HOUSE OF PLASTIC The designs of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma critically engage the materiality of architecture in order to challenge its usual meanings, and in so doing, to thwart the emergence of architecture as an object. As he has shown in many of his projects, Kuma is determined to "dissolve" the materials that he uses, or to choose materials that are less substantial, stating, "If materials are thoroughly particlized, they are transient, like rainbows." — Published 2005.0914
	AVAILING FASHION Designed by architect Jun Aoki, the new flagship store of the French fashion house Louis Vuitton on Tokyo's Omotesando Boulevard resembles a pile of trunks of different sizes and patterns, honoring Vuitton's origin as a trunk manufacturer. Examine the facade more closely, though, and you'll see an industrial-looking system of wire mesh curtains that create the fashionable effect. — Published 2002.1211
	PIANO'S HERMÈS TOKYO There is a new landmark in Ginza, one of the leading shopping and business districts of Tokyo. Designed by the Italian architecture firm, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the building is the corporate headquarters and store of Hermès Japan, a company famous for its handmade leather bags and apparel. — Published 2002.0911
	YOKOHAMA FERRY TERMINAL Well timed with the opening of the World Cup soccer games in South Korea and Japan, the new Osanbashi International Passenger Terminal of Yokohama opened in June 2002. With its landscape-like curving roof, the building by the London firm of Foreign Office Architects (FOA) is intended as an extension of a nearby municipal park. — Published 2002.0619
	OITA WINKS FOR SOCCER Why limit your visits in Japan to Tokyo and Kyoto, when there are 47 prefectures altogether from north to south? If you only frequent the largest cities, you are skimming the surface and missing some of the goodies. — Published 2001.0905

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