Kengo Kuma and His "Natural Materials"

  There are some ideas of Kuma's, showing his understanding about  "erase" buildings.
  EXTERIOR: architecture could be made to "disappear" if it had no exterior.
  INTERIOR: intermediary zones can mediate between inside and outside.

  Take the Water/Glass for example. In the early 1992, Kuma started work on it in Atami. The commission called for a small but elegant guesthouse on a steep hillside with spectacular views of the sea below. From the house's name, we can know the "natural materials" in the design are water and glass. 

  On the second floor, Kuma designed a wide-open terrace covered entirely with a reflective pool beneath the roof. This is a intermediary zone which connect the outside with the inside. 

  

   Floating on this pool of water is an all-glass oval-shaped lounge, where the horizontal floor plate of frosted glass seems to be the only firm indication of the boundaries of the space. 

  The surface of the pool, with its overflowing edges forming an new horizon, extends the presence of the water toward views of the ocean in the far away distance below.

  This building is an extension of the surrounding environment, because the interior water seems to come from the sea and the glass replaces the solid walls which provide visitors with a direct view to the natural beauty.

 glass  

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EXTERIOR: architecture could be made to "disappear" if it had no exterior 

(in this project, Kuma used transparent material, but through his works, he prefers the "translucent" material. If you want to learn more about the glass and spatial effect, you can click my another article:http://kexipengdi.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/sanaa-and-spatial-effects-of-glass.html)

water

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INTERIOR: intermediary zones can mediate between inside and outside