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.
The 46-storey Weydan tower will sit adjacen
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