Defeated Architecture_Ken Kuma As A Thinker And Practitioner

Kuma Kengo was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, in1954. He finishedhis Master degree in the Department of Architecture, University of Tokyo in1979.From1985to1986,he worked as a visiting scholar in Columbia University and Graduate school of AsianCulture Burear. Then he founded "Spatial Design Studio" in1987and Kengo Kuma&Associates in1990.From1990s, in his design practice, Kengo Kuma started to grope a new kind of architectureconcept of connection with nature, in which the architectural design does not intentionallypursues the symbolic meanings and sense of vision. He admires the traditional Japaneseculture and makes use of proper materials adapting to the local condition, in order to dilutethe feeling of isolation of buildings and to extend spaces into the buildings. Now he hasbecome a first-class architect in JapanKengo Kuma assembled all his writings since1995and compiled them in to a booknamed《Defeated Architecture》, which interprets his thoughts of "defeated architecture". Inthis book, he clarified his anxiety about the views of modernism architecture, and induced anew topic to abandon the motivation to build "solid" structure in mind, but to integrate senseof lightness and transparence into buildings on the premises of bearing external forces.By deeply study on Kengo Kuma, this paper tried to find out the origin thoughts of"defeated architecture" from the various types of architecture, so that make conclusion on theuniqueness of "defeated architecture" design and on the strategies to eliminate the limits ofbuildings. As the study goes further, the author found that it is better for architects to step outfrom ideological frame of Kengo Kuma and to study different cases by choosing properreference, so that their observation and consideration could be more calm and objective.Based on the case studies, this thesis described about the characteristics of KengoKuma's design, and clarified specific intensions expressed in different types of architecturewhere the concept of "defeated architecture" applied. And in the end, the author pointed outthe meaning of introducing the concept of "defeated architecture" into Chinese architecturefield.