A private residence designed by renowned Japanese firm Kengo Kuma & Associates, architect of the recent Portland Japanese Garden expansion, is under construction in Happy Valley. The home, called SUTEKI, is one of five being built for the annual N.W. Natural Street of Dreams home showcase.

The 4,739-square-foot home features an L-shaped footprint, designed around a landscape of oak and cedar trees and a stream running through. The sides of the home that face the gardens, which were designed by Portland Japanese Garden garden curater Sadafumi Uchiyama, have large sliding windows that provide a fluid connection between indoors and outdoors.

The home is also the first American build for Suteki, a Japanese firm that specializes in wood building construction. The Street of Dreams showcase runs from July 29 through August 27.

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The annual NW Natural Street of Dreams housing showcase will feature the U.S. debut project of a large international builder, and the first U.S. private residence designed by celebrated Japanese architect Kengo Kuma  – and it could be yours.

The home is one of three of the five Street of Dreams homes without buyers lined up.

Based in Yokohama, Japan, Suteki specializes in wood framing systems and wood building construction. It’s a subsidiary of Yokohama-based Nice Corporation, which was founded in the aftermath of World War II as a timber auction company. For that reason, the firm has a special relationship to Oregon timber lands and is why the company selected Oregon as its first residential market, the company said in a statement.

The firm is active in Europe and Canada, but has yet to complete a project in the U.S.

The Suteki home, at 2017 N.W. Natural Street of Dreams in Happy Valley, has an L-shaped floorplan, which attempts to make the outdoor garden (designed by Portland Japanese Garden curator Sadafumi Uchiyama) feel like part of the home.

The design by Kuma’s firm, Kengo Kuma & Associates, uses shakkei – a word meaning “borrowed scenery” – to incorporate the surrounding landscape of large oak and sequoia trees and a stream that runs alongside the property.

Suteki is the Japanese word meaning natural and comfortable.

Kuma designed the recent Cultural Crossroads expansion project at the Portland Japanese Garden. He and Suteki have partnered on many projects before, according to Lisa Scholin, a spokeswoman for the company.

Billed as the country’s longest-operating single-site new house showcase, the Street of Dreams is a major fundraiser of the Home Builders Association Portland. The event is intended to show the state of the building and design industries, including highlighting new and creative products and methods, said HBAP communications specialist Adrian McCarthy.

This year’s showcase, the 43rd annual, is located in Happy Valley. Running July 29 to Aug. 27, the showcase will feature a “festival-like atmosphere” on the street outside the homes, with a street bistro hosting guest chefs and theme nights, including a veteran’s appreciation night and a whisky-themed “Street of Drams” night.

Planning the event takes years, with organizers often considering contingencies for multiple years at once, McCarthy said. Part of what makes the event a challenge for organizers is the fact that they are creating an actual neighborhood where real families eventually will live.

Click here to view more photos of the Kengo Kuma & Associates-designed SUTEKI house

The Oregon Dream 2017

A modern reimagining of the classic country home and an “entertainer’s dream,” Stone Bridge Homes NW’s contribution to the home showcase is a bit of a contradiction in terms – a luxury farmhouse.

To pull this off, the Lake Oswego semi-custom home builder attempted to blend “native, natural materials” with “industrial, urban touches.”

Stone Bridge Homes president Kelly Ritz called the feel of the home “light and airy and very uncluttered,” in information provided about the home.

Farmhouse touches like the covered front porch with pillars and a pair of steep, second-story gables are offset by industrial accents such as distinct black framing around the windows.

A grand foyer opens into the home’s centerpiece – a two-story dining and great room with a glass panel door that “disappears” into a covered outdoor living room that features a fireplace, refrigerator, bar and barbecue. The landscaped backyard has a pool and hot tub, a fire pit and another bar. There’s also a “recreation garage” with indoor basketball, a full bathroom and a bar.

Also working on the four-bedroom, five-bathroom (three full; two half) house were Macadam Floors & Design, Medallion Industries, Pacific Lumber, Rinnai and Tyvek/Orepac.

