange, he wrote, kenzotange and the second world war was deeply related.

and as a the allies project, washiroshima peace center, 1950. it's a beautiful building. and it shows the japaneserecovered from second world war. and actually, barack obamahas visited that building last july. it was a movingevent for japanese. and his speech was reallygreat, for those of you who know that speech.

and i wrote the book, title,defeated architecture, just after hanshinearthquake has in 1995. mark has introducedmy book anti-object. translated, you said, 2013,it was translated to english. but anti-object is almostwritten the same period after earthquake. and defeated architecture,not translated yet, but as we are preparingthe translations, it's as almost the same period.

as a earthquake, andmy ideas anti-object or defeated architecture,very much related. and then i want to startform this building, as the [inaudible] museum. this was completed in1999 in ishinomaki city. ishinomaki, that cityis just up north city, the north of sendai. it was most destroyed,by tohoku earthquake. almost 60% of thetown was destroyed,

and 50,000 people diedonly in that city-- 15,000 people diedonly in that city. so i want to show, as a project,this is [inaudible] museum. but it is difficult to find. that is my, as a first ideais illuminate the building, the landscape like that. so one third ofthe building that's on the ground, and twothirds is underground. plan-wise, there's rivers,canals, a cycling load.

this is a part ofthe cycling load. actually, thecycling load is here, as sloping down to the bottom,as it's sloping up again, so sections like that. this is the entrance. actually it is very difficultto find the entrance. it became a problem,after completion. the clients, thepeople complained, ah, where is the entrance?

i said, don't worry about that. and with the storyof the tsunami, the tsunami came from thatside, the ocean is that side, and destroyed those houses. it's very, very sad. but the tsunamistopped at my building. is it because mybuilding has this shape? and luckily, my buildingwas not destroyed. but it was a veryshocking event for me.

and just two weeks afterthe tsunami, i went there. and i saw how nature is strong. this is the view from river. and this building isthe hiroshige museum. it is also in the up north area. and also, this buildingwas not destroyed. in that project, i want toshow a relationship with nature as what we want to re-createin that the building. so the roof and the facadeare all by wood, local wood.

but as a more importantthing about this building is that hole, the hole, whichconnects town and nature. and in the japanese village,most of the village, the location is the edgeof the mountain, not far from the mountain, always,and not in the mountain. edge of the mountain. that is very necessaryfor them because materials came from the mountain, andenergy came from the mountain because they didn't have gascompany, electric company,

of course, as use the timberfrom mountain, for burning and cooking everything. and also, the agriculture, asa mountain, is very important. there's fertilizerfrom the mountains. it was very necessaryfor producing rice. and then, they called thatkind of mountain satoyama. sato means village. yama means mountain. and they respectedthat mountain very much

because, for their life, thatwas very, very necessary. and then they livedclose to the mountain. and they built a shrine. that is a strong message. the shrine means don'tdestroy the mountain. leave the mountain, is themessage from the shrine. but sadly, in 20th century,they forgot the mountain-- the tokyo. and as everythingcame from tokyo

in 20th century-- materials,energy, as fertilizer. and actually, [inaudible]in the shrine. and this shrinealready [inaudible]. and as a discussionbetween the client-- client built the parking here. the mayor builtthe parking here. and he said, the mayor said, asa big entrance facing parking. but i said no. that's because, if thereis a big entrance here,

this side will become backside--just the space for garbage, the space for serviceparking, something like that. and that will kill satoyama. and after a discussion,finally, as we can have the entrancefacing satoyama side. as i cut the building like that,we call it torii the effect. you know torii, torii is anarch in front of the shrine. and that arch issometimes more important than the building of the shrine.

the building is workinglike torii in some meaning, as i cut building, andthe framing the mountains, and the look of theshrine from this entrance. and finally, this becomes themain gate of the building. and i want to show again--this is the cut, shrine, and the entrance. and material-wise, we did usematerial from the village. and this site isfacing the mountain. and the main entrance is here.

and this is a cut, as i created,from the town to the mountain. and the rice paper is[inaudible] the village, and the local stones,and the local cedar. and design-wise, we designedmany screens and filter to create the asuper-juxtaposition layers. and that method wasinspired by artists. this museum is hiroshige museum. and hiroshige is a 19th centurythese [inaudible] artist. and he is known asa method of just

super-juxtaposition layering. and frank lloyd wright,who of course you know, he learned manythings from hiroshige. and he wrote thebook, the book of tea. it was publishedin states in 1906. still, you can find that book. and he, since 1906 writtenby [inaudible] okakura. and frank lloyd wright was verymuch influenced by that book. and as a light, ashe, in his autograph

he wrote, without two japanese,i could not create my art. one is a [inaudible] okakura,the author of book of tea. the second is the hiroshige. and he learned themethod of juxtaposition, layering by hiroshige. and then, for my hiroshigemuseum, it's the same. the method ofsuper-juxtaposition of those screens,there's three layers of screens existingin the building.

