kengo kuma: naturescape for urban stories

‘naturescape’ by kengo kuma, milan, italyimage © frassinagodiciotto

for milan design week 2013, kengo kuma‘s urbanistic ideas are given a new context in the ever-burgeoning landscape of skyscrapers. his ‘naturescape for urban stories‘ presents a vision for a living space in the midst of urban development in the center of the design capital. these ‘urban stories’ are suspended between sculptural environment and architecture, an abstracted and layered japanese garden comprised of pietra serena stone, bamboo, water and gravel, the topographic installation creates a terrain of depressions and elevations that dictate the shape of water and the paths of movement. the quiet, form-making power of water confronts the material tenacity of stone, while exposing the ability of the aqueous force to render the pietra serena delicate and soft. the design posits that the urban environment can be intensely livable and inextricably connected to the original architecture of the earth.

the project was a enthusiastically backed by a collaboration of frassinagodiciotto and il casone, together with agape, pratic, tribù and vaselli, and with technical support from davide groppi.

water pools and stone layers dictate circulation image © frassinagodiciotto

image © frassinagodiciotto

detail of the layered stone as it meets gravel image © frassinagodiciotto

the immovable material is rendered delicate image © frassinagodiciotto

detail viewsimage © frassinagodiciotto

the installation evokes the serenity of a japanese garden image © enrico conti

the abstracted landscape puts together a palette of earthen materials image © enrico conti

the stone paths become dynamic gradient in different light conditions image © enrico conti

pool view image © enrico conti

image © enrico conti

subtlety characterizes the environment image © enrico conti

one of the plentiful clusters of bamboo  image © enrico conti

image © enrico conti

horizontality meets green verticality image © enrico conti

the installation makes for furniture integration image © enrico conti

image © enrico conti

among the rapidly developing, sky-scraper spotted center of milan, ‘naturescape’ remains an alternate urban vision image © enrico conti

image © enrico conti

distinctions between interior and exterior are blurred image © enrico conti

concept sketch by kengo kuma