Contemporary Stone
Book realized from collaboration between Kengo Kuma and IL CASONE
The material as an element with generates form. This is the principle from which the opera of the maestro Kengo Kuma is presented. This exceptional volume, proposes the research conducted on stone which is the material, through which Kuma utilizes and examines a structure and its unexplored significances. The architecture of the Japanese maestro pushes one to go further than just the figure, but to move in the territory of its potential. This initiative was offered by the project created called the Stone Pavillion in Verona and the stand designed for IL CASONE in occasion of Marmomacc 2007.
The author of the volume, Luigi Alini, underlines the understanding of that experience one year ago which was both human and professional and emerged from the need to communicate the results of an experiment conducted on the lightness of stone. The Stone Pavillion is presented therefore as an exceptional example and a powerful image that goes beyond its specific significance. To paraphrase Warburg, we may define it as an image that “has a memory of the future”.
(Luigi Alini, Keng Kuma. Liticità contemporanee. Da Stone Museum a Stone Pavillon. LIBRIA. 2008)
The Author
Luigi Alini (Naples 2968)
Architect, researcher in the Technology of Architecture at the Department of Architecture at the University of Catania (Syracuse campus). He works with executive strategies with particular reference to the relationship between construction and design.
His interest towards the work of Kengo Kuma is based on the “construction of the form” and his interest to awaken the senses towards research where materials become elements that generate form.
Among his publications:
Kengo Kuma. Opere e progetti 1994 – 2004, Electa Milano, 2005, 2°ed.
Kengo Kuma Exhibition, a cura di, L. Alini e K. Kuma, Letteraventidue, Catania, 2007.
Le strategie Esecutive. L’integrazione delle competenze nel progetto, Liguori, Napoli, 2001.