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Building harmony

Kengo Kuma's latest book Topography showcases the renown architect's harmonious balance between building and landscape

“M y key focus throughout the 1990s was on making architecture disappear,” begins globally acclaimed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in the introduction of his latest book, titled Topography. Having worked on what he describes as “conspicuous architecture” during the 1980s boom in Japan, Kuma shares how it was the years following that period that gave him a new perspective on architecture – one that didn’t try to stand out, was less celebratory and could ‘disappear’ into its surroundings. During that time, and while in the process of designing an observatory, Kuma shares how he had come to the vital realisation that has since shaped his work and approach to building. “Even though I thought I had made the architecture disappear, new topography appeared in that location,” he says of the model he designed for the project. “I had created topography instead of architecture.”

In the pages that follow, Kuma divides the concept of creating topography into five categories which are converted into chapters. These include Particle, Oblique, Membrane, Perforation and Time. Under each of these themes are some of the architect’s most ground-breaking and notable works in which he showcases how various applications in creating topography have been used. The book explores in detail close to 40 high-profile projects, including his work on Tokyo’s main stadium for the 2021 Olympic Games, the design of the V&A Dundee museum in Scotland and Tokyo’s newest train station, as well as more human-scaled works, such as Jeju Ball resort in South Korea, where the roofs are layered with a blanket of porous volcanic rock, and the Wood / Pile meditation house with its intricate wooden roofing and façade – designed to allow patrons to experience the theatrical play of light among the trees of its dense German forest setting.

The rich illustrations and informative discussions in Topography highlight how Kuma’s architecture naturally merges with its cultural and environmental surroundings, paying close examination to the experimentation and use of natural materials and light, and how buildings meet with their natural settings.