Ryue Nishizawa
Teshima Art Museum
Teshima Island
Seto Inland Sea
Japan
Photo: Iwan Baan
Teshima Art Museum is located on Teshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea. It faces the ocean from a magnificent hillside covered by rice terraces.
Photo: Iwan Baan
Photo: Iwan Baan
“It was important to us to create an architectural space that could coexist with Rei Naito’s work, and act in harmony with the island’s environment. We proposed an architectural design composed of free curves, echoing the shape of a water drop. Our idea was that the curved drop–like form would create a powerful architectural space in harmony with the undulating landforms around it.
Photo: Iwan Baan
Photo: Iwan Baan
A thin concrete shell slab reaches sixty meters across, creating a large, organic interior space. By making the ceiling lower than that of many shell structures, the architecture appears to be part of the external landscape, like a hill or a slope. Inside it has a space that stretches low and horizontal. There are large apertures on the surface of the shell to let in light, rain, and the fresh air.
Photo: Iwan Baan
Photo: Iwan Baan
Photo: Iwan Baan
Photo: Iwan Baan
Photo: Iwan Baan
The architecture aims to create a dynamic space that is both closed for the work of art and the environment and open at the same time. Our goal is to generate a fusion of the environment, art, and architecture, and we hope these three elements work together as a single entity.”
Ryue Nishizawa
Photo: Iwan Baan
Rei Naito’s "Matrix," the title given to the work.
Photo: Iwan Baan
Rei Naito’s "Matrix," the title given to the work.
Rei Naito’s installation, shaped like falling waterdrops, allows nature into the structure by collecting rainwater through the two large, unglazed openings. The water simply ponds on the concrete floor.
Drawing courtesy Office of Ryue Nishizawa
Site Plan
Drawing courtesy Office of Ryue Nishizawa
Floor Plan
Drawing courtesy Office of Ryue Nishizawa
Sections
Site area: 9,959 square meters
Building area: 2,155 square meters
Total floor area: 2,334 square meters
Completed: 2010
Client: Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation
Architects: Office of Ryue Nishizawa
Design team: Ryue Nishizawa, Yusuke Ohi
Structural engineering: Sasaki Structural Consultants
General contractors: Kajima Corporation
Artist: Rei Naito
Photographed by Iwan Baan
Architect Ryue Nishizawa is the co-founder of SANAA
March 7, 2011
