Monday, January 5, 2009

Kengo Kuma "Defeated Architecture"



Foreword
by Zhue
It has be an honor to be invited to write a foreword for this book. However, it is also a risk by doing so. I myself am a graphic designer, after all. What about architect Kengo Kuma can I talk? Nonetheless, after reading this book, I would very much likely to share some feelings with all of you. Although it seems like to have obvious differences in our works, but what he says here is in fact far crossing the boundary. The crossing not only provides me courage and possibility to speak, but also opens a window for more people who are in the fields of architecture and even other design. From this meaning, readers that "Defeated Architecture" will face and expect should be much wider, because what Kengo Kuma has considered is not limited to architecture itself, but problems that our era faces.

I know Kengo Kuma through Kenya Hara. "You ought to know Kengo Kuma." Henya Hara's seriousness raised my curiosity. Later on, I work many projects with Kengo Kuma, through this; I understand him and his work more.

It is to believe that many readers knowing Kengo Kuma through the Bamboo House which standing adjacent to the Great Wall. He used bamboo as material, built a distinct space aside the Great Wall that they could face each other. It almost incredibly achieves the circumstance of "built a hut amid the throng of men". Curiously or admirably, after finish reading Defeated Architecture, maybe you can comprehend more about why he makes this choice.

"Is that possible to build architectures that neither pursue symbol meaning nor pursue visual demand on purpose? It is within this pessimism atmosphere that I wrote a series of articles, hence to make the birth of this book. And named it an indescribable title—Defeated Architecture." Looking around, "symbol meaning" and "visual demand" seem to be the target of architecture. However, why did he feel pessimistic to this condition? "The so called 'defeated architecture' is not architecture that lose, but more than the most compatible architecture." Kengo Kuma has ever explained why he uses it to name his ideal architecture to me. Although it exists a slight semantic difference between Japanese and Chinese, we can still find out his tend to make clarify because architecture is given too much appendix that departures from its original meaning.


In this book, Kengo Kuma never lists his own architectural projects, but looks to the wider world. Year of 1995, the starting of his narration, to him is a year of crisis: Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, Aum Shinrikyo cult sarin gas attacks…to the "911" attack six years later.

Architecture as human being's refuge is so weak. However, what he points out as "weak" is not limited to the physical characteristic, but more than from his position as being a builder, owner and user, to indicate that it is the private owned characteristic that deciding the weakness. The perceiving makes his target objects are not limited to architectures; his theory is hence forth not only an architect's mutter within his profession.


However, his query and pursue have never been a prate. To me, the Defeated Architecture is very instructive for understanding the variety symptoms of contemporary architectures. The two masters of modern architecture, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, have more vivid characteristics under Kengo Kuma's writing. He seems to feel regrettable to R.M.Schindler. And his praises for Togo Murano just makes us understand how he dealing with questions more deeply and all-around. Our desires let us to sever architectures from the surrounding area. We forget the original meaning of architecture is to let us live in it, to make us live more comfortable. We tend to see architecture as "object", draw all kinds of symbols on it, until we drown ourselves. I think this is what Kengo Kuma mostly wants to express. He is also coming from this point to dedicate on designing and building "defeated architecture", the most compatible architecture.

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