Vesper No. 9 | The Adversary | Fall-Winter 2023
Kengo Kuma with Marco Vanucci
Digital Crafts. The Other Modernity
Keywords
Kengo Kuma, modernity, craftsmanship, Japanese
architecture, Hiroshi Hara
At the end of the 20th century, computation and digital production
(CAD/CAM technologies) introduced a paradigm shift in technological
development, supplanting serialized industrial production: mass customization
at zero marginal cost made possible by digital machines opened up the way to a
new form of production that combines the variability of craftsmanship and the
efficiency of mechanical machines.
Kengo Kuma’s work, in line with the Japanese architectural
tradition in which the building is made up of interchangeable parts, has gained
international attention for having challenged the idea of an architecture object
in which the unity of the whole disregards the articulation of the individual
parts. His architecture aims to re-establish a relationship with place and to
experience space with all five senses. The interview traces his intellectual
and professional career, highlighting the years of his training in Japan,
between learning traditional craftsmanship and the experiments that projected
him into the international avant-garde.
contacts
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