Teshima Art Museum
Ryue Nishizawa

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.

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./Ryue Nishizawa

Photo: Iwan Baan

Photo: Iwan Baan

Photo: Iwan Baan

Photo: Iwan Baan

A thin concrete shell slab reaches as high as sixty meters, 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./Ryue Nishizawa

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 BaanRei Naito's "Matrix," the title given to the work.

Photo: Iwan BaanRei 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 NishizawaSite Plan


Drawing courtesy Office of Ryue NishizawaFloor Plan


Drawing courtesy Office of Ryue NishizawaSections