WOODEN STRUCTURES IN KENGO KUMA FACADES

Abstract

Kengo Kuma (born 1954 in Kanagawa, Japan) is a Japanese architect and professor at the University of Tokyo. Realized a large number of urbarchitectonic structures worldwide, especially in the second decade of this century, emphasizing use of wooden
materials in the facades. The examples of buildings in this paper demonstrate an extraordinary lucidity and opting of the designer for continuous use of the natural, environment-friendly material whose texture of wooden elements provides effective esthetic-composition and artisanal-artistic, attractive archisculptural results. The pronounced use of many times repeated timber elements created elegant latticework gigantic, harmonic façade network with new hand-made forms, without using bolts, nails or glue to join them. By using the easily available resource - wooden material, the famous architect’s end goal is „effacing” of the already seen architecture, i.e. façade of the new non-standardized and non-stereotypical structures of organically, imaginatively well
integrated into the natural environment. Facades created by moving multiplied wooden elements, in a varied rhythm, along the vertical and horizontal lines, evoke a spatial narration, subtle visual sensations, whereby materiality and close rapport with the building tradition is of primary importance. In the paper, the attention is focused on the advanced ecourbarchitecture of “building with wooden material” using the contemporary computer technologies, with new designing artistic and visual approach to the culture of walls in the exterior.

Keywords: wooden elements, façade networks, natural materials, visual sensations, materiality.