and those were for theroof, double layers. and double layers iscreating the komorebi effect, which, as mark hasmentioned before, komorebi is the first light. it's the filter ofthe light by leaves. and the next projectmaterial is bamboo. the bamboo is myfavorite material. but it's not an easymaterial because bamboo is easy to crack.

it's a weak material,in one sense. but i worked with astructural engineer to create thiscomposite structure. it's an injected bamboo trunk. injected means weinsert steel as a angle into that, as a plank, andpour the concrete that is to make this is a special post. and for the facade,we are checking those options, and that thisis our first bamboo house.

don't forget neighbors. neighbors is a typicaljapanese houses. and the floors also. i call it the[inaudible] floors, because to walk on thefloor is very comfortable. and the next bambooproject is in china. besides great wall, we tryto learn from great wall. great wall is not cuttingthe landscape, following the landscape, and then wholewings are landscaped like that.

don't cut, and to keep green. the great wall is also here. this space is a kindof in-between space. in between theexterior and interior. and that type of spaceis always my favorite. this is a semi-covered space. and sometimes it's called[japanese] in japanese house. [japanese] is between themain building and the gardens. and this such [japanese]space, in between space.

and the wood is, of course, is amost favorite material of mine. but we tried to do some newthings, always, with wood. the chidori is a smallpavilion in italy, in milan. the constructionof this pavilion was hinted by thistoy, chidori toy. it's a very old children's toy. it has this joint system. please look at this joinery. the three joints,three types of joints.

and if we turn this stick,so we can fix that structure. it's very simple. and we go to thosesticks to be milan. and my student hasconstructed by themselves. and after the milan experience,so we came back to japan, and we decided to build abigger structure with jun sato. the professor jun sato,he came here last week. and he did a test ofthis structural system and his conclusion is, weneed a six centimenters

by six centimenters. and in milan, three centimentersby three centimeters. it is very, very thin. but this is just atemporary structure. for permanent sturectures,six centimeters needed. and i agree. ok, six centimentersis still very tiny. and and this is thecompletion of the building. the result and a column.

the six centimenter bysix centimenter sticks are supporting thebuilding like that. and good thing forthe structure is so we could use this gridfor the box of exhibit. so we can show thosethings in the box. and so, again, we didn't useany nails, or boards and glues, just the fixing system. because the japanesecarpenters, historically, they didn't trust metal becausethe life of metal is short,

they thought. not because of the money,they didn't trust metal. i think that this pointis very important. so they trust natureas a philosophy of japanese carpenters. and i like to use thosesticks, those tiny elements. and when i showed thoseideas to charles jenks-- you know charles jenks? he said, new stick style.

it is very interesting. and the "stick style"today was a famous book by-- is it vincent scully book? as jenks named my building,the news stick style. and that this is a village. and the unit for this villageis bigger than a stick, unfortunately. but still i've wantto use the small unit. the assembly of the smallunit is very important.

if we use the biggersize glulam column, it is easy to makethis with embellish, but i don't like that kindof big size as a beam. i prefer to use asmaller unit as possible. and that is because a smallfactory of this village could produce those units. now the bigger glulam is onlya bigger factory can produce. and we call it a domesticproduction system-- the small factories,the artisan,

as it can produce those things. and on the same villageis a another village, and so we designed a smallhotel inspired by this teahouse. the thatched roof is a typicaldesign they did for tea house. this was a kind of cafe. and it's tiny, but it's is acafe for the village people. and we did use thatchfor the facade. and so, to find the craftsmenwas very, very difficult. even in that village, thosecraftsmen had disappeared.

those traditional disappeared. so we should findfrom other places. this is the interior. and next is a uniqueclient for us, starbucks. the location is tenmangu,dazaifu tenmangu, was built in 919. old temple. as i mentioned, toriigate, the torii gate exists here, as does thesatoyama mountain is here.

it's always thejapanese temple, shrine like that kind of location--edge of the mountain. and this is main approach. the starbucks is here. and it's not interiordesign, as they asked me to send the full building. what i did for that projectis to find the new [inaudible] construction system. and again, withthe professor sato.

this, as a structuralsystem, is more complicated than the grid systemi showed you before. because we have30 degree angles. it's a diagonal system. so the diagonal systemfor that building is to create the flow of spaceinto the bottom of the building because the buildingitself is a very long shop. it's a narrow and long building. and we want to create some kindof flow to the end of the shop.

structurally, thisis very tough. please look at this joint. this is, withjapanese carpenters, it was a special ideaof professor sato that we could achievethis very unique joint. and professor sato cameinto the construction site often because sometimesthe carpenters forgot that this is a structure. and whenever he came tothe site, he was so upset.

