Kuma Kengo: An Unconventional Monograph  --  Sophie Houdart & Minato Chihiro

Full Citation and Summary Houdart, Sophie, and Chihiro Minato. Kuma Kengo:  An
Unconventional Monograph. Trans. Lucy Lyall Grant. Paris: Editions Donner Lieu,
2009. Print.

Chapter Notes

A note on format: each chapter except the introduction and the last three
little bits are formatted as a series of "tableaus" which deal with specific
sub-issues within the chapter theme. These "settings" and the "characters"
within them are presented at the beginning of each chapter to provide an
overview of the condition before diving in. This choice is never directly
engaged in the text. It is up to the reader to figure out the significance of
the format.

Introduction (pp. 10-20)
- Describes first meeting with Kuma in December 2001 (pp. 11); notes the
 original impetus for the ethnographic project: to learn about the Japanese
 World Fair; preparatory research & the standard way of knowing architects
 through interviews on the conceptual themes (pp. 12)
- Main focus: ethnography inside the office to observe the development of the
 architecture, compares it to ethnographies in labs (pp. 12); following
 specific projects rather than general workings of the office, Kuma tries to
 take a personal back seat by putting his architecture first, no interviews with
 Kuma, just observation (pp. 13)
- H&M think this as an "ethnography of Kuma" that has a large archival
 component made up of reports, working papers, minutes, administrative docs
 (pp. 13-14)
- Non-chronological format (thematic) focusing on the details of architectural
 practices (pp. 14)
- 8 month embedding in Japan (pp. 15) and later casual visits to the France
 office
- The approach was to understand Kuma's architecture [note the `s] through the
 activities of its production rather than through the speech of the architect,
 but the desire to keep Kuma, the singularity of the individual architect, in
 view (pp. 15)
- Notes his absence, stresses how his work is described through the material
 and setting of the architecture (pp. 15)
- Not architect as mythical genius, but the architect as a delegated figure
 through acting proxies (pp. 16)
- Not a description of architects at work (sociology) but a description of what
 architects witness and experience (pp. 16)
- This means a different connection between rhetoric of the architect (the
 ideas, philosophies, etc.) and the images produced, between theory and
 practice; the idea, the theory is lodged in the "gaps and spaces" of the
 processes/images, the idea is material at every moment in the process and
 suffuses it (pp. 16)
- Focus on work-in-progress rather than completion, architecture in the making
 (pp. 16); through narration and images, trying to gain a density to the
 account (Geertz, Piette) (pp. 17)
- Discussion of architecture's main themes through descriptive process:
 architecture as process, question of auteur style, the place of materials,
 media [in the artistic sense, not media technologies necessarily] for design,
 and the role of context (pp. 17)

Approach Tactics (pp. 20-42) Intro section (pp. 20-24)
- Outlines the two "tableaus," description of the setting in theatrical detail,
 lists the characters, note who isn't listed by name (the 13 Japanese
 architects) (pp. 22-23)
- This chapter as covering the various ways Houdart/Minato could have
 approached Kuma: through completed work, through social organization of his
 office, through his theory (pp. 24)
- Examines "materiality" of the frameworks: what they do and do not reveal and
 why (pp. 24) Flashback (pp. 24-33)
- Narrative of original approach to Kuma through interest in the 2005 Japanese
 World Fair in Nagoya that Kuma was going to be contributing to through
 research on his work, visiting exhibitions, etc. (pp. 24-33)
- Reveals an opposition between individual creation/genius & national
 style/culture (pp. 27)
- Does not reveal "design in the making" (pp. 28)
- Some general usual things architects talk about in popular interviews:
 local-global, Japan-international, Japan-ness, conception,
 modernity-tradition, nature/environment (pp. 29)
- Revealing Kuma's design motivations and philosophy: building as "non-object"
 (pp. 30-31), anti-postmodernity, dissolution of the building as anti-ego
 gesture (pp. 32-33) The Master of the House (pp. 33-42)
- Narration of 2001 meeting with Kuma in his office, an official interview with
 Kuma as representative of this technique (pp. 33-42)
- Main themes apparent: Japanese architects as close to gardeners and
 carpenters, close partnership with clients (like carpenters) [the architect's
 role] (pp. 34), mixture of Deleuzianism and national tradition in Kuma's design
 philosophy (pp. 34-35), the role of IT in his work as simply a design tool
 subsumed to the designer (pp. 36), the role of Bruno Taut as a precedent (pp.
 37)
- Decision to take an observational approach and sidestep questions of
 intention to get at details, recapitulation of the point of the project: to
 ask what characterises Kuma's architecture and what makes it unique through its
 making (pp. 38)

