Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum
Tadao Ando

Photo: arcspace

Chikatsu-Asuka, an area in the southern part of Osaka Prefecture, has one of the best collections of tumuli (kofun) in Japan.

There are over 200 mounds including four imperial tombs, the site of the tomb of Prince Shotoku and the tomb of Ono-no-Imoko. It was an important place at the start of Japanese history.

The building has been conceived as a hill from which one can see the entire excavated area. The 60 meters wide and 12 meters long stone-paved roof is shaped like an enormous stairway which may be transformed into a stage, outdoor lecture hall or simply a wide viewing platform.  

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

The building is intended as a center for exhibiting and studying the culture of the Age of Tumuli, and my proposal was to create an environmental museum that incorporates not only the Tumuli scattered around the site but the natural environment of the burial mounds.

/Tadao Ando

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Inside the building, objects excavated from the burial mounds are exhibited in a darkened interior, evoking the interiors of the tombs in which they were discovered.

Photo: arcspace

Ando's use of concrete as a construction material recalls the work of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, his architectural mentors, yet he combines this preference with a Japanese aesthetic of contrast-light and dark, interior and exterior, enclosed and expansive, hard and soft, nature and city, east and west.

Sketch courtesy Tadao Ando

Drawing courtesy Tadao AndoAxonometric

Drawing courtesy Tadao AndoEntry Level Plan

Drawing courtesy Tadao AndoSection