The Barclay

Another mash-up, the Barclay by BC Custom Construction fuses mid-century touches with 21^st-Century fashions.

Barclay Home Design and the rest of project team were inspired by Portland’s classic mid-century architecture. It also features hints of architects John Yeon and Robert Rummer – clean, contemporary, angular one-level living. Organic and natural materials and textures were incorporated to “soften” their effect. A year-round water feature is intended as a soothing retreat.

The mid-century touches continue with a Pullman-style kitchen with a glass bar that floats onto a stone countertop.

The master suite has soft lighting and a seating area equipped with personal charging stations. The master bath has heated floors, a free-standing tub and a double shower with a dual exit to a walk-in closet and utility area.

Vendors on the 3,670-square-foot, three-bedroom home include Key Home Furnishings, Ferguson Enterprises Inc., Carin Atterbury + Surface and Merten & Sons Landscaping.

The Neveah

The largest home in the 2017 Street of Dreams, the Naveah is meant to serve as an “ultimate family home” for the family moving in, and not a “show home.”

The seven-bedroom Naveah is essentially two homes in one, with large, secondary living quarters that include a master room, garage bay, guest room and dedicated entries.

The design is described as eschewing a traditional ground-floor layout, with a home theater and recreation room, in addition to a family room/great room. The look is modern farmhouse, with 12-inch barn-wood floors throughout. The theme continues with marble-look quartz countertops in the kitchen and a full barn-wood door wall in the rec room.

The builder is TA Liesy Homes NW.  Also involved in the project were Paulson’s Floor Covering, Ferguson Enterprises Inc., Globe Lighting, Medallion Industries and Innovative Construction.

The Elysian

Architect Michael Barclay’s firm calls its 5,100-square-foot, single-level home “expansive yet balanced.” The Elysian has five bedrooms, 3-and-a-half bathrooms and a large vaulted bonus room over the garage.

The home mixes horizontal v-groove siding with traditional board and bat, with a creamy rough-cut Texas limestone to the exterior. Shed-metal roofs over the windows and front porch bring a touch of industrial flavor and complement the split-wood, shake-styled roof tiles.

It has a grand entry and great room, and a large “neighbor friendly” porch overlooking a brook.

Vendors include Standard TV & Appliance, Wendy O’Brien Planning & Design, Stone NW, Area Floors, Medallion Industries and RE/MAX Equity Group.

If You Go

What: 2017 Street of Dreams

When: July 29 to Aug. 27

Where: S.E. 129th Ave. and Southeast King Road, Happy Valley

Cost: $20

Information: streetofdreamspdx.com

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The Portland Japanese Garden debuted its Cultural Village expansion, the first public commission in the United States designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, earlier this month. The project added several buildings around a sprawling courtyard that will be used for performances, demonstrations, and activities. New buildings include a learning center with a gallery, classroom, gift shop, and library; a garden house, where horticulture workshops will be offered; a tea café cantilevering over the hillside, and a ticketing pavilion at the garden’s entrance in Washington park.

Hoffman Construction served as the general contractor on the $33.5 million project. Hacker and Walker Macy worked in partnership with Kengo Kuma & Associates to design the project, as did the garden’s master gardener, Sadafumi Uchiyama.

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Dale Brotherton spent three years learning how to sharpen.

Sharpening tools in the Japanese tradition isn’t complicated – it’s merely dragging the blade of an implement over a stone, over and over. But it was three years before Brotherton could get something sharp.

“It’s a very Japanese thing to delve into details,” he said last week at an elevated workspace at the Portland Japanese Garden, where for nearly a decade he’s fixed and restored the wooden aspects. He’s set to turn over two new installations next month as part of the garden’s “” expansion project – the .

Straight up

There are two reasons why sharpening is considered the foundation of Japanese carpentry. For one, you can’t work if your arm can’t follow a straight line. This is especially true in Japan, where much is still done by hand.