Moving Towards Existence (pp. 42-74) Intro section (pp. 42-48)
- Outlines the two tableaus and characters, note that the whole chapter is
 about the design of a new glassblowing studio (pp. 44-45)
- Narrative of the change in subject from the Japan World Exhibition to the
 glassblowing studio; directed to the project by Kuma since it was in-progress
 (46-48)
- Presents the two approaches: through client meeting on site and through
 design documents (pp. 48)
- Presents Yuki, an architect at the office who helps find material/schedule
 the fieldwork (pp. 48) What is in the Place (pp. 48-56)
- Section narrating the meeting on site between Kuma and Makoto (pp. 48)
- Kuma's approach to site visits as "feeling the site" and working with the
 place, first clue that he's being considered as a "non-modern" (pp. 48-49)
- Description of the meeting, Kuma asking questions of the client and having
 notes taken, lexicon of the client (pp. 50-51) invasion/disruption (pp. 51),
 discussion with the client of lunch (at a Kuma designed restaurant) as key to
 identifying the central issue of temperature in the studios (pp. 52-53), Kuma
 participating in glassblowing (pp. 54)
- The upshot that this is what Kuma's own approach to site visits means:
 strengthening ties with the client, outlining constraints, learning lexicon
 and practices that take place on site (pp. 55)
- This as activating connections which are more or less close by; the site
 visit always establishes new connections (pp. 55) Inscriptions Within
 Inscriptions (pp. 56-59)
- Unclarity of the meaning of "beginning" in the project context, what kind of
 beginning? (pp. 56)
- Narration of looking at the documents on the glass blowing studio (pp. 56-57)
- Difficulty of genealogy of a project, stages follow each other but don't
 necessarily follow from one another (pp. 57), the sketch not as the first act
 of conception but as a later expression of a building (pp. 58); "versioning" as
 the operative action (pp. 58-59) Daily Tests to Erect the Models (sic.) [in the
 book text this reads "...for the building"] (pp. 59-64)
- Description of a student intern making a model (pp. 59)
- Finding out productive short cuts (pp. 61)
- The reception of new information and vagaries during the model production
 process (pp. 62)
- She tests the model-as-plan against the site and modifies to fit, an
 iterative process of fitting (pp. 63)
- Note the stress on staying up late to complete production Tests (pp. 64-68)
- Presentation of the finished model in Yamaguchi to the clients (pp. 64)
- Presentation by members of the practice on behalf of Kuma, as proxies (pp.
 64)
- Makato presents and gets new information through prompting the clients with
 the model, new problems brought to the fore and new issues to be resolved,
 increasing detail (pp. 67)
- Information = "data" here; the context of images as data that can be "turned
 over" (pp. 68) FFJ the Formula (pp. 68-74)
- Another description of a model making process; a different student (pp. 68)
- Note the telephonic communication between floors of the office space (pp. 68)
- Interruptions which change the model (pp. 69)
- Storing unused model parts since they are typical of Kuma projects: louvers
 (pp. 70)
- The meaninglessness of "beginning" and "end" in the architectural process
 through H/M's view; the fact that documents of the process are meaningless in
 the face of processual observation (pp. 71)

