Kengo Kuma – The Flow of Lines through the Lens of Erieta Attali

Kengo Kuma is one of the most acclaimed contemporary architects. His projects, including the V&A Dundee design museum, the Tiffany store in Tokyo’s Ginza district, the National Stadium in Tokyo and many other buildings worldwide, have attracted considerable attention. The natural connection to context, to landscape and history, the choice of materials, whether glass, stone or wood, the interplay of lines and the distinctive light all make Kengo Kuma’s work so unique. The sense of transparency is captured through the lens of New York City and Paris based architectural and landscape photographer Erieta Attali.

Less well known are Kuma’s hand-drawn sketches, which are on display in the exhibition. While Kuma conceives of architecture in his drawings as a fluid process, an interweaving of material and relationship to the surroundings, Attali turns her photographic gaze to those quiet moments in which built structure, nature and light merge. The juxtaposition of drawing and photography creates a field of tension between design and experience, imagination and reality. This publication accompanies an exhibition that not only shows architecture, but makes it tangible.
 

Erieta Attali. Wood/Pile, Bavaria, Germany. Photo © Erieta Attali