he claimed, this is astructure and don't forget it. the result that carpentersmake it just as decoration. because it is verycomplicated joint. but it's a structural jointsupporting this building. and the next complicatedstructures with professor sato is a sunny hills in tokyo. this is that building. compared with this,starbucks is easy because starbucks is a one-storybuilding, supporting one floor,

one is aloof. but this is a threestory building. and those aresupported by sticks. and as you see, thefloor is supported by this structural system. and for that building, junsato found a new joined system. that new joint systemis called jigoku gumi. jigoku means hell. gumi means joint.

hell joint. what's the name? and he explainsthe reason of name. hell is, once it dropped tohell, we can never return. and once it'sfixed, never revert. that's the reason of the name. and that jigoku gumi was usedfor furniture, only furniture because it is toocomplicated for a building. and the special furnituremakers, artisans

were using that jigokugumi for furniture. it was a joint of furniture. but his idea that is, adapt thatsystem to the bigger building. and this is the firstjigoku gumi building, probably the first jigokugumi building in japan. and this explainsthe jigoku gumi. the jigoku gumi is basicallythree layers as a joint system. if we only have twolayers, it is slidable. but if we add one extra layers,it will not be slidable.

and then it's tightly fixed. this shows the three layers. and so we adapted the threelayers to the building. we brought that joint to france. yure means swinging. it's a very interesting contrastbetween the classic masonry building and the verylight jigoku gumi building. working with french carpenterswas very, very tough. [laughter]

hmm. this is very japanese project. it's the birch moss chapel. the location is karuizawa. karuizawa is a beautiful resorttown two hours from tokyo. it's known for the birchforest, beautiful birch. those birch. and so our idea is to integratebirch forest with chapel. and that building issupported by those posts.

and the posts is a mix of steelplate and birch, birch trunk. and this is the plan. this part is a chapel. it's surrounded by the forest. and a partition isslideable as a big glass. and then if the weather isgood, it is totally opened up. from top, the weekend, findthe location of the building. but here, theborder disappeared. and actually, here islayer four glass partition.

the continuity isbasically created by the continuity of the floor. moss is the material for floor. and the benches are transparent. and in the city, goingback to the city, as we also try to usenatural materials and also createsmallness in the city. the location is asakusa. this is a very interestingplace in tokyo.

the temples, and the pagodas,and the very interesting galleria. and our site is here,just in front of gate. and it's a modelfor the competition. and the program is a 40meters high building. it's multi-functional. our solution is severalof the houses stacking. between the floor and the roof,we can have a machine space. and also we can use theinclination [inaudible] halves

of small theaters here. and the rendering,and the reality. material-wise, it's woodagain and sticks again. and the interior is like that. the stepping the floor is,as i mentioned, is here. [inaudible] and the next projectis nagaoka city hall. i want to explainthe typical situation of the japanesemiddle-sized city.

nagaoka is two hours fromtokyo by bullet train. the station is here. this used to be avery active area. but now people are notwalking on the main street because motorization. same as america, as bigshopping centers outside, the concert hall is outside. of course, cityhall was outside. and there is avacant city center.

this happens everywhere inthe world after motorization. and the solution isan idea of the mayor. it's find a siteclose to the station and move the city hall fromthe suburbs to the center. and he did a competition. and professor [? mackey ?]was the head juror of the competition. and he selected my idea. so we proposed cityhall with doma.

it's a japanese word. doma, like that. the doma is that kind of space. in the farmhouse we had doma. it's a very interestingin between space. it's covered by earth,which is important because it's a working space. it's a working space and also agathering space for the people. tatami-- you know tatami.

tatami is a typicaljapanese floor. but tatami is a kind of--used for a ritual space. the tatami was used for here. but this space theydidn't use so often. for some kind of ceremonythey did use tatami floor. but daily lifehappened in doma space. and they love thatkind of spaces because it has a kitchen,very beautiful kitchen. and they drink atnight, gather at night.

but in 20th century,so western lifestyle came to japan, so we lost thiskind of beautiful tradition. and my idea is brought backdoma as a public building. this is new doma space. it's a [inaudible] floor. it's earth. it's luminous, andthe humidity of earth is very important for doma. if it is covered,it is not doma.

because do means earth. ma means space. earth space is thedefinition of doma. and it's a kind of coveredspace, semi-outdoor space many as [inaudible] furnitures. and surprisingly, kidsgather here to do homework. and also elderly is comingto here to meet with friends. and so every day something likethat happens in that city hall. it is very unusualfor a public building.

the public building,normally, it is a solid box. it is not inviting. but this buildingis inviting people. and the one year, therewas 1.2 million visitors gathering for the city hall. the population of the city isonly 250,000, but in one year, more than a millionpeople are gathering here. it's very, very unusualfor a public building. there's some sustainabilities.