Motifs at Work (pp. 74-102) Intro section (pp. 74-81)
- Outlines the two tableaus and characters in the design of a district in
 Tokyo; towers; involving Mitsui (pp. 76-77)
- The chapter is about style:  to understand Kuma's style is to examine
 architectural intentionality and the materialization of architectural
 concepts (pp. 78)
- Outline of Kuma's move from post-modern architect to a "natural architecture"
 through digitality, through use of wood over other materials (pp. 78-79)
- Examining wood in practice, the way its materiality and the philosophy it
 represents is negotiable, the limits and terms of those negotiations will be
 examined (pp. 80)
- Accounts the Boeicho project and how wood figures and transforms through the
 project; following the "journey" of wood through various media (pp. 80-81)
 Bearings (pp. 81-84)
- Outlines the main tensions of the project that Kuma's team must deal with
 (pp. 81-83)
- The way Kuma's team increased in importance and involvement sine the clients
 liked their original design (pp. 82)
- Focusing on the way their design gained privileged status and weight in
 negotiations through its appearance in three kinds of architectural media
 (pp. 83) The Concept Board (pp. 84-87)
- The fragmentation and distribution of information in the architectural
 process: the fact that no one person has a complete view of the project; the
 fact of not knowing where anything is taking place at any given time (pp. 84)
- The flashes of decision-making which happen outside the view of the
 researcher, where schedules/habits conflict [mods are asleep vibes] (pp.
 84-85)
- Specific material practice of concept-making attached to collage medium:
 collage, assemblage, composition  photocopying, cutting, formatting (pp. 85)
- Describes the concept board for this project and its approach to the idea of
 molecularization (pp. 86-87)
- Mentions the management of waste from the process of testing concepts: the
 waste-paper and the recycling of louvers (pp. 87)
- Collage and the reconciliation of various aspects of Kuma: Japaneseness
 reconciled with environmentalism on the level of his own presentation (pp.
 87) Perspective Drawings (pp. 87-91)
- Concept board as collecting relations and adjacencies to be "inscribed" in
 the project, as direct cause of computational "IT" processes of drawing
 production (pp. 87)
- Perspective images as mock ups of material effects; the rendering process as
 happening at the click of a button, the invisibility/autonomy of the
 computer's processes (pp. 88)
- Postprocessing as a process of incremental refining and iteration with
 colours, with reference to Kuma: approximation and testing (pp. 89)
- Rendering as mapping (textures) and writing (colours) (pp. 89); a coding
 operation rather than drawing, one which associates image and database where
 colour means material, a textuality not a visuality (pp. 90)  Models (pp.
 90-95)
- Models as expanded textuality, the confrontation where a concept is reworked
 when it materialises, through the hard meeting with materials (pp. 90-91)
- Changes in scale and the reading of modeling materials; questions of
 representation where wood stands in for everything (pp. 91-92); model meaning
 hinges on recognition of a surface treatment as something its not (pp. 93)
- Model-making as a multi-media process where various kinds of image,
 model-making material, etc. work in concert (pp. 94); the preservation of the
 "design philosophy" through the modelling process (pp. 95)  Testing the Louvers
 (pp. 95-102)
- The legal/regulatory challenges to the use of wood for louvers (pp. 95);
 building codes limiting use of wood for wall systems, but the loophole where
 ornament is exempt (pp. 96-97)
- Redefinition as a means of sidestepping regulation (pp. 97)

