The criteria for architecture after the tsunami is humbleness
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of humility in architectural design, especially after a disaster.
Kengo Kuma's quote highlights the need for architects to adopt a humble approach when rebuilding after catastrophic events like tsunamis. This humility should inform their designs, acknowledging the power of nature and the fragility of human life, prioritizing sustainability and respect for the environment over grandeur or excess.
In practice
During a talk on sustainable building practices, one might reference Kuma's quote to encourage architects to design with humility.
You could say that my aim is ‘to recover the place’. The place is a result of nature and time; this is the most important aspect. I think my architecture is some kind of frame of nature. With it, we can experience nature more deeply and more intimately. Transparency is a characteristic of Japanese architecture; I try to use light and natural materials to get a new kind of transparency.
All buildings, large or small, public or private, have a public face, a facade; they therefore, without exception, have a positive or negative effect on the quality of the public realm, enriching or impoverishing it in a lasting and radical manner. The architecture of the city and public space is a matter of common concern to the same degree as laws and language—they are the foundation of civility and civilisation.
My architectural drive was to design new types of buildings to help poor people, especially following natural disasters and catastrophes... I will use whatever time is left to me to keep doing what I have been doing, which is to help humanity.
The difference between a builder and an architect is that an architect also cares about desire, about dreams.
We're always taught that we're building for permanence, but why? I like the idea of a prosthetic architecture! When a section is removed, the building readjusts its weight distribution, like a living body.
Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human co-existence.
Architects mostly work for privileged people, people who have money and power. Power and money are invisible, so people hire us to visualize their power and money by making monumental architecture. I love to make monuments, too, but I thought perhaps we can use our experience and knowledge more for the general public, even for those who have lost their houses in natural disasters.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.