Botond Bognar is Professor and Edgar A. Tafel Endowed Chair in Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Professor Bognar is an internationally renowned scholar of the history and theories of contemporary Japanese architecture and urbanism. He has written some twenty books and monographs, more than thirty chapters to books, and many essays and articles in professional journals. He is the recipient of several distinguished awards and recognitions including an Arnold O. Beckman Fellowship, a Japan Foundation Fellowship, the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) Cultural Appreciation Prize, and many others. Balazs Bognar is an architect and chief manager of Kengo Kuma and Associates, Tokyo. He is design director for the Cultural Center at the Portland Japanese Garden. Kengo Kuma is a celebrated Japanese architect and principal of Kengo Kuma and Associates. He is a professor at the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Tokyo.