Architecture in its Environment (pp. 102-136) intro section (pp. 102-108)
- Another chapter on the Boeicho project: introduces the characters (mostly
 corporate representatives designated as "arrays/lists" of the companies they
 represent) and the two settings (pp. 102-103)
- Introduces the chapter focus on examining the tension btwn architectural
 creation/production and national culture (pp. 104)
- Creation: building as unique to itself and non-reproducible -- recognition:
 the building takes a part in authenticable "traditions" (pp. 104)
- STS methods as inviting us to go and see first-hand how the two actually
 happen in relation to each other (pp. 104)
- Chapter reveals how architects, clients, and engineers manipulate and shape
 culture as they work on materials; harmonising materials and "harmonising"
 culture (pp. 105-106) Programming Culture (pp. 108-111)
- Introduction with an anecdote where H/M notice, long after their first visit,
 the room where architects sleep at the office (pp. 108)
- Research happening despite and around the accumulation of design
 documentation: models, papers, etc. that may or may not be important (pp.
 110)
- The way documents are lost, found, and travel rapidly (pp. 110)
- The decision to allow the architects to do the parsing, no clear and final
 representation of culture in the design (pp. 111) That Which Needs to be
 Harmonised (pp. 111-117)
- The above juxtaposed against meetings where the question of culture is
 actively and directly talked over (pp. 111)
- Description of general discussion with US consultants and the question of
 evoking Japanese-ness through design (pp. 112-115)
- The way materials produce specific spatial effects to approach atmospheres of
 national culture (pp. 115)
- The final definition of culture as more than simple reproduction, as
 enhancement or amplification through specific strategies: translation,
 linking, echoing, and content (pp. 117)
- Introduces the importance of the next section, which goes in-depth to the
 discussion presented above in this section: the importance of how culture is
 engaged through coordination and through coordination, the clarification of
 roles for groups in the project (pp. 117) The Meeting (pp. 117-136)
- The media discussed in the previous chapter as "monstration" (bringing into
 existence) and "demonstration" (proving existence fulfills requirements of
 program) devices (pp. 117)
- The intensification of extra-office interactions near the end of design
 development (pp. 118)
- Transformation of room for meeting through formatting/choreographing media,
 producing linearity where there was just accumulation, the room becomes
 artistic medium (pp. 118); The room as evidence of success of design process
 (pp. 119)
- The researcher becomes accomplice (pp. 119)
- SOM architects note the balance between coherence of "architectural
 vocabulary" and uniqueness, independence and coordination (pp. 120)
- The meeting as a connection-testing exercise between members of the design
 team, a means of coordinating action (pp. 120)
- Representation as the important support-building aspect, not necessarily the
 design (pp. 121-122)
- Documentation contains design but also projects; judgement on that projection
 (pp. 122)
- The way representation wins out over reality in testing the louvers again
 (ie. using fake wood); public reception beats out philosophical coherence
 (pp. 125)
- The way context is dynamic, it changes and flows (pp. 127-128)
- H/M conclude that the most evident element is the endless "fair"
 redistribution and coordination of skills across humans and non-humans
 through continual negotiation (pp. 128)
- The meeting as means of considering difference pragmatically and reframing it
 as simply a question of coordination (pp. 128); the question of culture
 becomes a question of materials (pp. 129)