there's a movable--something like that. but it's moving. i like that idea. doma space is here. the arena is here. it's connected by big doors. and the kids are gatheringhere to do homework and also to do ping pong here. and also those ladies aregathering here to do dancing.

this is space for npo,operated by npo group. the city onlyprovides the space. and also the assemblyhall is totally exposed. transparency is thetheme of this space. and after, it's a musician andthe citizen, community people. it is also used forthe concert hall and sometimes usedfor the wedding. and this is also unusual. usually, that kindof politician's space

is very enclosed. but the basic ideafor this space is that the politicians shouldabandon their own space. that is the basis. but at the beginningof the project, the politician criticizesmy idea of very much. it's a very, very toughprocess fighting with them. and local materials. rice papers in thesnow is becoming white.

this is called snow rice paper. this a beautiful rice papers. and this rice paper wasalso used for furniture. so we designed furnitureswith rice paper. and also it's a specialsilk made by farmers. and the silk fabricwas used as a counter. and in china, i alsotried to respect the tradition of the placeand the topology of the space, in that case.

in hangzhou, theacademy of china, i was asked todesign the museum. the site was a hill. our idea is follow the topologyof the site as possible. and again, we didn'twant to cut the topology. and this is basicallya one-story building with a sloping floor. and material-wise, wewant to use the roof tile. so the roof tile inchina is beautiful.

in japan, i don't likethe japanese roof tile because the big factory isproducing the japanese roof tiles. there's a very standardsizes, standard colors. and it's not beautiful. but in china, the colorsis such a variety, and sizes also has variety. it's not bad. . and so we did use tiles forthe screening of the building,

like chinese painting. but it's a combination ofcontemporary technology. it extends wires withthe old material. the sloping floors. for this space, we use the wood. but that's againsloping floors flowing the topology of this land. as an ongoing project,it's the first time to show that projectin the lecture.

it is because it'san ongoing project. this is beijing. it's the forbidden palace. it's a very centralplace in beijing. and tiananmen square is here. as a location, ourproject is here. my pronunciation is very bad. but [inaudible]. this kind of area.

and it's a very narrowstreet called fulton. as the houses withcourtyard [inaudible] is a kind of mixture. it's a very interesting area. but recently, as mostthose traditional districts was gone by the bigdevelopment, by towers. and also, for thisarea, some developers did a master plan-- bigtowers, towers, atria, something like that.

but some journalists,some magazines criticized those ideas. and some people wereagainst that destruction. and finally, developersand the government abandoned those tower ideas. and their new idea isto preserve the place with some architects. five of our architects wereinvited to the project, so we were around them.

and the street was like that. this is our newoffice in beijing. they asked us, asa project to us. and also, they asked to movethe office to this district. and as a new ideas,is that area should be kind of adesigner's village-- have interesting designers,and artists gather here. i liked that ideaand decided to move. and the courtyard, there's acourtyard and fulton street.

something like that. the restoration is noteasy because that kind was a damaged area. and this and the restoration,and this is a rendering. this is a rendering. this is our new office. and the construction--next time, i want to show theimages of the completion. it's very well done.

and the [inaudible]basically, the idea is, it combines as anew transparency with the old district. as it used to be a veryenclosed wall, heavy wall. but we opened up the wallsto create transparency. and is this project in shanghai. it also is our new project. this is the first time to show. this is the location.

and the old ship building--ship building factory. the two wholes as kinds ofcomplex, as a new program. this is a new facade. the idea is also togive a new transparency to the traditional building. it's not a simple preservation. preserve the older building,but to add a new transparency. preserve all thestructural systems. this is a mockup.

i am here, probably. this is a detail of theoblique transparent wall. and in europe, we aretrying some ideas. the natures and town connectedby the hole, that is our idea. the hole is here. the preserved old building--add new structure. and we also designedthe landscape as between nature andbuilding, city and building. [inaudible] is here.

it's a new [inaudible] building. we add for that asa classic building. the ngawa space is here. as a creek, the top is here. and again, lightis very important. as mark mentioned, let merepeat again the komorebi, the forest light effect was isa main theme of this design. so komorebi isthrough this roof. the facade is also tocreate komorebi effect.

and in the central palace,the entrepot macdonald's, but it's not hamburger. this macdonald's isnot a hamburger shop. this macdonald is thename of the general, name of the street in palace. and after starbucks,people misunderstand. after starbucksbrought mcdonald's. and this is entrepotmacdonald, built in 1970. an old, 600-meter building.

and this is a new building. the oma, rem koolhaasdid the master plan of this renovation project. rem's idea is preservethe 600 meters building to add boxes on top of it. and six architects wereappointed the new designers for the upper boxes. and we were in charge of thewest edge of the complex. and the french architects,they designed the boxes.

