Kengo Kuma. Works and Projects

Kengo Kuma is known the world over for buildings that bear his stamp of simplicity and site-sensitivity-whether created to house ancient artifacts, upscale corporations, or performers of Noh theater. Serenely calm, Kuma's buildings always feature a deft handling of materials and both practical and aesthetic use of horizontal and vertical louvers, cut-outs, and etchings. Among the Tokyo-based architect's most dramatic work is the Kiro-san Observatory, which eschews the traditional dome-shaped archetype in favor of sinking the facilities deep into a seaside hill. Cut perpendicularly into the hill is a staircase that gives Belvedere views of the near-lying water. Kuma's celebrated Museum of Hiroshige Ando, which features the ukiyo-e art of the Japanese master.By using vertical cedar poles to define the museum's slatted walls and roof, Kuma creates an effect that is similar to that used by Ando in his popular nineteenth-century woodblock prints. In the case of the Stone Museum in Nasu, Japan, Kuma has created a complex of one-story buildings that connect three restored stone buildings from the early twentieth century-a rarity in Japan, which is susceptible to earthquakes. The long, attenuated stone additions are punctuated with horizontal slits and peek-a-boo vents that de-emphasize the material's weight and demonstrate its stunning structural qualities.