Hiroshi Nakamura Biography, Buildings and Best Books

Hiroshi Nakamura (born 1974) is a Japanese architect and the founder of NAP Architects in Tokyo. His work studies the relationship between bodies, nature and buildings at a very close scale, an approach he calls microscopic designing, in projects such as the Sayama Forest Chapel, with its leaning timber roof among trees, and the spiral Ribbon Chapel in Onomichi.

Kengo Kuma and NAP

Nakamura was born in Tokyo in 1974 and studied architecture at Meiji University. He worked for Kengo Kuma from 1999 to 2002 and then founded NAP Architects. His book Microscopic Designing Methodology (2010) set out his approach.

Chapels and houses

His works include the Dancing Trees, Singing Birds housing, the Optical Glass House in Hiroshima, the Sayama Forest Chapel (2013), whose roof leans to avoid the branches of surrounding trees, and the Ribbon Chapel (2013), two intertwined spiral stairs at a resort in Onomichi.