Kengo Kuma: The flow of lines through the lens of Erieta Attali

DATE

28.05.2026

Taking place between June 13 and September 13 at the Tchoban Foundation Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin, the exhibition “Kengo Kuma: The Flow of Lines Through the Lens of Erieta Attali” is presented as an artistic and intellectual dialogue of the highest caliber, where architecture and photography merge to explore the dissolution of spatial boundaries. The showcase brings to light the fruits of over two decades of collaboration and creative exchange between the celebrated Japanese architect Kengo Kuma—a fundamental figure on the international stage and a lecturer in the MArch programs—and the renowned architectural photographer Erieta Attali. Through this joint body of work, the exhibition invites viewers to delve into a profound reflection on how built space can interact, blend, and ultimately dissolve into the natural landscape.

Attali’s photographic lens masterfully complements and enhances Kuma’s architectural philosophy, which is characterized by the use of natural materials, structural lightness, and reverence for the surroundings. Far from recording buildings as static objects or isolated monuments, the photographer’s snapshots capture architecture in a state of constant transition. Her framing focuses on the flow of lines, transparencies, and the way light and atmospheric conditions transform the perception of matter. The images document with surgical precision Kuma’s yearning to erase the borders between the interior and the exterior, making human craftsmanship appear as an organic extension of the land itself.

The exhibition’s visual journey spans some of the most emblematic projects by Kengo Kuma’s studio worldwide, offering a cartography that connects Japanese building traditions with global contemporaneity. Through Attali’s compositions, Kuma’s wooden frameworks, subtle louvers, and permeable walls reveal themselves as technical solutions while simultaneously acting as poetic devices that filter the landscape. Each photograph functions as a phenomenological study where the scale of the building is redefined through its textures, the interplay of water, shadows, and surrounding vegetation, showcasing a mutual understanding and a shared sensitivity toward the fragility and beauty of the environment.

One of the most evocative aspects of the exhibition is how it manages to materialize the ideas of time and movement within the two-dimensional space of photography. The architectural lines captured by Attali do not delineate a closed outline; rather, they suggest a visual continuity—a “flow” that draws the eye toward the horizon or toward the most subtle details of the construction. In this way, the exhibition transcends the traditional format of an architectural display to transform into an immersive experience, allowing viewers to sense the atmospheric quality and the silence that Kuma imprints onto his spaces, as well as Attali’s capacity to capture the invisible essence of architecture.

This exhibition encounter between Kengo Kuma and Erieta Attali offers a masterclass on the power of cross-disciplinarity within creative fields. On one hand, the showcase pays tribute to one of the most influential architectural careers of the 21st century, while on the other, it reclaims architectural photography as an act of co-creation capable of unveiling new interpretations of habitable space. For design students and professionals alike, the exhibition becomes an inspiring testament to how respect for materiality, context, and the artistic perspective of another can converge into a visual manifesto of resounding poetic permanence.