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Kengo Kuma

ebook
1 of 2 copies available
1 of 2 copies available

A personal tour of Tokyo's architecture, as seen through the eyes of one of the world's most acclaimed architects who is also designing the primary venue for the Tokyo Olympic games.

Tokyo is Japan's cultural and commercial epicenter, bursting with vibrancy and life. Its buildings, both historical and contemporary, are a direct reflection of its history and its people.

Kengo Kuma was only ten years old when he found himself so inspired by Tokyo's cityscape that he decided to become an architect. Here he tells the story of his career through twenty-five inspirational buildings in the city. Kuma's passion is evident on every page, as well as his curiosity about construction methods and his wealth of knowledge about buildings around the world, making this a unique commentary on Tokyo's dynamic architecture.

Kengo Kuma: My Life as an Architect is an intimate and truly inspiring book, revealing the beauty that exists in the world's everyday spaces.

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    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2021

      Not as well known in the U.S. as Kenzo Tange or Fumihiko Maki, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma here adds to our understanding of contemporary Japanese architecture with his deft drawing technique, which highlights the imaginative integration of natural materials into his built work. Autobiographical in tone and self-referential in perspective, this blend of portfolio and Tokyo guidebook channels Louis Kahn's metaphorical prose. As the designer of the new Japan National Stadium for the 2021 Olympics, Kuma pays tribute to the profound influence of Tange's expressionist National Stadium for the 1964 Tokyo games. Other references include philosophers Max Weber and Roland Barthes and architects Maki, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Yoshichika Uchida. Interwoven with observations about Tokyo neighborhoods, the book presents 14 of Kuma's buildings: museums, a railway station, the Olympic stadium, and even a shop, wrapped in a diagrid of woven cypress, that sells Taiwanese pineapple cake. VERDICT With observations on urbanism that are more inspiring than those in the late, peripatetic architect Michael Sorkin's Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, this text benefits from monochromatic photographs and delicate, understated, textural pencil sketches, which will inspire design students to express their ideas more abstractly. For all architecture libraries.--Paul Glassman, Yeshiva Univ. Libs., New York

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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