Kengo Kuma

Since the age of ten, when he first saw the monumental concrete gymnasium designed by Kenzo Tange for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kengo Kuma (b. 1954) has aspired to create architecture that utilizes materials in an expressive manner. Despite his early fascination with concrete, Kuma has become better known for his unusual handling of glass, wood, and stone in works as diverse as private residences, Buddhist temples, and art museums. With an acute sensitivity to maximizing a building's setting--whether urban or rural--Tange has created such celebrated structures as the Tokyo headquarters of Louis Vuitton, adobe housing for an ancient wooden Buddha, and an observatory that is sunk into a seaside hill like Michael Heizer's Double Negative.