by Kenneth Frampton
The ambiguity which lruiy matters, the sense-giving ambivalence, the genuine foundation on
which the cognitive usaiulness of conceiving human habitat as the ‘world of culture' rests. is
the ambivalence between 'creativlty' and ‘normative regulation'. The two ideas could not be
further apart, yet both are — and must remain -— present in the composite idea of Culture.
Zygmuni Bauman, Culture as Praxis, 1999‘
Within the generation of architects who are now in their mid-fifties, it would be hard to find
one more quintessentially Japanese than Kengo Kuma, even though he now seems to be
building as much outside of Japan as within it. Something similar could have been previously
claimed with respect to Tadao Ando, who, while only thirteen years Kuma's senior. now seems
to belong to a totally different generation. This much is reflected in the antipathy between their
respective approaches, which with few exceptions could hardly be more different. with Ando
invariably building in reinforced concrete and Kuma finding the material itself to be an anath—
ema. This schism dates back to Kuma’s negative reaction as a student to Ando's Row House
in Sumiyoshi (1976), for which Ando was awarded the much-coveted Japan Architectural Prize
in the year of its completion. Kuma’s response to the introspective character of this concrete
house was psycho—physiological. in as much as he felt that he would literally suffocate in its
presence. it is telling that he would later account for the intensity of this reaction in terms of his
origins. in that from an early age he had been brought up to appreciate the virtues of living in
buildings made entirely of wood. Thus in his essay 'Material is Not a Finish' (2004), he Writes:
i do not know what brought about such reactions. it may have had something to do with
the fact that l was born and raised in a pre-war Japanese wood-frame residence. This
house was originally constructed for my grandfather. who was a doctor in Ohi, Tokyo,
as a weekend farming residence. it was simple. with plenty of ventilation. Moreover,
both my grandfather and my father abhorred the inhuman texture of aluminium window
frames so much that when the houses was added onto or renovated, only wooden
window frames allowing draughts to flow in were permitted?