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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.
Kengo Kuma
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the harmony between architecture and nature, highlighting how design can enhance our experience of the natural world.

Kengo Kuma's quote reflects his philosophy of architecture as a medium that allows people to connect with nature on a deeper level. He believes that through the careful use of natural materials and light, architecture can create spaces that amplify the beauty of the natural environment, thereby enabling a more intimate experience with it. This approach champions transparency and encourages a seamless interaction between human-made structures and the natural landscape.

Themes

ArchitectureNatureTransparencyLightDesign

In practice

Example use cases

During a presentation on sustainable architecture, this quote can illustrate the importance of integrating natural elements into designs.

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