This is our design competition scheme for an art museum sited within Aomori Prefectural General Art Park, adjacent to the Sannai-Maruyama Archeological Site. Aomori Prefectural General Art Park is oriented in concept to the large-scale Neolithic village under excavation at the Sannai-Maruyama Site. I chose to reflect this theme of Neolithic culture in the art museum’s design. Taking example from the predominant building type of the Neolithic age -the pit-dwelling- we proposed an art museum that is partially inset in its sloping site.
Our proposal seeks to merge the building with the landscape by terracing it with the slope while respecting the contour line, so that the floor level changes as the slope progresses. The roof, which follows the stepped landform produced by the floor, is divided in three sections in the direction of the contour line. The three volumes bend to embrace the landscape as they climb the slope, generating variations in their interior and exterior spaces, which are applied to housing the multiple functions of the art museum.
Lighting is a critical issue for an art museum. Our design, which values natural lighting instead of relying entirely on artificial light sources, employs daylight entering through the roof. Because the galleries contain objects vulnerable to damage by light, however, it was necessary to continually maintain a fixed volume of illumination. For this, the building is roofed with multilayered, metal-coated glass. Computer-controlled movable louvers are added outside the glass, while inside is a ceiling of semi-transparent fabric. The roof having three layers for diffusing light -louvers, metal-coated glass of multiple layers, and fabric- a stable light softly permeates the interior.
