Portland Japanese Garden Cultural Village in Oregon by KENGO

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Sanjay Gangal
Sanjay Gangal is the President of IBSystems, the parent company of AECCafe.com, MCADCafe, EDACafe.Com, GISCafe.Com, and ShareCG.Com.

Portland Japanese Garden Cultural Village in Oregon by KENGO KUMA AND ASSOCIATES

August 5th, 2018 by Sanjay Gangal

Article source: KENGO KUMA AND ASSOCIATES

Portland Japanese Garden’s new Cultural Village is a modest, human-scaled set of buildings arranged around a courtyard plaza, whose fourth side is the existing, untouched gardens from the 1960s. The project is a village positioned along a journey from the city to the top of the hill, a form of modern monzenmachi wherein the pilgrimage pays homage to the spirit of nature.

Evening exterior view: strong relationships reinforce the configuration, with the spaces between acting as the connective invisible protagonist in the arrangement; this view looks across the Village Courtyard from beneath the Tea Café eaves, to the Cultural Center at right, the Garden House at left, and the Castle Wall ahead, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

Architects: KENGO KUMA AND ASSOCIATES
Project: Portland Japanese Garden Cultural Village
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Photography: Jeremy Bittermann
Client: Portland Japanese Garden (Portland, USA)
Project Architect: Kengo Kuma and Associates design team, Tokyo: Kengo Kuma, Balazs Bognar
Architect of Record: Hacker Architects (Portland, USA)
Landscape Architect: Sadafumi Uchiyama (Portland, USA)
Landscape Architect of Record: Walker Macy (Portland, USA)
Structural Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers (Portland, USA)

Daytime exterior view of the Cultural Center and Tea Cafe: when fully open, the screens and glass give way to open corners, drawing the surrounding landscape into the buildings, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

Civil Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers (Portland, USA)
Geotechnical Engineer: GRI (Portland, USA)
Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing Engineer: PAE Engineers (Portland, USA)
Lighting Design: Luma Lighting Design
Sustainability Consulting: Green Building Services
Contractor: Hoffmann Construction Company (Portland, USA)
Total Construction Cost: US$33.5 million
Gross Square Footage: 15,300 (total, for four buildings)
Total Floor Area: 15,413 sq. ft. (1,431.9 m²) total: includes 14,463 sq. ft. (1,343.7 m²) Cultural Center (main building) and Garden House, 610 sq. ft. (56.7 m²) Tea Café, 340 sq. ft. (31.6 m²) Ticket Pavilion
Design Period: 2013.01~2015.07
Construction Period: 2015.08~2017.05
Completion Date: May 2017

Daytime exterior view of the Village Courtyard: the Village Courtyard is an important space whether occupied with cultural activity or more serene and empty; this view is from the Garden House to the Cultural Center, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

Evening exterior view: the tea ceremony platform looks toward the existing gardens at the south, with its simple Japanese technique of shakkei, or borrowed view—framed by the eaves, the open glass, and the platform itself, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

There are four buildings, each with its own means of merging into the dramatic slopes of the terrain, in combination with the tall vertical lines of the Pacific Northwest conifers: the Ticketing Pavilion floating above gentle stepped ponds, the Tea Cafe hovering above the ravine, and the main Village House and Garden House.

Daytime exterior view: overcast weather softens the appearance of the new Cultural Village, as seen from the entrance path, through the Pacific Northwest woods, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

Evening interior view, looking north from the Living Room to the Gallery: the main spaces of the Cultural center are both simple in material and spatially complex, with screens of Port Orford Cedar providing the predominant atmosphere, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

Although the architecture is deferential to the landscape, the key device is the zigzagging roof—creating deep overhangs of soft metal and lush vegetation, and a porous boundary to encourage a direct relationship with the renowned Portland rain, and its temperamental sun—in a soft, indeterminate, and flexible border.

Image Courtesy © KENGO KUMA AND ASSOCIATES

: Evening exterior view: strong relationships reinforce the configuration, with the spaces between acting as the connective invisible protagonist in the arrangement; this view looks across the Village Courtyard from beneath the Tea Café eaves, to the Cultural Center at right, the Garden House at left, and the Castle Wall ahead, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

: Daytime exterior view of the Cultural Center and Tea Cafe: when fully open, the screens and glass give way to open corners, drawing the surrounding landscape into the buildings, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

: Daytime exterior view of the Village Courtyard: the Village Courtyard is an important space whether occupied with cultural activity or more serene and empty; this view is from the Garden House to the Cultural Center, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

: Evening exterior view: the tea ceremony platform looks toward the existing gardens at the south, with its simple Japanese technique of shakkei, or borrowed view—framed by the eaves, the open glass, and the platform itself, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

: Daytime exterior view: overcast weather softens the appearance of the new Cultural Village, as seen from the entrance path, through the Pacific Northwest woods, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

: Evening interior view, looking north from the Living Room to the Gallery: the main spaces of the Cultural center are both simple in material and spatially complex, with screens of Port Orford Cedar providing the predominant atmosphere, Image Courtesy © Jeremy Bittermann

Contact KENGO KUMA AND ASSOCIATES

Tags: Oregon, USA

Categories: Cultural Center, Garden

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