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Renowned architect Kengo Kuma visited Portland on Saturday to open the first U.S. exhibition of his work and speak at the Portland Art Museum about his design of the Portland Japanese Garden‘s $33.5 million expansion.

That project, Kuma’s first in the U.S., will create the Cultural Crossing. Its three new buildings 鈥� a cultural education center, a gardening building and a small tea caf茅 鈥� will surround a large public plaza. In addition, the garden’s ticket booth will be moved downhill, closer to the parking lot and over a water feature.

Botond Bognar, endowed professor of architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is also chief manager for Kengo Kuma and Associates. He opened the program with a slide show retrospective on Kuma’s work.

Examples ranged from teahouses to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium, but Bognar said there is one guiding principle behind Kuma’s designs.

鈥淭raditional material is what drives his architecture,鈥� Bognar said. 鈥淛apanese houses use an extension of nature.鈥�

Kuma said his Olympic stadium design reflects that philosophy and uses wood for structures under the roof. The building also will have no air conditioning.

鈥淚 want people to have the smell of wood,鈥� Kuma said. 鈥淲e have no air conditioning but designed the soffits to use natural wind and louvers. Each (louver) has a different pitch and we control the air by changing the pitch of the louvers.鈥�

The upper outdoor garden spaces of the circular stadium will be open to the public year-round, he said. Accessibility is also very important to the Portland Japanese Garden, Kuma said.

鈥淜atsura Villa (a garden west of Kyoto) is a very beautiful place, but it is separated from daily life,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ere in Portland it is more connected, and for Japanese (architects) this sends a strong message.鈥�

The Portland Japanese Garden is similar in some ways to the Shugakuin Villa garden, east of Kyoto, Kuma said, except the former has more trees.

鈥淧ortland Japanese Garden has deep forests behind the hills,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s not easy to find a big forest in Japan. I don’t want to create too much heaviness on this site. The forest itself is beautiful and the garden should march into the forest.鈥�

Kuma talked about the Cultural Crossing buildings’ green roofs reflecting the Japanese culture while saving energy.

鈥淚n a traditional farmhouse in Japan, people would plant sunflowers on the roof,鈥� he said.

Kuma also showed slides of the future Cultural Crossing. One was an overhead rendering of the overlapping and deep-angled roofs in what he called a 鈥渮iggy layout鈥� reminiscent of flying geese.

After Bognar and Kuma spoke, they sat in chairs on the museum’s Fields Ballroom stage before about 500 people and fielded questions from moderator Randy Gragg.

Gragg asked about the first step in the design process, and Bognar answered that it always is to visit the site.

鈥淰isit the site, feel the wind, visit the neighbors 鈥� next build a model of the site,鈥� he said.

Kuma said he first visited the Portland Japanese Garden in 2008 and was struck by its beauty.

鈥淚 was surprised to see the richness, and the garden is amazingly, beautifully maintained,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 hadn’t seen that kind of relationship between the forest and the garden in a Japanese garden. It’s not a big garden, but because of the up and down, the experience is very rich.鈥�

The Cultural Crossing buildings will have deep eaves, Kuma said, like traditional Japanese houses.

鈥淭he teahouse is on the edge of the village, like it’s floating 鈥� an amazing location,鈥� he said.

Kuma said the Portland Japanese Garden’s location reminds him of the way Shinto shrines relate to villages in Japan.

鈥淚n a Japanese town the shrine would be between the mountains and the flat town, and I love this location very much,鈥� he said. 鈥淧ortland is very popular (in Japan) because people believe it is a model city of the 21st century.鈥�

The exhibition of Kuma’s work will run through Feb. 29 at the Center for Architecture, at 403 N.W. 11th Ave. More information is available at: .