Photo: Jeremy Bittermann
Description of event
Balázs Bognár, Partner and Executive Vice President of Kengo Kuma & Associates/KKAA (Tokyo, Japan), earned a BA in Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis and an M.Arch. at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He has worked at KKAA since 2007 with a focus on projects in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and China. In that context, he served as Chief Manager for the Cultural Crossing expansion at the Portland Japanese Garden, collaborating closely in that work with Department of Landscape Architecture alum Sadafumi Uchiyama (BLA 1991, MLA 1993), who was then Chief Curator of the garden and Director of the International Japanese Garden Training Center there.
In his lecture, Bognár will describe methods for determining location and detail as applied through the work of KKAA. In the first part of the talk, he will discuss the practice of place, looking specifically at two projects by the firm—in Yusuhara and Minamisanriku, Japan—both borne out of initially disadvantageous forces of nature, and both generating multiple projects and longer relationships between design and community. In the second part of the talk, Bognár will talk about how the KKAA office works, emphasizing the importance of conversation in processes. Then, in the final part of the talk, he will focus on a particular wood detail that manifests itself across a series of projects, demonstrating the firm’s interest in developing ideas through evolution, and not revolution.
This lecture is made possible with support from the Stanley H. White Lecture endowed fund, and it is being co-sponsored with the Illinois School of Architecture.
If you require accessibility accommodation(s) to participate in any of our events, please contact our Office Administrator, Marti Gortner, by phone at 217-333-0176 or by email at ladept@illinois.edu.
For more information about this and other events in our Spring 2026 lecture series, please contact Prof. David L. Hays.
Portrait photo: Miko Hayashi
Photo: Jeremy Bittermann