“Training our bodies to move in a straight line, to see in a straight line, is fundamental,” Brotherton said. “The ability to do this is nurtured by the sharpening, and it carries over to all parts of our work.”

The other reason is more obvious – you can’t work without sharp tools. The holy trinity of Japanese hand tools is the plane, the chisel and the saw.

A Western hand plane is a large metal object with levers and knobs. A Japanese hand plane, in contrast, is just a block of wood with a blade wedged inside. But this simple device is surprisingly sophisticated. When Brotherton teaches classes near his home in Seattle, or his shop in Port Townsend, Washington, he and students spend two full days making a hand plane and setting it up to work properly. Planing is another fundamental aspect of Japanese carpentry, as it helps the carpenter show off a wood’s natural beauty, and allows it to age gracefully.

Western hand saws are also quite different from Japanese ones. The Japanese hand saw cuts on the pull-stroke – as opposed to the push – which allows for a thinner blade, and thus greater control. This means finer cuts and a smoother surface. It’s easier to follow a straight line if the cut isn’t rough.

Brotherton and a small crew recently added ceiling panels of Port Orford cedar to the garden’s new Tea Cafe, as work on “Cultural Crossing” winds down. Now 57 years old, the garden is gaining several new buildings and gardens, a cascading water feature and another major craftsman-built feature – an 18.5-foot-tall, 185-foot-long stone castle wall. The finished sides of the dovetail-braced panels were wrapped in paper for protection.

After the panels are hand-planed, the wood will glow and have a different look than any other method of finishing, Brotherton said.

“Sanding wouldn’t even come close,” he said.

Port Orford cedar is a light-colored, fragrant wood nearly identical to hinoki, the premier building wood of Japan. Both are lightweight, rot-resistant and stable. There’s just one problem with Port Orford cedar – there isn’t much of it.

“It’s beautiful when it’s finished,” Brotherton said. “It’s just about everything that you’d want in a wood.”

Details, details, details

Teahouses are the highest form of defined construction in Japan, and everything about them is designed around the tea ceremony. Every element has specific dimensions that can be traced back thousands of years. The tatami mats, for instance, are always a certain size, because it takes a certain number of steps to walk into the tea room.

“There’s no end to how refined you can get with it,” Brotherton said.

The teahouse ceiling is a kind of hybrid project, with both modern and traditional elements. True teahouse construction features only intricate wood joinery – no nuts and bolts. But Brotherton and his three workers were suspending their ceiling panels from a steel building frame.

Brotherton spent the first five years of his apprenticeship near his hometown of San Francisco working under Imai Makoto, a teahouse carpenter from Kyoto. He finished his apprenticeship with four years in Japan, working under a residential builder, Karaki Akita. It was useful being experienced, because Japanese jobsites are less forgiving. Despite the patience required, the pace moves fast, and apprentices must quickly learn to read their boss – his mood, facial expression, posture, etc.

All told, Brotherton needed nine years to become proficient in the Japanese style of carpentry. But, as with all creative pursuits, you never really finish learning as a carpenter, Brotherton said. And you never really get to retire.

“You’re only limited by your own ability, so it’s never-ending growth,” he said. “Eighty-year-old men have told me that they’re still learning. They feel like they’re just getting started.”

Cultural clashing

Needless to say, traditional methods are an odd fit at a modern commercial jobsite.

“It’s a very good example of trying to fit a square peg into a round (hole), so to speak,” Brotherton said.

There’s a debate in construction regarding how best to address the industry’s skilled labor shortage. Some observers believe technology could be the key to enticing the young and tech-minded. For this project, Brotherton actually had to work up a computer model of the teahouse ceiling, a modern skill he doesn’t employ often.

But Brotherton thinks construction’s craft foundation could be what lights fires in young people. He often demonstrates techniques at Japanese cultural festivals.

“The kids are just magnets – they’re glued to the front of my bench,” he said. “And it’s because, physically, there’s something happening.”

But maybe once a young person becomes accustomed to being precise, going back to plywood and nails is a letdown. Kalispell, Montana-custom builder Scott Thomas was another working on Brotherton’s crew last week. He took a course from the master five years ago.

