Komorebi by Kengo Kuma

On the hill overlooking Saint Victoire in Southern France that Cezanne much loved by Paul Cézanne, we made a pavilion as organic as a tree.

By gradually lifting off the planks of ipe in 20 mm-thick with excellent durability, we achieved a floating kind of lightness.

We supported the transparent structure by sandwiching a 4 mm-thick stainless plate between the planks.

We tried abstraction of the trees in the way Cézanne drew Saint Victoire. Source Kengo Kuma and Associates.

A model of the pavilion was recently exhibited at “Lab for material” in Tokyo, a collection of the architect’s works organized into categories such as bamboo, wood, paper, stone, and earth which highlights its sensitivity to the environment and to materiality.

• Location: Château-La-Coste, France
• Architect: Kengo Kuma and Associates
• Year: 2017.12
• Photographs: Robin Oggiano, James Reeve, via Kengo Kuma