Bruce Kuwabara, one of Canada’s leading architects, makes stories — stories full of characters and rich with themes. Today he joins me to discuss how he crafts multi-layered stories and enables dialogue through his built spaces. That dialogue begins in the earliest stages of designing a new building. It continues through cultivating connections with the past while serving, sometimes showcasing, the current occupants of a building. Yet, perhaps more than other kinds of conversation, architectural themes resonate far into the future, as long as the structures endure, literally shaping how we will relate to each other. Though his work at KPMB Architects is aesthetically and formally stunning, I learn that Bruce’s commitment to architecture stems from a consideration of the people who will animate it, inside and out. He channels his voice and those of others through wood, concrete and triple-glazed windows to build meeting places that house our ideals, invigorate our public life, and invite us, all of us, in.
Bruce Kuwabara is founding partner of KPMB Architects and the Chair of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Among other awards, he has been recognized with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal and the Officer of the Order of Canada for shaping “our built landscape in lasting ways.” You may find Bruce`s works, including the ones we discuss – the National Ballet of Canada, Boston University, Manitoba Hydro, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and the Global Centre for Pluralism – at kpmb.com
Bruce recommends... Hanya Yanagihara`s novel A Little Life and her articles in the New York Times on friendships and dinners, for example, “The Wayward Joy of the Dinner Party” from Dec. 2, 2022. And for visiting, he recommends The Darling Foundry, a visual arts centre in Montreal, and Peter Zumthor`s Thermal Baths in Vals, Switzerland.