“It can be jarring to go back to lumber from the hardware store,” he said. “To be really frank, it’s kind of like going insane.”

The four carpenters at work in the teahouse house this month were all Americans. One of them, David Laws, is certified to perform the chada, or tea ceremony.

Laws operates in the Mississippi Arts District two Airbnb units he constructed with Japanese and old world carpentry. People from around the world, but especially the Japanese, are fascinated to see traditional work practiced in America, by an American, he said.

“I think it kind of draws them back to their culture a little bit when they see foreigners interested in it, and they take a second look at it,” he said.

The Portland Japanese Garden represents that to a lot of Japanese people who’ve never lived in Japan – a connection to their culture.

“I mean, it’s their Japan,” Laws said.

Portland Japanese Garden “Cultural Crossing”

Cost: $33.5 million

Architect: Kengo Kuma / Hacker

Contractor: Hoffman Construction

Scheduled completion: March 2017

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Kevin Nute, an architecture professor at the University of Oregon, says we spend too much time indoors and that architects should find more ways to bring natural elements into their designs. He has put his ideas into an e-book, “Vital: Using the Weather to Bring Buildings and Sustainability to Life.”

“As human beings our ancestors were primarily outdoors in an ever-changing environment and physiologically we’ve hardly altered,” he said.

Humans need contact with nature in order to reduce stress and maintain balance, Nute said. He contends that it is possible, even in a high-rise, to include more natural elements, and points to the work of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who wrote the foreword to “Vital.” The e-book also includes photographs of some of Kuma’s work.

Kuma in his foreword states that humans have attempted in the past “to create ideal indoor comfort conditions by insulating ourselves from the outside world … I believe weather-based indoor animation strategies described in this book will be an important part of that change.”

Nute, who met Kuma about 10 years ago, has served as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo and last month gave a lecture at the university’s Kuma Lab.

Nute said his research has overlapped and been inspired by Kuma, so he approached him for access to some of his sites.

“I went to him, looking for examples of the elements – sun, light, wind and rain – being deliberately used to activate indoor spaces,” Nute said. “I wanted access to the buildings in order to film them because it is very difficult in Tokyo to get access unless you have a connection.”

Kuma helped Nute access two of his designed spaces: the updated in Tokyo and the , a villa guest house overlooking the small coastal city of Atami. Nute’s book includes photos of both.

The Baisoin Temple was built more than 350 years ago, and Kuma’s design for overhauling the original structure included a slanted black wall covered with deep-ribbed metal louvers meant to be reminiscent of bamboo, according to the Kuma and Associates website.

Kuma’s massive redesign of the 11-story temple features a funeral temple on the top floor overlooking a 4-inch-deep reflecting pool, Nute said.

“He successfully managed to bring (evidence of) natural change into this extremely urban building,” he said.

The Water Glass House also brings nature inside, according to Kuma’s website. A glass guest house seems to float over “a layer of water that gently covers the building edges … The water surface stretches further out and unites with the surface of the Pacific Ocean.”

Corey Martin, principal at architecture firm Hacker, which is working with Kuma on the design of the Portland Japanese Garden expansion, said he believes in the concept of bringing nature into architectural design.

“That is my life goal, especially in an urban environment,” he said.

Martin cited the example of Field House, an office building planned in Northwest Portland. It will have a green roof, multilevel terraces and cables spiraling up the building’s exterior to encourage vine and foliage growth.

“That whole project is about that,” Martin said. “It’s fundamental to our existence. It’s healthier, it’s inspiring and if you do that, you are connecting to what it means to be a person on the planet.”

Matt Piccone, sustainability expert at SERA Architects, agrees with the concept of being connected to nature – even inside a building.

“It’s important to constantly be aware of systems around us so we are more engaged in the environment,” he said. “The more (natural) systems we are connected to the more aware we are.”

