From September 2015 through April 2017, the Portland Japanese Garden was under construction on a $33.5 million expansion project. The construction process culminating with the finished Cultural Crossing expansion, designed by world-renowned architect, Kengo Kuma.

The project is the first public commission in America for Japanese architect Kengo Kuma & Associates, who founded in Tokyo-based practice in 1990. He won the commission through an international competition.

Designed as a new Cultural Village for the world-famous Oregon facility, the new Garden House and intimate Umami Café cohesively enhance the timeless look of the Portland Japanese Garden. The aluminum metal panel façade system specified for each pavilion unifies the new structures with the old. Simple in form but striking in texture and tone, the panels enliven the urban garden without taking away from nature as the facility’s centerpiece.

The Japanese custom of nurturing ‘landscaped sanctuaries’ as havens from urban life has prevailed for centuries, encouraging restoration through reconnection to nature. Their beauty is eloquently echoed in the word shinrin-yoku (forest bathing). Beauty, naturalism and simplicity remain the essence of Japanese culture, continually celebrated through every turn of the reinvigorated Portland Japanese Garden.
 

Descripción del proyecto por Kengo Kuma & Associates Description of project by Kengo Kuma & Associates

Portland Japanese Garden’s new Cultural Village is a modest, human-scaled set of buildings arranged around a courtyard plaza, whose fourth side is the existing, untouched gardens from the 1960s. The project is a village positioned along a journey from the city to the top of the hill, a form of modern monzenmachi wherein the pilgrimage pays homage to the spirit of nature.

There are four buildings, each with its own means of merging into the dramatic slopes of the terrain, in combination with the tall vertical lines of the Pacific Northwest conifers: the Ticketing Pavilion floating above gentle stepped ponds, the Tea Cafe hovering above the ravine, and the main Village House and Garden House.

Although the architecture is deferential to the landscape, the key device is the zigzagging roof—creating deep overhangs of soft metal and lush vegetation, and a porous boundary to encourage a direct relationship with the renowned Portland rain, and its temperamental sun—in a soft, indeterminate, and flexible border.

In collaboration with Sadafumi Uchiyama (landscape design), Hacker Architects, Walker Macy.

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Kengo Kuma was born in Yokohama (Kanagawa, Japan) in 1954. He studied architecture at the University of Tokyo, finishing his degree in 1979. In 1987, he opened the "Spatial Design Studio". In 1990 he founded "Kengo Kuma & Associates" and extended the study to Europe (Paris, France) in 2008. Since 1985 and until 2009, has taught as a visiting professor and holder at the universities of Columbia, Keio, Illinois and Tokyo.

Notable projects include Japan National Stadium (2019), V&A Dundee (2019), Odunpazari Modern Art Museum (2019), and The Suntory Museum of Art (2007).

Kengo Kuma proposes architecture that opens up new relationships between nature, technology, and human beings. His major publications include Zen Shigoto(The complete works, Daiwa S hobo)Ten Sen Men (“point, line, plane”, IwanamiShoten), Makeru Kenchiku (Architecture of Defeat, Iwanami Shoten), Shizen na Kenchiku(Natural Architecture, Iwanami Shinsho), Chii sana Kenchiku (Small Architecture, IwanamiShinsho) and many others.

Main Awards:

· 2011 The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for "Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum."
· 2010 Mainichi Art Award for “Nezu Museum.”
· 2009 "Decoration Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" (France).
· 2008 Energy Performance + Architecture Award (France). Bois Magazine International Wood Architecture Award (France).
· 2002 Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award (Finland).
· 2001 Togo Murano Award for “Nakagawa-machi Bato Hiroshige Museum.”
· 1997 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for “Noh Stage in the Forest”. First Place, AIA DuPONT Benedictus Award for “Water/Glass” (USA).

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