According to renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, "this book aims to establish the interrelation between patterns and layering within architecture. These two previously detached notions can now be integrated into one methodology mediated by structural concepts. Patterns and Layering is the first book to introduce this new interrelationship, which has the potential to begin a new architectural and design revolution.” More information + full content after the break.
In Japanese art and textile printing, the use of patterns has a long tradition. In Japanese architecture, layering is an established technique that has already inspired the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. Now, the laboratory of renowned architect Kengo Kuma has developed a technically sophisticated methodology that unites patterns and layering in a single structural concept for the first time.
The book Patterns and Layering presents innovative structures that are created by stacking fragile, patterned layers. Although each individual layer can contain a variety of patterns, it will nevertheless still completely fulfill its structural responsibilities. The results are strikingly delicate, yet remarkably stable.
The book’s detailed texts explain how layering and patterns function as spatial tools with which one can create extraordinary structures that are able to coexist in harmony with nature, people, and culture. Patterns and Layering not only explores historical contexts and developments, but also shows cutting-edge experiments that were realized with valuable input from Kengo Kuma and his colleague Yusuke Obuchi. According to Kuma, the book “has the potential to begin a new architectural and design revolution.”
Editors Salvator-John A. Liotta and Matteo Belfiore, as well as other contributors, worked closely with Kengo Kuma at his research laboratory at the University of Tokyo. Thanks to Kuma’s enthusiasm for the book as well as the inclusion of design details such as silkscreen prints and calligraphy, Patterns and Layering embodies the Japanese understanding of space, nature, and architecture—page for page, layer for layer.
CONTENT
004 Foreword / Kengo Kuma
006 Background / Salvator-John A. Liotta and Matteo Belfiore
008 Patterns, Japanese Spatial Culture, Nature, and Generative Design / Salvator-John A. Liotta
052 Spatial Layering in Japan / Matteo Belfiore
Thinking
098 Japanese Pattern Eccentricities/ Rafael Balboa
106 Evolution of Geometrical Pattern / Ling Zhang
112 Development of Japanese Traditional Pattern Under the Influence of Chinese Culture / Yao Chen
118 Patterns in Japanese Vernacular Architecture: Envelope Layers and Ecosystem Integration / Catarina Vitorino 126 Distant Distances / Bojan Milan Koncarevic
134 European and Japanese Space: A Different Perception Through Artists' Eyes / Federico Scaroni
140 Pervious and Phenomenal Opacity: Boundary Techniques and Intermediating Patterns as Design Strategies / Robert Baum
146 Integrated Interspaces: An Urban Interpretation of the Concept of Oku / Cristiano Lippa
152 Craft Mediated Designs: Explorations in Modernity and Bamboo / Kaon Ko
Doing
160 Patterns as Initiators of Design, Layering as Codifier of Space / Ko Nakamura and Mikako Koike
168 On Pattern and Digital Fabrication / Yusuke Obuchi
Publisher: Gestalten
Editors: Salvator-John Liotta, Matteo Belfiore
Credits: Foreword by Kengo Kuma
Format: 17 x 24 cm
Features: 176 pages, full color, softcover
Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-89955-461-8