Piccone pointed to the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building. Its restoration was designed by SERA in collaboration with Cutler Anderson Architects of Bainbridge Island, Wash.

“It’s all about connecting to natural systems and bringing people outside,” Piccone said. “We did a lot of studies about daylight to improve health, and actually cut holes in the ground floor so light gets down to the basement … and you can see vines growing in with kind of pocket gardens.”

But Nute said his ideas go even further, and his notion of animation includes the changing light of reflections off water features and the movement of air through a building – bringing the natural world indoors.

“In a word, it’s the weather,” he said. “One thing about the atmosphere is that we don’t control it – it’s wild – and it’s what we are seeking.”

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Kengo Kuma, the Japanese architect in charge of the redesign of the Portland Japanese Garden, recently was picked to design the future National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Japan Times, Kuma’s design was selected after several months of reviews. In July, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, scrapped an earlier design by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid because of its futuristic design and spiraling cost estimates, the article states.

Kuma’s design for the circular stadium features trees and plants inside and around the building. The roof of the round structure, dubbed “the hamburger” in Japan, showcases wood and steel and draws on traditional Japanese architecture.

Lisa Christy, marketing director for the Portland Japanese Garden, said she was happy to hear that Kuma was selected to design the stadium. She said Kuma won the bid for the $33.5 million garden expansion because of his superior design and attention to sustainability.

Kuma decided to bid on the redesign of the Portland garden, Christy said, after visiting it. He called the garden “as beautiful as any in Japan,” she said, and considered the project an opportunity to bridge the cultural gap between the two countries, she said.

The centerpiece of the garden redevelopment will be Kuma’s design for the Cultural Village. Its three buildings will house a learning center, a library, gallery space and a traditional tea café. The buildings will all be Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design-rated, Christy said.

“Kuma’s submission was so connected to what we were trying to do,” she said. “His Japanese aesthetic and culture and use of sustainable materials were so in line with what we are trying to do and who we are as an organization, tied to the past while looking forward to the future.”

The garden is Kuma’s first project in North America, Christy said. In early February, the first exhibit of his work, which will focus on the Japanese Garden, will take place at AIA Portland‘s Center for Architecture at 403 N.W. 11th Ave. Details will be unveiled at .

The Japanese Garden will reopen on March 1, Christy said, but construction will continue until the formal grand opening on April 1, 2017. Progress can be followed at .

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A new nonprofit is pushing back against plans to expand the Portland Japanese Garden further into Washington Park, claiming a lack of public involvement.

Portland architect Hilary Mackenzie last week submitted a notice of intent to appeal to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals on behalf of the Alliance for Portland Public Lands, a nonprofit that she started. The appeal claims city of Portland conditional use approval for the garden expansion violated state requirements for public feedback because park property is involved.

“These are public resources, and if you jigger with it there needs to be public discussion,” Mackenzie said. “If there was more public notice, more people would have had a chance to comment.”

The Japanese Garden Society of Oregon, a private nonprofit, operates the 5.5-acre garden on 9.1 acres leased from the city. An expansion to accommodate a growing number of garden visitors would increase that acreage to 12.5. Plans filed with the city call for construction of 11,340 square feet of new buildings, including a ticketing pavilion, administrative offices, a garden house and a café.

Mackenzie, who lives near the Portland Japanese Garden, claims that garden officials were vague about the plans and misrepresented the sizes of the new buildings. She also believes that more people than neighbors should have received notice about the project and the chance to offer feedback because Washington Park attracts visitors from throughout the city and region.

“The number one thing is taking 3.5 acres of public land and handing it over to a private entity,” Mackenzie said.

Architects Tokyo-based Kengo Kuma and Associates and Portland-based THA Architecture, along with Portland-based landscape architects Sadafumi Uchiyama and Walker Macy, are in the early stages of project design, making it hard to share details, Portland Japanese Garden spokeswoman Lisa Christy said.

An important part of that process has been public involvement, she said. The design team and garden officials are consulting with neighbors and representatives of various city bureaus, such as Portland Parks & Recreation and the Portland Bureau of Transportation, on the most appropriate way to expand the garden, Christy said.

