PETER RICH TELLS THE STORY of how, when the Japanese architectural legend Kengo Kuma presented him with the World Architecture Festival award for building of the year in 2009 – for his Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in Limpopo – he leaned in, gave him a hug and whispered something in his ear.
Peter had long admired Kuma, who later designed the Japan National Stadium for the doomed 2020 Olympic Games, so receiving the award from him was especially meaningful. He explains that Kuma's great achievement was an approach to buildings that allowed their designs to be “open-ended”; more about the relationships between people, culture, the environment