If Kengo Kuma were given a blank cheque to design any structure he wanted in Dubai, the starchitect would create a Japanese-style teahouse. “I’m very much interested in the spiritual experience in the desert,” he tells me at the launch of his first UAE project, a high-end residential tower with Dubai’s Al Ghurair Collection that incidentally features teahouse-inspired pavilions on the terraces.
“The desert is where the conversations take place, like a gathering place … like a teahouse.” Considering he’s one of the world’s most celebrated architects, Kuma has done surprisingly little in the region. Some of his most famed structures include Japan National Stadium in Tokyo and the China Academy of Art’s Folk Art Museum in Hangzhou.
Here, he’s designed The St Regis Resort in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea, where he relied heavily on organic shapes and curves, natural materials, neutral hues and designs that minimise impact, including spiral-shaped, coral-inspired villas that offer 360-degree views of the sea stretching towards the horizon.
Apart from that, Kuma’s only other foray in the Gulf has been to create a national pavilion for Qatar at Osaka Expo 2025, featuring white fabric stretched over a scalloped timber structure with several arched openings reminiscent of traditional dhow sails, merging inspiration from Japan’s heritage of wood joinery.
He’s excited about this new project, Kuma tells me at the event, which takes place amid the low-rise villas of Umm Suqeim, at Skooni Arts Foundation & Residence, an event space for creative gatherings.
Kuma is as unimposing as his designs; mild-mannered and softly-spoken, but with a fashionable edge. He wears a sculptural black shirt with sheer sleeves, extra fabric twirling outward in an aesthetic similar to the sketch of the soon-to-be-realised building I’m given when we meet.
Whether or not that detail was intentional remains to be seen, but something about Kuma and his vast portfolio strikes me as being very intentional. “Dubai is kind of a museum of architectural design,” he says when I ask him what he thinks of the city’s structural landscape. “To work here is very exciting for me, because Dubai can show the future of a city.”
Kuma is best known for his philosophy of seamlessly merging nature with architecture, seemingly out of step with Dubai’s penchant for glass-clad modernity. However, in the property sphere, a move towards authenticity and wilderness has been emerging – so perhaps he’s right on time.
“We want to show the dialogue with nature,” he says of Al Ghurair Collection’s first waterfront residence, which is called Wedyan, meaning valleys in Arabic. The 46-storey tower will sit adjacent to Dubai Canal, drawing influence from the movement of water and sand. “We were inspired by the organic shape of the river,” he says. “We tried to find a new solution for the skyscraper in the city. The whole silhouette is very soft, organic, intimate – and people want to be in that kind of soft environment.”
The building will house 149 residences – a mix of three, four and five-bedroom layouts – plus two full-floor penthouses, as well as a three-storey sky villa. Some key elements include a back-of-house kitchen, larger-than-usual suites for live-in housekeepers, window glazing that protects owners’ artworks from UV rays and 65,000 square feet of amenity space that comprises everything from a spa to a podcast studio and boxing facilities.
One of the building’s defining features will be the spacious balconies. “People can feel the wind over the canal and in that kind of environment, we can propose these huge balconies, so natural wind comes through, and it’s totally integrated with nature,” Kuma explains. A handful of the terraces will feature those aforementioned Japanese teahouse-inspired pavilions; a blank space the residents can transform into anything they like, whether for yoga and meditation, a recording studio or their own contemporary art museum.
“Wedyan is a dialogue between Japanese aesthetics and the context of Dubai,” Kuma says. “Our design philosophy is to connect and create a conversation between architecture, nature and people … to bring softness to the design and to create quietness through shadows that cascade and reflect across the facade, terraces and amenity spaces.”
To achieve a natural cooling effect, the designer has looked to Old Dubai for inspiration, as architects historically relied on shade, narrow corridors and wind towers or barjeel, before air-conditioning. He has also used old-style mashrabiya screens. “It’s a beautiful solution for controlling natural light and bringing in the breeze,” says Kuma, who likens it to Japan’s penchant for silk and folding screens. “The details on these screens also give a peaceful feeling.”
Sultan Al Ghurair, chief executive of the company behind this project, says Al Ghurair Collection exists to develop buildings that don’t exist anywhere else. That’s why Kuma was entrusted with their vision. “Our search for an architect who shares our commitment to originality and obsession with detail led us to Kengo Kuma, a visionary with a truly unique design perspective,” says Al Ghurair.
In an age when dystopian sci-fi imagery has become reality, it is perhaps disruptive to choose a man known for his dedication to the concept of “weak architecture” – anti-monumental, subservient, subtle spaces that blend in rather than stand out, whether that’s on an isolated desert island in the Red Sea or smack-bang in the middle of an urban environment like Dubai.
Indeed, intimacy, respect for nature and a sense of peacefulness are defining elements of Kuma’s body of work. It’s a balance between ultra-modern design and traditional values, while paying homage to local craftsmanship and materials.
It’s Dubai’s architectural freedom that he’s most enamoured by, Kuma adds. “There are many, many constraints everywhere, but Dubai has a freedom. I think it’s very necessary for artificial design because we are facing a drastic change and we need to find new solutions.” With this, he refers to climate change; the UAE’s climate might be tricky to work with, he says, but “in the future every country will have this kind of climate. So, this can be a pioneer project.”
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