The Pragmatics of Disappearance (pp. 136-182) Intro section (pp. 136-143)
- Chapter moves to Kuma's French office in Paris, focuses on the design of
 Marseille's FRAC; introduces to the two tableaus in Paris and Marseille;
 introduces the characters, architects at the Paris office (pp. 138-139)
- Introduction by revisiting Kuma's design writing, Anti-Object, and his
 trajectory towards dematerialization/invisibilization of architecture into
 its context via Bruno Taut; focus on connections/relations over standing out
 from environment, formal strategies of disappearance, architecture as phenomena
 (pp. 140-141)
- Digital technology as a means of reconciling antagonistic binaries (pp. 141)
- General focus of this chapter is, how one immaterializes architecture, how
 this process works in practice (pp. 142)
- Outlines the opening of the Paris office in 2008, some projects Kuma has in
 Europe (pp. 142)
- Stresses this lexicon of "pixels" in the projects, the fact that the pixel as
 concept is novel in Kuma's work (pp. 143) Projecting and convincing (pp.
 143-148)
- Starts with explanation from Nicolas, architect at Kuma Europe, of working
 with pixels; working on multiple designs in parallel through perspectives and
 models which are then validated (pp. 143-144)
- Stresses the youth of the employees at the Paris office and their
 semi-independence from the Japan office; youth on purpose, and free reign so
 that Kuma is surprised by the buildings the design (pp. 144-145)
- Discussions with Nicholas over how pixels appear in various projects designed
 by the Paris office (pp. 145-148)
- The upshot definition of architectural pixels: luminous (pp. 145), metaphoric
 (pp. 146), transferring (pp. 146), permeable (pp. 147), requiring special
 administration and maintenance (pp. 147), multiple (pp. 148), scale with
 resolution (pp. 148)  Experimenting, Multiplying and Classifying (pp. 148-152)
- Houdart/Minato look at drawings of the pixel façade for FRAC (pp. 148-149)
- The importance of having multiple files open at once, the shared folder where
 all architects can access files (pp. 149)
- Nicholas presents an IPR drawing with 3000 pixels, stresses the connection
 between pixel accumulation and cost (pp. 150)
- H/M attach this to the accumulation of files and documentation of design (pp.
 150-151)
- Setting up of communication protocols between Paris and Japan office:
 continually updated system of tracking Kuma's global location & contact info
 in real time by his secretary, regular report-backs to Kuma, talking on the
 phone in an accumulation of "micro-interactions" (pp. 151)
- Communications protocols as design platform (pp. 152) Manufacturing and
 Lightening (pp. 152-157)
- Presents a meeting between Louise (another architect at Paris office) and the
 lighting consultant on FRAC over lighting the pixels (pp. 152-157)
- Notes the accumulation of design material around and through the meeting (pp.
 154)
- The way definitions of architectural concepts get co-defined in concert with
 clients and consultants, acquiring a mutual understanding and lexicon for the
 project [see also Loukissas 2012] (pp. 156) Filling and Emptying (pp. 156-166)
- Focus on working on the pixels in AutoCAD (pp. 156)
- Techniques of making the past and not losing what has already been designed;
 data management as a question of accumulation (pp. 157)
- Description of working on the pixel façade in CAD with detailed descriptions
 of the architect's work (pp. 158-165)
- Descriptions of operations at the interface, the way keypresses move pixels
 on the screen, the way history is serial and human-readable (pp. 160-162)
- Specific practices reveal binaries in tension (pp. 164)
- The pragmatics of disappearance are inseparable from aggregation, attachment,
 and connection (pp. 165) Attaching and Detaching (pp. 166-182)
- Covers a meeting with façade engineers and the discussions surrounding
 methods of attachment/structure for the pixels (pp. 166)
- The trade-offs between the effect of the pixel swarm and the connectivity
 that underpins it (pp. 170)

Epilogue, A Matter of Details (pp. 182-190)
- Section as a debrief of the research, going to the details (pp. 183-184)
- Trend in Kuma's work:
- 1) pushing architecture to the limits through trust in materials (pp. 184)
- Kuma's praise of national culture of this trust; hyper-nationalistic aspect
 of his approach to materials (pp. 185)
- 2) Material variation with motifs, pixelization and fragmentation (pp. 187)
- Kuma's architectural environment as one of travel and circulation: the stress
 on his employees being mobile, on the continual movement of information via
 various channels (these are listed), etc. (pp. 189) Post-Production (pp.
 190-194)
- Statement on the process of doing the research (pp. 191)
- Two major pieces of field research: on in Japan, in one go, and one in Paris,
 multiple visits around habitual activities (pp. 191)
- Writing up of fragmented events, the photographic project as semi-separate,
 documenting completed buildings (pp. 191-192)

Apropos... By Kuma Kengo (pp. 194-202)
- Kuma's response considering the research as completed (pp. 195)
- Notes his establishment of the firm in 1986 during Japan's "bubble" (pp.
 196), then small projects, less work in the 90s during an economic crash (pp.
 195)
- Economic crisis as characterising his approach, simplicity of materials and
 trying to do more with less on tight budgets (pp. 197-198)
- H/M document the "recovery" of his office and their movement to larger
 projects (pp. 199)
- Kuma calls Minato Chihiro a "leading character" despite being rarely
 mentioned (pp. 199)
- The way Kuma gained a level of reflection upon his process through the work
 of Houdart/Minato (pp. 199)

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