the boxes are notbad, but i don't want to add boxes on boxes. this is the existing building. i want to add avery light floating roof on top of the box. this is a new communitycenter for this district. so my idea is that the roof cancreate a sense of a community. so this idea is coming fromthe japanese tradition, but also, in europe, the loopis covering the community space.

and those, again, the woodis the material for the roof. the material is also important. so material-wise, this[inaudible], these screens, is made by as zinc. zinc is a typicalmaterial for the roof of french buildings in paris. paris building iscovered by zinc. and then so we did use zinc. and also we added wood.

this screen is made by zinc. so we like courtyards. but as we prefer thesemi-open courtyards, as one side is always open atthe connection to involvement, connection to neighborsis very importan. the new project infrance is the station. it's the saint denis. the is our schemefor the station. and in that case, again, iopened the roof to the public.

and eventually, the stationbecomes a part of the plaza. and this area, probablyas some of you know, this area, saint denisis a big stadiums. but it's a not safe area. there's many immigrants fromsyria and some of those places that are living here. and you remember theterror attack in paris happened last year. most of the terroristswere living in that area.

and there is a city of palaces,the idea of city of palaces, to create the good communityspace for this kind of area. and i like thatidea, as normally, as a public building,infrastructure building is a box. it's not inviting. but in this case, i want tocreate the space for community, for that kind of area. and so again, so we usewood for the station.

and comparing withthose big projects, i want to showthe small project. it's also a very new project. the jyubako. the jyubako is a bento box. you know the japanese bento box. it's a small wooden box. so i translated thatidea to trailer house. it's a trailer house.

there's actually tires here. this is a trailerhouse we designed. it's a wooden box trailer house. it is a device toconnect to the cars. and the door isusually like that. and opened up to become a tableand counter-- and the interior. it's big enough to livein that house, i believe. it looks big. the first trailer house is nowused for a small restaurant

in the center of tokyo. we designed the countersfor the restaurants. and in that trailerhouse, actually, 12 people can sit in the trailer. and this is an exampleof a small project. but i want to showother, smaller projects. the stone castle, stoneis a structure, very tiny thin stone. one centimeter thicknessis used for the structure

of this pavilion. and we translated the materialfrom stone to aluminum. this is a small project. for a smaller project, wealways continue the project, develop the projects one by one. so from stone to aluminum. and after this smallfurniture system, we designed a house by aluminum. this is a house.

structurally, thisaluminum is very strong, enough to support as a house. and the house has three rooms. and it is betweenhouse and furniture. so a normal house is just a box. but in this house, the wallis working as furniture. and also students haveconstructed by themselves. kitchens, and after that isthe joint system, joint system of that aluminum,aluminum card is adapted

to that interior design. there are onlythree sushi joints, but we could aidthis organic shape. so it exists in osaka. and the next is achange in material. ceramic tile is thematerial for this pavilion. so ceramic style is normallyused for cutting surface, but in this case, the ceramictile was used for structure. the structural engineeranalyzes this system.

and this is a vertical element. it's a standard pipe. and the pipe is fixedwith ceramic tiles. and as an angle is is to createthe shadows for the pavilion. and a very tiny edge. and so next material is probablydon't know that material. it's a shape memory alloy. it's a special alloy. but they remember the shape.

and if, in certain temperature,it's are going back to the original shape,it's a very smart material. and they remember theshape at 30 centigrade. 30 centigrade, theyremember this shape. but other conditions,other temperature, they forget the shape. they are not smart,in that sense. so this is a joint system. so we made thesestructures in the factory

because this kind of supportis needed because this is very, very soft. the diameter of the metalis just four millimeters. and we need thissupport plastic. and after the total structure isfixed, we move the support out, then we can make it. in the daytime, they rememberthe shape of a circle. and then it's veryhard, in the daytime. and in the nighttime, it'sdropping slowly from the top.

and the nextmaterial is umbrella. this is an umbrella. milan invited us to the projectand the theme is [non-english], house for everybody. and they asked us to designa house for refugees. and my idea is inspiredby buckminster fuller. so buckminster fuller,his fullerdome is a dome. it's a simple dome system. but i wanted to use a dailycommodity, the umbrella.

if we can carry the umbrella,this umbrella, so 15 people can make this house. very simple idea. but it's a littlebit strange umbrella. very fashionable, i think. it is easy to find the friends. friends decide to makethe house together. and the friends is 15umbrellas began like that. and the interior is bigenough for 15 people to stay.

this triangular part, asit's added to the umbrella, is used for the windows. this opens up the windows. and this also is by a student. and so after they startedto drink and sleep. and next materialis the new york moma asked us to design a small housefor home delivery exhibitions in 2008. and the hint came from the tank.

