Of the cultural events cancelled as a result of Covid-19, perhaps the most prominent is the Olympics. Delayed until 2021, athletes and trainers alike have had to revise their schedules considerably. So too, has the stadium’s architect, Kengo Kuma.
Kuma, heralded as one of the most respected architects of his generation, may perhaps be best known in the UK for his most recent project – the Victoria and Albert’s Dundee outpost, where the building has received critical acclaim. Yet the recent delay in the construction of the Olympic stadium, has not, as one might expect, put a damper on Kuma’s spirits.
Indeed, the architect hopes that the pandemic will result in a sea change: “We should be thinking about the future of the city,” he says, “the future of humanity.”
The importance of sea changes are not lost on Kuma. It took 20 years for the world to understand his work, and only now do “people want to understand my aesthetics and method”.
As for the impact of the pandemic on his industry, his ethos of good things coming in little packages has finally received the acclaim it deserves. “Most people are working from home now,” he notes, “so big office buildings aren’t needed any more. We can go in a totally different direction, away from big boxes and big towers.” Bigger, it seems, is not always better, as Kuma looks to what he calls a more “intimate” future for architecture.
He concludes, in his characteristic optimism that this is “a new attitude, a new phenomenon. The world is changing.”
