When the eyes of the world see the Olympic flame in the cauldron of the Japan National Stadium, many will look at the sophisticated branches of its timber trusses and the soothing foliage of its galleries, and recognize the material discipline and love for nature of its author. Kengo Kuma (Yokohama, 1954) embodies that Japanese spirit where the craft of the artisan fuses with the sensitivity of ukiyo-e prints, and this issue of Arquitectura Viva presents this mastery through six works encompassing a range of scales, from large buildings in Tokyo to a modest interior design in another city that bears an Olympic stamp, Barcelona.

When the eyes of the world see the Olympic flame in the cauldron of the Japan National Stadium, many will look at the sophisticated branches of its timber trusses and the soothing foliage of its galleries, and recognize the material discipline and love for nature of its author. Kengo Kuma (Yokohama, 1954) embodies that Japanese spirit where the craft of the artisan fuses with the sensitivity of ukiyo-e prints, and this issue of Arquitectura Viva presents this mastery through six works encompassing a range of scales, from large buildings in Tokyo to a modest interior design in another city that bears an Olympic stamp, Barcelona.