it's used for theconstruction site. to fill the water, thisis getting heavier. and this is verysmart device, i think. the home delivery. this is a pulley tank wedesigned for the exhibition. we designed for thehouse and with two bulbs. to have two bulbs is important. the two bulbs are connectedto create water-flow. this is the moma exhibition.

but the budget is not enough formaking a house-- just a mockup for moma. and after moma, the japanesegallery, gallery ma, has asked us to designa real-sized house. this is a house,plan of the house. it is the [inaudible],the bed, and the kitchen. and making hot water here. [inaudible] what i cancirculate in the water. that is very new idea.

and usually, the structures,and piping, and the interior are all divided. but for this house,it's totally integrated. the water is runningin the walls. it's running in the floors. it's very efficient as anair-conditioning system. and students, again, constructedin the university campus as a connected those units. and he's already very tired.

and this is completionof the house. as a waterproof,it's a big hurdle. and we designed acourt for the house. it is bed. it is too small,even for japanese. this is generators. and this idea was translated tois a real project as a beijing teahouse. the is a permanent structure.

this is a sectionof the building. this, as a pulley tank, issupporting the whole structure. and this is interior. this is not photoshop. this is as real asthe forbidden palace. this is just besidethe forbidden palace. it's a very unique location. and so for this project,[inaudible] waterproof and the insulation.

and then this is anew type of block and here is a double layeredsystem to solve the insulation. and this is a street. the west gate of theforbidden palace is just here, and this is a building. and this is a kindof a historical area, and we need to havethe roof on, top but i like that combinationsof the very new material and classic roof on top.

like that. this is the rooftop. there's the forbidden palace,and there's our rooftop. and the next seriesis a fabric house. it's a tea house in germany. this is in the garden ofrichard meiers design museum. you know the richard meiersdesign museum in frankfurt-- asked us to design a teahouse. the idea is inflatablestructures-- instant teahouse.

we call it the cupo' noodle teahouse. instant teahouse. only 15 minutes, it wasbuilt. but it is not a joke. it is a well-thought project. it's a double-layeredstructure system. and the section is like that. after a skin and in the skin,they are tied with those nodes. and these are used for teaceremony and the tea ceremony school.

after that, there's a nationalbuilding museum in washington. we built a floating teahouse. again, as the budgetis very limited, and we don't havethe travelling costs, i carried thisteahouse in my trunk. it is possiblebecause this is also is a balloon and just a fabric. so super organza isthe name of the fabric. it is probably thelightest-weight light weight

fabric in the world. this is this super organza. and after that-- it's a series. starts from frankfurt,washington, and hokkaido. it's the north end islands. and as mark explainedabout the horizon house by a harvard student beforethat we did the memu meadows project, inspired by this house. i like this house very much.

it's not new design. this is ainu people. so a few wereliving in hokkaido. it's an ethnicminority of hokkaido. and they were livingin that house. it's a very soft house. they're using leaves of bamboo. we want to make a similaridea, the soft house. but not the bamboo leaves.

for this project, we've[inaudible] fabric. and it's a doubleskin house, again. and with sustainableas a warming system. like, an ethnic housein the ainu, people are heating the soil. so even in summer, theyare heating, heating. and in the wintertime,the earth is warm enough. and they can getradiation from there. so we have the samesystem for this house.

and double as a layer's house,as we try to avoid insulation. and so, if we canavoid insulation, then we can getsuch kind of effect. and even in theminus 30 degrees, we can survive in that house. and after that, we did aseries of international student competitions for that space. and we designed many houses. [inaudible] universitywon that house.

and [inaudible]university won that house. and finally, harvardwon that house, 2014, so mark mulligan'steam won that house. it's a horizon houseand also business with sustainability devices. but he can explainbetter than me. and so 2015, soberkeley, nest we grow. the berkeley peoplelove those vegetables. and in kyoto's, we designedthis movable pavilion.

the idea is a magnet joint. as i explained some witha traditional joint, but, for this house, it's amagnet that can fix sticks. it's a very strong magnetrecently invented by 3m. and three layerswith those sticks, as they were tiedtogether by the magnet has become solid wood. at this stage, itis just a scroll, and we can carry easily.

and then, at thisstage, three laws, three membranes,and on the side, it's become the solid wallby the power of magnet. and that's also the walls. you can see threelayers of membrane. it's the etfe in that case. and they are easy tomove and transport. and it's anothermaterial is of paper. this is a paper pavilion.

it's balkanizedpaper, special paper. so we have manytypes of pavilion. so we should skip. and in london, it'ssmall, very, very tiny. bamboo sticks are used. probably you knowthis kind of incense. we did use this material. this is connected like that. it is a joint.

