Images: Kengo Kuma, First Sketch, “Bamboo Ring”, 2019, © KKAA; John Madejski Garden, “Bamboo Ring”, V&A / LDF, Sept. 2019, photos LDF & Clare Farrow Studio; “Bamboo Ring”, Cortile dei Bagni, Milan Design Week, 2021, photo OPPO; Arte Sella, Italy, photo Marco Imperadori
Bamboo Ring by Kengo Kuma
A project that lives on in Nature
Bamboo (竹) Ring, or ‘Take-wa 竹わ’, b.2019, is a nest-like installation formed from rings of bamboo and carbon fibre. An experiment in the concept of weaving in architecture, it was initiated and curated by Clare Farrow Studio, designed by award-winning Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, and developed in only 6 months by his research laboratory, the KUMA LAB, at The University of Tokyo, co-directed by Toshiki Hirano. Partnered by OPPO. Supported by Komatsu Matere and ANA.
The concept began when Clare Farrow re-read the chapter on ‘Weaving’ in Kengo Kuma’s book “Small Architecture / Natural Architecture” (AA Publications, 2015) and wrote to the architect, whom she had first interviewed in 2011 for Blueprint, for a feature article called ‘Sharing the Same Shadows’. This interview had inspired her exhibition “Childhood ReCollections: Memory in Design” (2015-16), in which Kuma participated. Writing to Kuma in Dec. 2018, she propose a woven installation for the V&A. When Kuma visited in Feb. 2019, she showed him the V&A’s Tapestry Room but he said that he needed light and air to weave in. As they walked through the museum, he saw the V&A Garden out of the window and said, “There!” It was a daunting challenge for an independent curator, in terms of time, funding and logistics. But as soon as he returned to his desk in Tokyo, he sent her a sketch, a cocoon-like, spiralling form nestled in the water, which she - and London Design Festival - were determined to make happen. In all, up to a thousand emails were exchanged between Clare Farrow and Toshiki Hirano, the project leader and co-director of the KUMA LAB, to realise Kengo Kuma’s vision in London’s V&A.
In Sept. 2019, “Bamboo Ring” was installed in the John Madejski Garden in the V&A for London Design Festival. Kengo Kuma had wanted it to become a meeting-place for people to connect, and in the brilliant sunshine of that week it did.
In Sept. 2021, it travelled to Milan Design Week, in a collaboration between Interni magazine, London Design Festival and the Politecnico di Milano, with music composed and performed by Midori Komachi with MSCTY. The title became “Bamboo Ring: Weaving into a Symphony of Lightness and Form”, to emphasise the further experiment of weaving music into the life-like form.
Thanks to the Professor of Architecture at the Politecnico, Marco Imperadori, “Bamboo Ring” has now found a lasting home in Arte Sella, Italy, outside, and woven among the trees. Still there, and still an experiment, it endures sun, wind and rain, and has been beautifully photographed in the snow. It is a study in the resilience of bamboo, bonded with carbon fibre, and its structural potential in future sustainable design. This is a continuing interest for Kengo Kuma, and for Clare Farrow in her work on Lightness.
Kengo Kuma & Associates: ‘Bamboo Ring’
OPPO (Brand and Sound Partner): ‘Bamboo Ring: Weaving a Symphony of Lightness and Form’
Selected London Press:
Metalocus, Anna Diosdado, ‘Weaving into Lightness' by Kengo Kuma’, 24 Sept. 2019
Euronews, ‘A vision of the future: Kengo Kuma at the London Design Festival’, 21 Sept. 2019
Selected Milan Press:
Film: Kengo Kuma Interview about “Bamboo Ring” in Milan
Music in Milan: Midori Komachi with MSCTY
