Judges - "Kengo Kuma & Higashikawa" KAGU Design Competition

審査員
JUDGES

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Architect, professor at the University of Tokyo

Kengo Kuma

Kengo Kuma was born in 1954. Before establishing Kengo Kuma & Associates in 1990, he received his Master’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, where he is currently a University Professor and a Professor Emeritus. Having been inspired by Kenzo Tange’s Yoyogi National Gymnasium, built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kengo Kuma decided to pursue architecture at a young age, and later entered the Architecture program at the University of Tokyo, where he studied under Hiroshi Hara and Yoshichika Uchida. During his Graduate studies, he made a research trip across the Sahara, exploring various villages and settlements, observing a unique power and beauty. After his time as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York, he established his office in Tokyo. Since then, Kengo Kuma & Associates has designed architectural works in over twenty countries and received prestigious awards, including the Architectural Institute of Japan Award, the Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award (Finland), and the International Stone Architecture Award (Italy), among others. Kengo Kuma & Associates aims to design architecture which naturally merges with its cultural and environmental surroundings, proposing gentle, human scaled buildings. The office is constantly in search of new materials to replace concrete and steel, and seeks a new approach for architecture in a post-industrial society.

Representative of NOSIGNER, President of JIDA, Director of WDO, and Specially Appointed Professor at Keio University

Eisuke Tachikawa

As a design activist, he has engaged in projects addressing social issues such as climate change mitigation, disaster prevention, and community revitalization. A versatile designer working across architecture, product design, and graphic design, he has received over 100 design awards both in Japan and internationally, including the Good Design Award Gold Prize. He has also served as a judge for various international design awards. Tachikawa has introduced the concept of “evolutionary thinking,” which draws inspiration from adaptive evolution to explore the essence of creativity. For this work, he received the Shichihei Yamamoto Prize, a prestigious award in humanities. He is dedicated to advancing creative education. As the youngest-ever president of JIDA, Asia’s oldest design organization, and a board member of the World Design Organization (WDO), a UN special consultative body, he actively promotes the role of design in society.

Artist

Asao Tokolo

Born in Tokyo in 1969. Studied architecture from an early age under Shin Egashira. Since September 11, 2001, he has been creating patterns with the theme of “connecting” and has been exploring the boundaries of art, architecture and design. He has been creating crests and patterns based on simple geometric principles that can be reproduced with a ruler or compass, and has also been designing and creating three-dimensional objects using the same principles. His major works include the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic emblems, the glass pattern of the lower level of the Nagoya Building, and the TOKOLO PATTERN MAGNET. He has been a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Engineering since 2016, a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Liberal Arts since 2018, a visiting professor at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan since 2022, and a visiting professor at Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai, China since 2024.

Architect, NAP Architectural Design Office

Hiroshi Nakamura

Born in Tokyo in 1974. Spent his childhood in Kamakura and Kanazawa. Completed Master’s program in Architecture at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering of Meiji University in 1999. Joined Kengo Kuma & Associates in the same year. Established NAP Architects in 2002. The projects he has been involved in cover a wide range of scales and uses, including residential, Sukiya-Zukuri, office, commercial, religious, and public facilities. He has received several awards from the Japan Institute of Architects, including the Award for Excellence in Architecture. He believes in designing buildings that are close to the history, townscape, climate, industry, topography, and nature of the region, as well as the behavior and feelings of the people who live and work there.

Architect, professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology

Masahiro Harada

Co-director of MOUNT FUJI ARCHITECTS STUDIO. Born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1973. In 1997, he graduated from Shibaura Institute of Technology’s Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Worked at Kengo Kuma and Associates from 1997-2000. Completed a Study Abroad Program for Artists at J.A.M. LAPENA & ELIAS TORRES Architects in 2001-2002. He worked at Arata Isozaki’s Atelier in 2003. He founded MOUNT FUJI ARCHITECTS STUDIO with Mao Harada in 2004. In 2008, he became an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Shibaura Institute of Technology, and in 2016, became a Professor. He has received many awards in Japan and abroad, such as the LEAF AWARD in 2010 and 2014, the AR AWARD in 2008, 2009, and 2011, the Grand Prize in Architecture in Japan in 2018, the BCS Award in 2018, and the Architectural Institute of Japan Award in 2020.

