Kengo Kuma’s Earth Tree transforms shelter, materiality, and creativity into an immersive architectural experience rooted in nature and memory.
There is a rare Japanese word for sunlight filtering through tree leaves: Komorebi. Even if many languages don’t have a word for it, the feeling is something almost everyone knows—a quiet sense of comfort, warmth, and being gently held by nature.
CCreate is a three-year exhibition program centered on creativity and the act of making. Each year, a leading creative voice is invited to develop an installation that offers visitors a glimpse into their creative process. Spanning disciplines and perspectives, the program explores creativity as a deeply human quality or one that can be awakened, practiced, and strengthened.
This idea takes physical form in Earth Tree, an installation by Kengo Kuma and Kengo Kuma and Associates at CC. Rooted in the primal instinct to seek shelter, the project transforms the memory of standing beneath a tree into an immersive architectural space.
Shelter as Memory
At its core, Earth | Tree explores one of humanity’s oldest needs: shelter. Not in a purely structural sense, but as an emotional and bodily experience. The installation evokes the feeling of being protected under a tree canopy, away from noise, pressure, and the mental weight of daily life. It becomes less about architecture as form and more about architecture as comfort.
Materials That Feel Alive
Known for his philosophy of “soft architecture,” Kengo Kuma approaches materials as sensory and cultural carriers. In Earth | Tree, wood and brick are chosen not only for their physical qualities but also for the memories they hold. Wood introduces the scent and warmth of the forest, while brick connects the space to a long architectural lineage. Together, they reflect a shared Japanese and Nordic sensitivity toward nature, tactility, and atmosphere.
Creativity for Everyone
A defining aspect of the installation is its participatory spirit. In the workshop zone, visitors are invited to build, shape, and experiment using sand, wooden blocks, and miniature bricks. Inspired by Kuma’s playful design philosophy, the space encourages making as a universal act. It suggests that creativity is not exclusive to architects; it belongs to anyone willing to engage with materials and imagination.
Earth | Tree is more than an installation; it is a sensory reminder of how architecture can reconnect people with nature, memory, and making. Through light, texture, scent, and interaction, it offers a softer, more human understanding of space, one that invites everyone not just to observe, but to shape the world around them.
Credit: © CCreate / KENGOKUMA / LaForgia
