Each life is arranged within a finite amount of time, and that living encompasses in all certainty, ageing and perishing—“that is our destiny,” states Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, in conversation with Amit Gupta, founder and editor-in-chief of STIR, against his reflective design exhibition, Kodama, The Spirit of the Forest. Showcased within Italian brand Albed’s showroom in Via Gonzaga 7, in Milan, Italy, during the now-concluded Fuorisalone 2024 from April 15 - 21, the project is named after Kodama (木霊), the spirit that inhabits forests in Japanese tradition.

In our concise, exclusive conversation during Milan Design Week 2024, the 69-year-old Kuma emphasised the beauty of maturing as a creative concept and the fertile possibilities it presents us with if understood and embraced. This intent was relayed through the measured material gesture of an imposing, spherical wooden sculpture, the exhibition’s focal point.

The founder and principal of Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA) first conceived the monumental larch sculpture in 2018, blending into the Villa Strobele park, part of Arte Sella, an open-air museum in Italy combining contemporary art and nature, where the latter helps interpret and complete the former. “In this place, architecture, art, and creativity merge with the panorama of the Alps of Trentino,” mentions the press release shared by Albed.

With a diameter of nearly six metres, Kodama, at first glance, seems like an intricate latticework of geometric wooden shapes—however, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that their shapes are identical. Kodama unites 335 solid wood units grouped into 154 types of elements, into a spherical volume intended to encourage contact with nature as well as self-reflection, upon interaction. Its arrangement is reminiscent of Chidori, the Japanese puzzle toy that Kuma cites as one of the inspirations for the sculptural installation, recreating it in a smaller scale within the realm of art and design for the design event.

Curated by Marco Imperadori (DABC Department), the exhibition held during the international design fair showcased some stages of the research project, its studies, modelling, and constructions through photographic, video, and interactive pathway mediums. All the elements aimed at communicating the ‘engineering complexity and elegant language of the project,’ as articulated within Albed’s showroom-exhibition space. For Kodama, The Spirit of the Forest, the sculpture was also translated into an application in the furniture design industry, displayed via two joinery tables produced specially by D3Wood and displayed during the design week. These table designs by the Japanese master featured Kodama’s constituent knot that supports two crystal tops.

Kuma has come to be known as a master in employing diverse, often local types of wood to construct his sensuous, wholistic worlds, encompassing the scales of architecture to art installations and product designs. Here too, wood's application goes beyond its intended sustainable materiality, transcending into an almost humane-spiritual domain in its mien and purpose. To that end, here, it advocates for the beauty of ageing, which is “the essence of life,” as Kuma asserts in the interview.

He went on to relay that for Kodama, he had initially proposed to employ wood with a natural white hue, which would gain a natural patina over time. After storms wrecked the pavilion design, Kuma and his team decided to salvage its surviving pieces and give them new life by dovetailing them with newer parts, instead of discarding them entirely. The revered Japanese ‘golden repair’ philosophy of Kintsugi came into play here, alluding to a “beautiful attitude” of saving the wooden material, of repairing and replenishing.

Ever since its genesis for Arte Sella, the wooden sculpture has been repurposed in numerous ways and inhabited diverse settings: “It was recreated on the same scale in Taiwan, in an allegorical ‘forest of skyscrapers,’ then at Palazzo Franchetti in 1:5 scale in oak, on the occasion of the solo exhibition Onomatopeia Architecture for the Biennale 2023, and then at MAO Museo of Oriental Art of Turin, where it was suspended from the ceiling and lit from within. Currently, a smaller version of Kodama, also made of oak, is on display at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn,” the brand relays.

The exhibition at the design festival was sponsored by Politecnico di Milano and Arte Sella, produced in collaboration with SEKISUI HOUSE – KUMA LAB at The University of Tokyo, MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale di Torino, ACP – Art Capital Partners and Bundeskunsthalle, with technical partnerships of D3Wood and SCM.

The message of Kodama alludes to the ‘secret of nature,’ which, according to Kuma, is circulation—the very nature of our impermanence hints at a cosmic cycle of reincarnation, something that the current, mercurial design and architecture industry fails to pay adequate heed and reverence to, he maintains. Employing natural materials such as wood plays into that part of the cycle, living an example of reusing, replanting, and sustaining materials. The message extends into recovering and recharging that cycle, embodying the storied and invaluable experience of what it means, as part of nature, to grow old, and to embrace and respect that, and in essence, learn from it. Or as Kuma teaches, we must “save to grow.”

Tap the head banner to view our exclusive interview with Kengo Kuma.

Stay tuned to STIR's coverage of Milan Design Week 2024 which showcases the best of exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands and events to look out for. Explore EuroCucina and all the design districts—Fuorisalone, 5vie Design Week, Isola Design Week, Brera Design District and Porta Venezia Design District.