Artist, President of Tokyo University of the Arts

Katsuhiko Hibino

Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1974. He began his career as an artist in the early 1980s while studying at Tokyo University of the Arts, gaining attention for his innovative approach which blends social media with artistic expression. Since then, he has participated in major international exhibitions, including the Sydney Biennale and the Venice Biennale, and has showcased his work in solo and group exhibitions as well as cross-disciplinary projects in both Japan and abroad. He also leads workshops and art projects that emphasize the unique qualities of local communities. Currently, he serves as the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, and the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto. Since 1995, he has been involved in education and research at his alma mater, Tokyo University of the Arts, and became its president in 2022. He also collaborates actively with companies and local governments on initiatives that explore and promote the idea of “art as the power of life.

Architect, associate professor at Yokohama National University

Teppei Fujiwara

Associate professor at Yokohama National University’s Graduate School of Architecture. President of Fujiwarwa Teppei Architects Lab; Drifters International Board Member; UBE BIENNALE Committee Member and Judge. Born in Yokohama in 1975, he graduated from the Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture, and worked at Kengo Kuma and Associates from 2001 to 2012. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Drifters International since 2010, an associate professor at the Yokohama National University’s Graduate School of Architecture since 2012, and is the head of Fujiwara Teppei Architects Lab. His major works include Double Circle in Todoroki, Yoyogi Terrace, Inamura no Mori no Ie, and Nasu Shiobara City Town Center Kururu. He is the author of “7-Inch Project <#01> Teppei Fujiwara”. His awards include the Yokohama Culture Award Art Encouragement Award, and the Japan Federation of Architects & Building Engineers Award, among others.

Architect and Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design

Toshiko Mori

Founded the Toshiko Mori Architect PLLC architecture firm in 1981. Graduated from Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture in 1976. Appointed as tenured professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1995. Acted as chair of the School of Architecture at Harvard University between 2002 and 2008. Co-founded PARACOUSTICA, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing music to remote areas in 2013. Awarded the ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education Award in 2019. Won the Architectural Record’s Women in Architecture Design Leader Award in 2019. Won the first FIBRA Award Grand Prix in France in 2019. Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters honor society. Received the Louis Auchincloss Prize from the Museum of the City of New York in 2020. Selected as one of the “Top 50 Japanese people who are changing the world” by Nikkei Business Magazine. Selected as one of the “Top 100 most respected Japanese people in the world” by Newsweek Japan. Received the Isamu Noguchi Award in 2022 and the ASIA SOCIETY GAME CHANGER Award in 2023. Appointed as a guest editor of DOMUS in 2023. Received the PRATTINSTITUTE’s LEGEND Award in 2024.

Chair researcher and design advisor to the town of Higashikawa

Noritsugu Oda

Born in 1946 in Kochi Prefecture. Graduated from Osaka University of Arts. He has been a professor at the Faculty of Art and Design at Hokkaido Tokai University since 1994. After serving as the director of the Institute for Northern Living, he became a specially appointed professor, and then a professor emeritus at Tokai University in 2015. He also became Higashikawa’s Design Advisor in 2015. He has received 26 awards for his work in advertising, including the Danish Furniture Award in 1997, an appointment as the Honorary Director of the Danish Finn Juhl Association in 2012, and the first Hans Wegner Award in 2015. He was also awarded the first Hans Wegner Award in the same year. In addition, he also received the second Yasushi Inoue Memorial Culture Award Special Prize. He is the author of ” Hans J. Wegner ’s 100 Chairs,” “Danish Chairs,” ” A Complete Illustrated Collection of Fine Chairs,” “Finn Juhl: The World of Finn Juhl,” “200 Chairs,” and other works.