it's plastic. and it is heated,and it becomes tight. and this is a section of thespace of the royal academy. and the detail is of [inaudible]we can get smell from incense. it's a joint. it is a pavilion. it doesn't look like a pavilion,but we call it pavilion. it's a kind of phenomenon. is a phenomenon withsome very tiny materials.

and at last, i want to showthe olympic stadium design. probably, you areinterested in that project. it's our scheme. as you know, zahahadid's design, the first competition winning,is cancelled because of over budget. and the second competition,we submitted that idea. the first concept for thisstadium is as low as possible. zaha's scheme has a 75meters high building.

and existing stadiumhas 60 meters. and our goal is under 50 meters. and that is becauseit's a beautiful park. it's a site. and then we want to push thebuilding as low as possible. under 49 meters was the finalsolution for the building. and we worked withstructural engineers to decrease the size of a beamand then, finally, 49 meters, and wood is a material.

the wood is very necessaryfor that project, i think, because it's in the park. and integration withthe park is important. we have the[inaudible] of plants, it's watered the plantsfrom [inaudible] areas. and wood is creating shadows. and that gets a hint fromthe traditional buildings. the eaves a series ofeaves, is good for the life of the building.

and that this horyu-ji templeis the oldest [inaudible] building, built 7th century. and in the interviewfor the olympic stadium, as i had many questions--so how [inaudible]. always we have thiskind of questions. and my answer is,look at this building. i used this slide, actually. look at this building. do you know the lifeof horyu-ji building?

1,400 years. it's true. and good thing for thewood is it's replaceable. concrete is not replaceable. concrete-- thereare many opinions about the life of concrete. but somebody said 100years is the maximum. somebody said 200years is maximum. but to have 200 years of lifeis very difficult for concrete.

but wood is 1,400 years. and because of theunique section, the wooden part iscovered by roofs. and also, allelement is visible, and it meansreplaceable, recyclable. and also there's manysecrets in the detail. in the bottom, ofthose as a joist, they have the extra length. and after 100 years,the edge of the wood

will it be deteriorated. and so they hit the bottomof the joist to cut the edge and use a new part of food bypushing out those elements. it's a very smart idea. and another idea is this roof. it is the roof and steelis combined together to drop the weight ofthe roof structure. so we decreased 1,000tons by using wood. and decrease 1,000 tonsmeans as the foundation

can be decreased. and every structurecan be decreased. and by that reason,today's architectural theme is from concrete to wood. and also with other idea, asa result of air conditioning, so we also did usenatural ventilation. and we did a simulation. and so we changedthe pitch of element. the [inaudible] elementis, as wooden plank,

had spaces between the unit. and that pitch variesaccording to the direction. the south side is very narrowto bring the south wind to the bottom of the building. and the north sideis a big pitch, as the north wind is goingto the top of the building. and then, as aresult animation, we can control the volume of wind. that's a kind of asimulation we did.

and also material-wise,we decided to use wood from disaster area. it's the up north area,the tsunami hit that area. and the kumamoto earthquakehappened last april, and also big damage. those wood will beused for that building. this is an image i tookby myself in ishinomaki because as we designishinomaki's first building, and i went there twoweeks after disaster,

this is a picture i took myself. and i was soshocked to see that, as because before20th century, people didn't built the buildingalong the waterfront. because they know as a tsunamiwas hitting every 60, 70 years. but in 20th century, sowe forgot everything. we forgot the risk ofnature, strongness of nature. and they rebuilt thosebuildings on the waterfront. and the from those disasters,is go back to the first theme.

after [inaudible] 1995earthquake, [inaudible] earthquake, so ibegan to think-- how to respect nature as shouldbe the theme of our design. how to defeat nature was thetheme of the 20th century. in 20th century, we believedarchitecture is strong. architecture can be muchstronger than nature. but always, nature isstronger than architecture. and we shouldrespect nature again. that is the theme ofthe lecture today.

thank you very much. so here's the pointwhere we open up. we maybe turn on somelights, and we open up the floor for questions,if there are any. i see a few veryclose to the front. are there microphones? are there any microphones here? ok, thanks. can you bring them up?

thank you so much forthe lecture tonight. i'm wondering, forsomebody that embodies so many principles ofhistorical japanese moves in architecture, such as thejoinery, and the shading, and the positioning ofthe building on the site, i'm curious howyou feel that-- now that your firm has grown somuch in the past few years, and you've done so muchmore international work, if you feel that doingprojects outside of japan

has either influenced or changedthe way that you've approached certain projects, or ifyou feel that you now have a responsibilityto demonstrate these japanese principleson a global stage. yes, i always try to do theresearch on one the site. and each project orhas a background. has many, manyhistorical conditions, conditions of the climate,of the topographies. every projects are different.