“We’re doing all we can to be a good neighbor, but also protect the park as is,” she said. “It’s all so preliminary because we’re still talking and working with the right people to make sure it’s done as thoroughly and considerately as possible.”

Kathleen Stokes of the Portland Bureau of Development Services oversaw the application for conditional use approval, which was granted in July. She said she did not know enough about the LUBA appeal to comment on it.

One of the issues with the city’s approval that irked Mackenzie and members of the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association is that the expansion would block access to a popular footpath that connects to Washington Park’s popular Wildwood Trail. The path often is used by pedestrians traveling between Arlington Heights, the park and downtown Portland, Mackenzie said.

“People can actually commute on this trail,” she said. “It’s a direct pedestrian link. It’s about as straight a line you can get.”

The Portland Japanese Garden is planning for a connector path replacement, but it won’t be as convenient, Mackenzie said.

“It’s a half-mile out of the way and it’s very steep,” she said. “When you’re walking, a half-mile matters and it’s not a straight shot anymore.”

In August, Mackenzie and the neighborhood association separately appealed city approval of the project to the Portland City Council. The neighborhood association later dropped its appeal before the council hearing in late August after garden officials agreed to address other neighborhood concerns with the project.

After city councilors denied Mackenzie’s appeal and last month officially granted approval for the project, she announced her intent to bring the matter before LUBA.

Susan Siegel, board president of the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, said the group has not taken an official stance on Mackenzie’s LUBA appeal and at this point is satisfied with a commitment from garden officials to address a number of concerns besides the path closure. These include construction of a 6-foot-wide sidewalk around the garden, installation of a bus pullout, consultations with neighbors on the design of a fence along an access road, and stipulations involving construction hours and a staging area on park tennis courts.

“It’s a good faith agreement and the concessions we felt were significant,” Siegel said.

As for the path, “we agreed to disagree on that point,” she said.

Mackenzie said she and other neighborhood residents didn’t realize the extent of the project or its impact on the connector path until this past spring when they saw plans that garden officials submitted to the city.

“I got a copy of the application and I thought, whoa ho, I have something to say about this,” she said. “That’s how it started and the neighborhood has been playing catch-up ever since.”

City approval of the path-blocking plan demonstrates a disconnect with addressing the concerns and interests of the community in a project involving public land, Mackenzie said.

“It’s symptomatic of a larger issue,” she said. “This would have all come up if they had a real public process.”

Siegel agreed that residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the Portland Japanese Garden aren’t the only ones who should have a say in the expansion project that affects Washington Park.

“As an individual, I think they did not give proper public notice,” she said. “This park isn’t just a neighborhood issue. We are hopeful there is access for everybody.”

Concerns about the garden expansion inspired Mackenzie to found the Alliance for Portland Public Lands. She believes the project is among recent instances where Oregon’s emphasis on community involvement in public land use decisions has been overlooked.

“That’s the core of our land use planning,” Mackenzie said. “This is how I formed the Portland Alliance for Public Lands, because that’s gotten eroded.”

Portland Japanese Garden expansion

Location: 611 S.W. Kingston Ave.

Owner: Portland Japanese Garden Society of Oregon

Architects: Kengo Kuma and Associates and THA Architecture

Landscape architects: Sadafumi Uchiyama and Walker Macy

Engineers: PAE, KPFF Consulting Engineers and Geotechnical Resources Inc.

General contractor: Hoffman Construction

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Related: Q&A with Kengo Kuma

The Portland Japanese Garden has selected Japanese architect Kengo Kuma to design its future expansion. Kuma serves as principal of in Japan and is a professor at the graduate school of architecture at Tokyo University.

In December, Kuma interviewed with the garden’s board of directors to helm the design of the garden’s expansion. In 2007, the garden completed a new master plan in response to an increase in visitors and has been searching for an architect for the past two years to carry out the plan.

