Kengo Kuma’s ‘Paper Clouds’ in London is a ‘poem’ celebrating washi paper in construction

Paper Clouds, Kengo Kuma’s installation for the London Design Biennale 2025, floats through the grand geometric space of the Nelson Stair at Somerset House as if someone had scattered wafers from the top step. Around 70 panels of washi paper are suspended by gold thread and cascade around the interlocking stone steps, which were designed by Sir William Chambers in 1790. The combination of Japanese lightness and craft with classical solidity and verticality is pleasing for Kuma, who says that ‘dialogue between East and West’ is the central theme of the work.

The installation is a collaboration between London-based Clare Farrow Studio and Sekisui House – Kuma Lab, the Tokyo University research department founded by Kuma in 2009. In 2020, at the official retirement age of 65, Kuma handed over to co-director Toshiki Hirano, a Kobe-born architect who specialises in post-digital architecture. This is Hirano’s third collaboration with Farrow in London, following Bamboo Ring in the V&A Courtyard in 2019 and Reinventing Texture at the 2021 London Design Biennale.

Step inside Kengo Kuma’s ‘Paper Clouds’

Described as a ‘poem’, Paper Clouds is deceptively light in meaning. Its design refers to the Japanese notion of Suyari-Gasumi – the trailing mist that is depicted in traditional paintings – but its purpose has weight: to further ongoing research into the use of washi paper in construction.

In order to produce elements that would combine strength and lightness, Hirano worked on a new technique using the same kōzo plant fibres as a traditional washi paper. Instead of creating a slurry that is drained on a screen, he made a thick paste, which he trowelled over a series of CNC-cut moulds. Using his fingers, he pressed the paste into a lattice texture that would produce structural stiffness. Once dry, each ‘wafer’ was peeled away from the mould, leaving a shallow-bowl shape with minimal weight and maximum strength.

Over time, Kuma and Hirano hope that the research may result in permanent buildings and they are working on coatings for the paper that could allow it to be used outdoors. The next step for Hirano will be to use the washi paste for 3D printing.

Small experimental projects continue to be important for Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA) even though the practice is prolific, with more than 400 staff working on projects in 50 countries. Kuma somehow manages to combine a pragmatic way of working with clients, who, he says, are usually ‘very safe and only wish to repeat the previous design’, with smaller projects that allow him to introduce a challenge or to test out a new material.

A recent example is the CS Somme café in the southern Japanese prefecture of Fukuoka, completed earlier this year, which combines an arched steel truss for earthquake resistance with a delicate fabric mesh for shading. Lightness and ethereality are also the themes of a tent structure in the West Bund of Shanghai, completed in 2023. KKAA wrapped two ventilation towers by manually winding lightweight, 2mm aluminium wire in spirals onto a base of stainless-steel cables.

Elsewhere in Shanghai, KKAA is working at a completely different scale with very different materials. At the former Jiangnan Shipyard on the Huangpu River, construction has started on a major new museum to document and celebrate the history of industry in Shanghai. Located on the site where steel was first produced in China in 1891, the building will be made from steel and aluminium, a significant break from Kuma’s recent work, with his recent work celebrating craft and nature.

Paper Clouds is at Somerset House as part of the London Design Biennale, until 29 June 2025.

kkaa.co.jp