and as we try to find the uniqueproject for each, as we don't want to push a previous design. it's a big differencefrom other architects. for example, the [inaudible]is a great architect, but his idea isvery strong core. so he tries to push that ideato the place, each places. but my approach is alwaystry to do the conversation with a project. and in that conversation,sometimes i use a hint

from japanese tradition. but it's notnecessarily, i think. we have many ideas behind us. so not only for japaneseideas, some classic buildings, there's masonry buildings. for example, the water tank,the [inaudible] tank project, the hint is coming frommasonry structures. masonry is notjapanese tradition. masonry is a westerntradition, but we got a hint.

we combine the plasticand masonry together. we are living inthat kind of world. i study the states. i study japan. everybody's a mix of everything. thank you for the lecture. my question relatesto, when beginning, you describedcontemporary architecture, japanese architecturebegin with generations

from kenzo tange, [inaudible]to the second generation, ito, and your generation. i'm curious whatis the continually throughout ageneration, and what's the role of the nextgeneration layers in terms of develop contemporaryarchitecture. as for generation,before my generation, [? kanga's ?] generation, maki'sgeneration, ando's generation, they are not so muchinterested in wooden structures

because, in japan,we had a big divide. as modernismarchitects, those people are designing concreteand steel buildings. and traditionalgroup, as it existed, is totally separated from them. the traditionalgroup were designing the traditional teahouseand traditional ski house. there's a veryclassic convention. the two groups aretotally separated

and actually hate each other. i think it's nothappy for the country because we have a big tradition. but the two groups are divided. my generation, i think, iwant to destroy the border between two generations. and sometimes we use somedetail from classic buildings. and i like to designwooden structures. and i try to create some newkind of [inaudible] as the two

types of architectural design. and i think that situationis actually happening. and it is a healthy wayfor our tradition, i think. ok. thank you so much for sharingwith us so many experiments with so many kinds of material. so my question is thesame as the topic. why woods matter? do you think so muchwood in architecture

is kind of respect tonature, or a kind of destroy to the nature? yes, so somebody thought to usewood, it means destroy nature. but it's not true. to use wood carefully isvery necessarily for nature. i mentioned about satoyama,as a japanese mountain. and in 20th century,we didn't use satoyama, abandoned satoyama. and it was very bad for theenvironment of the forest.

so forest was as a verycarefully maintained, and as they try to createthe natural circulation. and the cut some trees,and plant some trees. this can create the bestconditions for the forest. and if it's abandoned,the environment is totally gettinginto the bad situation. for example, it's caused flood. all the trees were notgood for keeping water, what sustains the water.

and then the floodhappens in 20th century. many floods happenedin 20th century. and also for globalwarming, old wood forest is not as absorbing ascarbon dioxide, co2. only the well-maintainedforest is good for solve global warming. abandoned forest isnot working like that. and that's the reasonwhy i use wood. to use wood carefullyis good for the forests

and good for globalwarming situation. and also, it's good for ourpsychological situation. that's the reason. ok? please. hi, i have a question. i'm aware that high cost issometimes inevitable to produce beautiful architecture,like, for example, the last idea for thetokyo 2020 olympic stadium.

it was criticizedfor its high budget. but what's your opinion onthe balance between high cost and the outcome? yes, this. as always, cost is abig problem for us. for every project. and it is not a new situation. but recently, architectsbecame the target of the criticismof the journalism.

the architects asegoism, architects designs, as the biggestreason for the high costs. but we should show, as agood example, reasonable cost and good design. and if we show thatkind of good example, we can find a kind ofcollaboration with the society. recently, societyand the architects are very much divided. it's a very bad forarchitectural design.

so if we can recover thetrust from the society, we can design easily. and for tokyo olympicstadium, i wanted to show that kind of example tothe society, to the journalism. because journalism attackedzaha's design very much. architect's egoistic,strange design destroys the [inaudible]. so it's a very, verytough situation for us, [inaudible] our community,architects' community.

so we should changethat situation by the reasonable, good design. and i believe we can do that. thank you, thank you,mr. kuma, for your ideas. harry allen, hutcheons fellow. i was wondering if you couldspeak to the idea of tall wood buildings. i've read that, ineurope, wood buildings are topping 10 stories, thatsom, in chicago, has proposed

a 42-story wood building. and pop, in cambridge hasproposed a 1,000 foot wood skyscraper. are these viableideas in your opinion? would you speak to not justthe viability of these ideas, but the idea ofwood skyscrapers? yeah, so basically,it's not a bad idea. and also, technically,it is very possible. but i am alsodoubtful for why we

should make it high building. because, high building, so weneed elevators, many machines. so looks outstanding building. but as for environment,it's not a good solution to make a high building. and to use wood isbasically for environment. and if so, we triedto find solution with a lower-lies building. it's closer to the ground.

it's closer to nature. that should be theaim of using wood. you're saying it's diminishingreturns after a certain point. yeah.

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