The garden’s expansion will build on the work of original designer Takuma Tono, who designed the Washington Park attraction between 1963 and 1967. New buildings designed by Kuma will include a cultural and education center, gift store and tea house.

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Japanese architect Kengo Kuma admits he isn’t fond of most classical Japanese gardens built outside of Japan. But when it comes to the Takuma Tono-designed Portland Japanese Garden in Forest Park, Kuma says he can’t help but be impressed.

His quiet-but-dramatic designs, from a bamboo house near the Great Wall of China to a Tokyo headquarters building for Tiffany & Co., have drawn the attention of the Japanese Garden Society of Oregon. The group is looking to significantly expand the 43-year-old Portland Japanese Garden, and Kuma has emerged as the top finalist for the project, according to Melissa Wilmot, the garden’s director of external communications.

The garden society in January will decide whether Kuma will helm the design of a new gift shop, tea house and administration building at the garden. During a recent visit to the Rose City, the architect sat down for a conversation with the 91��Ƶ.

91��Ƶ: A traditional Japanese garden normally takes hundreds of years to develop. Portland’s Japanese Garden, on the other hand, was developed … in a matter of years. Do you think traditional Japanese gardens built in the U.S. lose any authenticity because of the Western speed at which they are developed?

Kengo Kuma: I was at first disappointed to see some Japanese gardens being built outside of Japan. But I was very impressed with the Portland Japanese Garden. The big trees here (in Forest Park) create shadows that are very good for a Japanese garden to have. Some parts of this garden are more interesting than gardens in Japan. The vertical continuity of the garden is one aspect I really like. Most gardens in Japan are horizontal. In Portland, you can look down over the entire garden.

91��Ƶ: In the Northwest, architects have become increasingly concerned about the energy performance of buildings, as well as their carbon footprint. How important is sustainable and energy efficient design to architects in Japan?

Kuma: Japanese architecture is traditionally sustainable design. The shape of our roofs creates shadows to cool the building, and there is a lot of natural ventilation. We don’t want to enclose a building. Japan, like other countries, is influenced by American architecture, so now we believe that everything should have air conditioning. I want to go back to using natural ventilation in buildings. In Japan’s climate and in many other places with similar climates, it’s possible. Using natural materials like local wood is also good for sustainable design. We should be using materials from our surroundings. It helps make harmony with whatever the building has for neighbors.

91��Ƶ: What are your impressions of Portland’s architecture and city design?

Kuma: The city is getting better, architecturally. I think it’s a good, compact city. The architecture in the center of Portland is getting better all the time, and it’s a sustainable model for a city.

91��Ƶ: You have said your goal with your work is to recover the tradition of Japanese buildings and reinterpret it for the 21st century. How would you achieve this goal if you were chosen to be the architect for the expansion of the Portland Japanese Garden?

Kuma: The site has a unique landscape as it is situated on a hill. I would like to use as much wood as possible so that these structures relate to the forest. A Japanese garden should have continuity and drama. The way the car parking is sited at the entrance, we need some quiet drama coming up from that parking area. Sequencing is the most important part of a Japanese garden; the buildings and structures should not be isolated from one another.

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Portland’s Japanese Garden is in the process of selecting an architect to design an expansion of the Washington Park attraction, according to Melissa Wilmot, communications director for the garden.

The expansion includes construction of a new administration building, gift store and a tea house that will serve Japanese cuisine and beverages, Wilmot said. Though the Garden already has a gift store, it is located within the gates of the garden and not accessible without paying admission. Similarly, the Garden already has a tea house, but it is only for demonstrative purposes and not meant for public use, Wilmot said. A landscape architect is also being sought to make associated improvements.

The Garden is focusing on firms in Japan for its search so that the expansion is authentic as possible, Wilmot said. One candidate for the expansion, notable Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, will visit Portland next week to give a lecture and present a potential expansion design to the Garden’s selection committee.

Though the lecture is sold out, Kuma’s design will be on display at the Garden’s pavilion Saturday, Dec. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Garden is located at 611 S.W. Kingston Ave.

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