[Kengo Kuma,「Point, Line, Plane」Book Review : From Compositional Order to the Architecture of Texture]

 The twentieth century was an era of expansion. This expansion did not refer only to physical space, but also to goods, people, and the very concept of time. The architecture of expansion was one in which capital became synonymous with speed. By its nature, capital generates surplus according to how effectively time is controlled. Matter, as surplus, transformed the concept of space into capital, and we came to regard this as the spirit of the age. Within this framework of surplus space and expanded time, concrete emerged as an indispensable material. It provided a convenient architectural solution to the demands of mass production and the rapid expansion of capital that defined the twentieth century. Concrete architecture, first explored by Auguste Perret at the end of the nineteenth century, was initially a costly method of construction. However, through its subsequent widespread adoption, it became a universal engineering paradigm across the world in the twentieth century. The volumetric spatiality inherent in concrete came to form the fundamental basis of modern life. In this sense, concrete, by its material nature, is understood less through the logic of joints and assemblies and more as a volumetric system composed of columns and beams—a material oriented toward volume rather than articulation.

 From this perspective, Point, Line, Plane offers a critical deconstruction of concrete, the universal material of twentieth-century modernism and expansionism. Rather than accepting concrete as an easily deployable structural system, the book traces how architecture based on points, lines, and planes has evolved throughout history as an alternative mode of construction. In doing so, it proposes the possibility of future transformations grounded in an architectural language distinct from the expansive logic of concrete. Architecture inherently operates within three-dimensional volume, yet the fundamental systems that constitute volume inevitably derive from points, lines, and planes. In this sense, Kuma examines the unit systems of materials that make volumetric construction possible and the methods by which these units are spatialized. He further explains how the problem of construction has evolved in relation to the technological and cultural conditions of each era, and how architects have interpreted these conditions. Historical examples such as Marc-Antoine Laugier’s Primitive Hut, Brunelleschi’s double-shell structure, and Palladio’s Villa Rotonda demonstrate how systems of point, line, and plane emerged through the intersection of material characteristics and tectonic logic. These precedents allow us to infer alternative futures by examining the diverse construction methods and architectural systems that existed prior to the dominance of concrete.

 In the age of expansion, efficiency and speed in producing volume inevitably dominate the architectural process. This is because volumetric systems provide an efficient means of organizing space and establishing relationships between interior and exterior. If strong architecture facilitates this organization with clarity and force, weak architecture opens relationships between elements, allowing for permeability and relational depth. As Kuma suggests, the shift “from concrete to wood” represents not merely a change of material, but a transformation toward spaces shaped by the inherent tectonic logic of materials themselves. Architecture conceived as line rather than volume offers an alternative to the heavy and dominant nature of concrete. It introduces a form of weakness—yet this weakness allows adaptability, and through adaptability, permanence. This permanence is not derived from mass or surplus, but from lightness. It suggests an architecture capable of enduring precisely because it resists the logic of expansion. Perhaps the spatiality we must now reconsider is not space as composition formed by points, lines, and planes, but space constructed through the texture that emerges between them.

2024.05

Jeonghoon Lee

[This article was commissioned by Ahn Graphics]