all images © Kengo Kuma and Associates

Kengo Kuma and Associates Portland Japanese Garden was founded in 1963, and has been loved by its citizens since then. Thanks to the rainy climate of Portland, and ceaseless maintenance by the Japanese garden designers, this garden is acclaimed as the best of its kind built outside Japan. Now, the garden is given a new mission as a cultural complex that opens up to the public. A competition was held in 2010, and Kengo Kuma & Associates was selected as the designer. Our proposal was to avoid constructing one big building, to decentralize the functions of the complex into different smaller houses, and to set a village plaza at the heart of the arrangement—this is the village at the gates of the existing garden.

Multiple functions in the architecture are melded into nature in this way. For materials, we plan to use local wood and stone as much as possible. The sloped roofs of the buildings evoke an abstract image of a Japanese village, and are planted with local vegetation as well. The new complex is due to open in 2017.

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