Picture: V&A at Dundee
Award winning Japanese architect Kengo Kuma’s new £45m outpost for the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in Dundee on the East Coast of Scotland is a bold and ambitious design that combines cutting-edge technology with a harmonious spatial awareness.
Kuma, 58, who once said that his work “recovered the tradition of Japanese buildings to reinterpret them for the 21st century” is renowned for buildings such as the Great Bamboo Wall House in Beijing and the Lotus House, near Tokyo – both were designed to integrate themselves with their environment. The new V&A Dundee, due to be completed in 2015, is no exception. “Our philosophy will be perfectly realised in the Dundee project, especially the way it works in harmony with nature,” explains Kuma from his Tokyo office.
The 15,000m2 project will to be built on a newly constructed site on Dundee’s waterfront, accommodating up to 860 visitors and 76 staff. It is an iconic design that will transform the waterfront and provide a significant new architectural facet to the city. The new development will reconnect Dundee and the river through the introduction of series of public spaces and a reshaped waterfront. It follows a number of major big-name projects that have sought to revitalise cities, the most notable being Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao that opened in 1997. “The project will become the new ‘living room’ for the city,” Kuma says of the V&A Dundee, adding that the building is designed for people to establish an individual relationship with.
“We believe the notion of nature that exists beyond the gates can be applied to the rich Celtic culture in Scotland”
In a tradition of Japanese architecture, Kuma explores light and the possibilities of materiality. He is known for using unexpected material from stone to wood in his projects to create an individual ambiguity.
Kuma’s main characteristic is his focus on how spaces connect. Kuma reveals that the V&A design references Shinto shrines in its use of space: “We interpret the project as a gate that frames the nature beyond, and we recognise this spatial connection as having a resemblance to Shinto shrines. We believe the notion of nature that exists beyond the gates can be applied to the rich Celtic culture in Scotland.”
The architect has described his work as a “frame to nature”. Kuma’s buildings explore particular post-modern themes, namely nature and its relationship to historical tradition. Unsurprisingly, sustainability features strongly in his work. “I interpret sustainability as a mannerism between human embodiment and substance,” says Kuma, who tells me that the V&A project strives to maximise the use of natural ventilation. Japanese design philosophy is predisposed to being “greener” because of its inventive use of limited resources and the maximisation of spatial opportunities. Kuma explains how he has applied this to the V&A design by using locally sourced materials and developing the design at detail level. “This careful and meticulous attention to detail and choice of material reflects a Japanese design philosophy that is predisposed to being sustainable,” he says.
Kuma once said that he wanted to “erase architecture” through dematerialisation. “The will to erase architecture can be interpreted as being in opposition to erecting an architecture that has no relationship with its surrounding environment,” he says. Indeed the twisting profile of the new V&A Dundee, inspired by the Scottish coastal rock landscape, will surely generate a delicate, dynamic relationship with the river and the city.