Kengo Kuma and Leonie Bell in conversation with Will Gompertz

Kengo Kuma and Leonie Bell in conversation with Will Gompertz

Architectural Alchemy

By Global Design Forum

Date and time

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 17:45 - 19:00 GMT+1

Location

King's College London

Strand London WC2R 2LS United Kingdom

About this event

  • Event lasts 1 hour 15 minutes

Visionary Japanese architect Kengo Kuma joins Leonie Bell, director of V&A Dundee, the groundbreaking structure Kengo designed as Scotland's design museum, inspired by the dramatic Scottish coastal landscape. Chaired by the director of London's Sir John Soane's Museum and former arts editor of the BBC, Will Gompertz, this conversation will dissect how materials can be transformed into vessels for cultural memory and unveil the hidden dialogues between a building and those who use it.

Ahead of the talk, violinist Midori Komachi performs Paper Clouds: Materiality in empty Space in a washi paper dress inspired by samurai armour, a piece she composed for Paper Clouds: Materiality in Empty Space, the 2025 Japan pavilion at London Design Biennale, curated by Sekisui House – Kuma Lab and Clare Farrow Studio.

Location: The Great Hall, King's College, London

This edition is supported by our Digital Media Partner, STIR.

Should you have any access requirements, please contact us at rsvp@globaldesignforum.com to accommodate your visit.

Tags

Organised by

Global Design Forum

As part of the London Design Biennale programme, from 10 - 12 June 2025 the Global Design Forum will host a series of talks and panel discussions at King's College London, under the title ‘Design and the Invisible’.

How can we dismantle outdated systems and forge radical new ones? Join Samuel Ross, Mariana Mazzucato, Kengo Kuma and dozens more of the world’s most exciting designers and thinkers for a series of talks that will rethink the hidden powers shaping our world.

Beneath every object, building and space lies an entangled network of invisible forces – financial flows, digital networks, contested borders and unspoken cultural codes that shape lives and govern the world.

Inspired by artistic director Samuel Ross’ Biennale theme, Surface Reflections, we pull back the curtain on these unseen drivers of design. Over three days, leading designers, architects, economists, activists and technologists will shine a light on the impulses that come from within us, those that lie outside us and those that connect us, and envisage a future where design’s transformative power is freed from invisible constraints.

This edition is supported by our Digital Media Partner, STIR.

FreeJun 10 · 17:45 GMT+1