Event Description

Innovation often aligns with technological advances; however, it's essential to acknowledge the site-specific and interpersonal facets of the process. In this discussion, Balázs Bognár, Partner at Kengo Kuma & Associates and 2025 AIA Japan President, reflects on his firm's conversational methodologies and their experimental design approach, which emphasizes material and detail evolution. This perspective leads to a subtle engagement with site design, encompassing tradition, typology, and place specificity.

Speaker

Balázs Bognár, AIA, President, AIA Japan; Partner, Kengo Kuma and Associates

Moderator 

Michel van Ackere, AIA, LEED AP, CSI, Past President, AIA Japan; Professor-in-Practice, Meiji University 

CES: Estimated 1 LU/ HSW for AIA Members

Speaker Bio

Balázs Bognár, a nationally certified and U.S.-licensed architect, is a native of Urbana, Illinois, and currently serves as Executive Vice President and Partner at Kengo Kuma & Associates in Tokyo, Japan. He is also the 2025 President of American Institute of Architects (AIA) Japan chapter. 

Bognár received his Master of Architecture degree in 2003 from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture in 2000 from Washington University in St. Louis. He lectures widely on the work of his office and has written essays to publications such as Domus, Routledge. In 2018, he co-auhored Kengo Kuma: Portland Japanese Garden  with his father, Professor Botond Bognár of University of Illinois, released by Rizzoli. 

Since joining the renowned Kengo Kuma & Associates in 2007, Bognár has led numerous North American projects. Notable completed works include Alberni in Vancouver, Canada (2023); Rolex Tower in Dallas, Texas (2018), which received the 2019 Engineering News-Record Global Best Office Building Project; Portland Japanese Garden’s Cultural Village in Oregon (2017), honoured with the 2018 Eurasian Prize, and the 2019 AIA Japan Award; and the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, Japan (2014). 

Currently, he is collaborating with Professor Bognár on a new book while leading teams on projects in Sydney, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Dallas, and near Philadelphia for the office's first U.S. museum. Additionally, he is involved in planning the first new memorial in the Washington, D.C. Mall in decades. 

Moderator Bio

Michel van Ackere is Professor-in-Practice at Meiji University’s International Program in Architecture and Urban Design, based in Tokyo. He received his BA from Brown University in Art and Architecture History, and his M.Arch from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where he was awarded the AIA Gold Medal and the Julia Amory Appleton Travelling Fellowship.

Following graduation from the GSD, Michel was employed at Maki and Associates in Tokyo through 2024, where he led a variety of projects including the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania (2009), the Jewish Community of Japan, Tokyo (2009), the Bihar Museum, Patna, India (2017), and the Museum Reinhard Ernst, Wiesbaden, Germany (2024). He is a licensed architect in the United States and Japan and maintains LEED AP and CSI (CDT) certifications.

In 2005-2006, Michel served as the founding President of AIA Japan (the AIA’s fourth overseas chapter). He remained a Board Member through 2022 and is currently the Chapter’s Sponsorship Director.