Bognar Botond. Material Immaterial: The New Work of Kengo Kuma

Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. — 255 p.Project descriptions by Balázs Bognár.
In our 2005 monograph Kengo Kuma: Selected Works, celebrated architect Kengo Kuma boldly declared that his ultimate aim was to "erase architecture" so that his buildings became one with their surroundings. In recent years he has pursued this goal by focusing primarily on imaginative and unexpected use of materials, creating hypnotizing surfaces that evoke subtle visual sensations by highlighting their materiality. Only by pushing a material to the limits of its capabilities does Kuma believe their true nature can be revealed. Ingenious and yet deceptively simple, this realization represented a major turning point in his desire to give his architecture a presence beyond the merely eye-catching or sculptural.