Kengo Kuma has built a varied body of work as a kengo kuma architect, from restaurants and residences to theatres and public spaces. Many of his buildings share a quiet, low-profile character that makes them easy to admire.
Who is Kengo Kuma?
In 1964, a ten-year-old boy stood in front of Kenzo Tange’s new Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo. He was struck by concrete curves that seemed to hover above the ground. He gave up his plans to become a veterinarian and resolved to become an architect instead.
More than six decades later, that decision looks sound. Kuma has become one of Japan‘s most internationally recognised architects.
How this kengo kuma architect works
Kuma’s work draws heavily on traditional Japanese aesthetics and japanese architecture. His spaces tend to feel minimalist, modern and handmade at once.
Several recurring features define his designs. These include a deliberate sense of emptiness, play between light and shadow, and soft transitions between indoors and outdoors. Rhythmic joinery and natural materials such as wood, bamboo, paper and stone appear across his projects.
Buildings at a human scale, fitted to their surroundings in culture, environment and materials, sit at the centre of his method. Nature is usually the most important factor. This principle guides the many projects produced by his studio, Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA), which has offices in Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul.
Several projects in Japan show this approach clearly. Japan National Stadium, completed in 2019 and used for the Tokyo Olympics, uses layered eaves, timber joinery and planted spaces. Nezu Museum in Tokyo, from 2009, is built around clean lines, angled shadows and bamboo walkways. Lotus House, a private residence from 2005 in the mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture, has a checkered façade of travertine and air that filters light.
Traditional Japanese hospitality gets a contemporary reworking in a century-old inn. Revitalized 125-year-old ryokan with modern design shows how historic craft can meet fresh ideas.
This kengo kuma architect’s influence has also grown abroad. V&A Dundee opened on the city’s waterfront in 2018. Its layered horizontal form draws on Scottish cliffs and sets up a dialogue between nature, architecture and place.
Origins and early life
Kuma grew up in a traditional wooden house that his grandfather built in a small town between Tokyo and Yokohama. Rice paddies, woodland and farmland surrounded the home. The area had largely escaped the rapid urban growth that followed the Second World War.
He has said that he felt embarrassed by the family house, with its tatami, paper and earthen walls. His schoolfriends were moving into new housing estates along the railway line. Later he came to value what that childhood had given him. His interest in craftsmanship, light and natural materials, all central to his design philosophy, traces back to those years.
Kuma studied architecture at the University of Tokyo under Hiroshi Hara and Yoshichika Uchida. In 1985 he moved to New York as a visiting scholar at Columbia University.
The American years changed how he saw Japan. He encountered American post-modernist architecture, but the greater effect came from distance. Away from home, he bought tatami mats, studied tea and read deeply into traditional Japanese aesthetics. One key text was The Book of Tea, a 1906 work by Okakura Kakuzo.
Founding his practice
Kuma returned to Japan around 1986 and set up his own practice in Tokyo. His mature style took time to develop. Early work included M2, a large structure for Mazda in Tokyo, completed in the final years of Japan’s bubble economy.
When the bubble burst, Japan’s economy shifted. Kuma turned increasingly to smaller rural projects. He worked closely with local artisans and carpenters and used traditional construction methods.
That work produced an idea he calls ‘anti-object’. He set it out in a book of the same title, first published in 2000. Architecture, in his view, should not stand apart from its setting. It should dissolve the boundary between building and environment, responding to regional materials, terrain, communities and cultural identity.
This thinking gave his signature style its form. Timber, bamboo, paper and stone come together with pared-back lines and a very light footprint on the land.
Key projects
Water/Glass in Atami, a company guesthouse from 1995, appears to melt into its coastal site. Its expanses of water, glass and sky create a sense of calm. The Hiroshige Museum, from 2000, uses rhythmic vertical louvres inspired by rain in the woodblock prints of the artist Hiroshige. The museum has since been restored.
In 2002, Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA), as the studio is also known, completed its first major overseas project. Great (Bamboo) Wall, a private residence in China, follows an undulating ridgeline. Its linear bamboo form filters light and seems to flow along the land. Kuma described the design as a critique of architecture that tries to stand as an isolated object in its environment.
The relationship between people, buildings and nature sits at the heart of Kuma’s philosophy. He calls this idea makeru kenchiku, or ‘losing architecture’. He explored the concept in a book he wrote in 2004, reflecting his long-standing belief in writing alongside building.
The principle is simple. Architecture should yield to its setting and aim for harmony between nature and structure. Kuma rejects the idea that architects should win by dominating a landscape with monumental buildings.
Craft runs through his work at every scale. Lattices, slats, screens and joints recur throughout his projects. He breaks buildings into smaller modules and repeats them in rhythmic patterns. The result is depth, texture and a sense of timelessness.
The GC Prostho Museum Research Center, completed in 2010 in Kasugai, Aichi, shows this method well. Its latticed front takes its logic from a traditional interlocking wooden toy. A three-dimensional grid forms the structure, and it holds together without fasteners of any kind.
The studio of this kengo kuma architect has stayed productive for two decades. Among recent Japanese completions is Capella Kyoto, a luxury hotel that takes its cues from machiya, the narrow wooden townhouses of Kyoto. Kirishima Greenship icoia in Miyazaki combines a café, a shop and a botanical garden in a hub that engages with its environment. Kannabiyama Observatory, on Mount Kannabi in Kyoto Prefecture, is a spiral viewing deck built from interlocking vertical louvres that echo the surrounding forest.
The studio’s work reaches beyond buildings. KKAA has produced interiors and furniture shaped by Kuma’s architectural ideas. Rugs made with Yamagata Dantsu and Jaipur Rugs are part of the range. Kumashima textiles, developed with the designer Noriko Tsuiki, draw on a centuries-old weaving tradition in southern Japan. The organic curves of ‘Akane’ chairs are made from insect-eaten wood from Wakayama Prefecture.
For another Japanese building that engages with its surroundings, see Ryue Nishizawa’s orange cone observation deck, a bold counterpoint to Kuma’s quieter approach.
What comes next
This kengo kuma architect shows no sign of slowing. Many projects are in the pipeline, and his buildings continue to spread across the world. The idea behind his ‘losing architecture’ remains the thread that ties them together.
Wallpaper* interviewed Kuma earlier in 2026, when he released Substance, a monograph published by Images Publishing. Further reading on his recent work is available from the studio’s own publications.
H/T wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
Who is Kengo Kuma and why did he become an architect?
Kengo Kuma is one of Japan’s most internationally recognised architects. At age ten, in 1964, he was struck by Kenzo Tange’s Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, gave up his plan to become a veterinarian, and decided to become an architect instead.
What defines Kengo Kuma’s architectural style?
Kuma’s work draws heavily on traditional Japanese aesthetics and tends to feel minimalist, modern and handmade at once. His designs often feature a deliberate sense of emptiness, play between light and shadow, soft transitions between indoors and outdoors, and natural materials such as wood, bamboo, paper and stone.
What is Kengo Kuma’s ‘anti-object’ idea?
The ‘anti-object’ is Kuma’s concept that architecture should not stand apart from its setting. He argues that buildings should dissolve the boundary between building and environment, responding to regional materials, terrain, communities and cultural identity. He set out this idea in a book of the same title, first published in 2000.
Where are Kengo Kuma & Associates’ offices located?
Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA), the studio Kuma founded, has offices in Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul.
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