Nezu Museum, Tokyo Japan
I wanted to create a huge roof’, says Kengo Kuma of the new Nezu Museum, designed to house the collection of wealthy Japanese industrialist Kaichiro Nezu on a lusciously pastoral site in the Aoyama district of Tokyo. The big, minimally articulated roof is a Kuma signature. His Hiroshige Ando Museum (AR October 2001) was just a huge shed clad in cedar slats, but it had a powerful lyricism. Kuma’s roofs are abstractions of traditional Japanese architecture, in which overhanging eaves shelter and shade, subtly blurring the boundary between inside and out. Of this latest project, Kuma says: ‘I wanted the new museum to be linked naturally with its surroundings by the shade from the gentle slope of the roof. Shadows link buildings to the ground and give comfort to the architecture and warmth to the city.
Founded in 1941 following Nezu’s death, the museum boasts one of Japan’s most culturally significant private collections of Asian art from the pre-modern period. Nezu was a particularly avid collector of hanging scrolls and utensils for tea ceremonies, and today the museum has over 7,000 objects, including calligraphy, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, bamboo crafts and textiles. The collection was originally displayed in Nezu’s Aoyama residence, which stood in extensive traditional gardens studded with ponds, bridges and teahouses. In 2006 his grandson Koichi Nezu commissioned Kuma to remodel and rationalise the existing facilities and design a new building on the garden site. The revitalised complex reopened in October 2009.
Intimately relating both to its site and the wider city, the new museum is conceived as a piece of urbanism rather than a single object building. It structures and defines routes from the nearby Omotesando, Tokyo’s famous ‘Parisian’ boulevard thronged with shoppers and flâneurs. To disengage from the distractions of the street and prepare for the contemplative serenity of the museum, visitors are steered on a trajectory around the gardens. This takes you through a thicket of bamboo (characteristic of ceremonial approaches to tea houses) and along the building’s deep eaves to the main entrance. En route, the blare of the city dissolves in the verdant, calming embrace of nature. Kuma likens this decompression to a journey from town to forest, or the transition from profane to sacred space, where a traditional torii gate marks the entrance to a shrine.
The museum is essentially an elegant two-storey pavilion capped by a voluminous, grey tiled roof. Appearing to float on walls of glass, but actually supported by a steel frame, the roof gathers visitors into the building. Scale, form and the post-and-beam structure all allude to Tokyo’s lost heritage of vernacular timber buildings, but Kuma reinterprets this in an authentically contemporary way. The low edge of the roof sharpens to a blade, made from exquisitely thin planes of steel, treated with phosphoric acid for maximum slimness and refinement.
Beyond the entrance, visitors encounter a double-height space shaped by the angular pitch of the great roof, its underside clad in lightweight panels of neritsuke (thinly shaved bamboo on a plywood base). Around the edges are rows of theatrically illuminated Buddhist sculptures. The grey Chinese stone of the gallery floor spreads outside, softening the distinction between internal and external. In turn, the landscape almost becomes part of the exhibition as greenery presses in through the glazed walls. Public gardens are rare in Tokyo, so this lush enclave has a special resonance.
Galleries are dimly lit and neutrally appointed, so the precious artefacts can take centre stage
The new museum provides six gallery spaces, four more than the previous building. Each gallery is devoted to a different artistic or craft discipline and works are displayed in simple glass cabinets. Kuma’s sober new galleries provide an ascetically neutral backdrop so the collection can shine. Among the museum’s holdings are seven national treasures, including Korin Ogata’s Irises, an 18th-century depiction of flowers on a pair of gold foil screens. It’s one of Kuma’s favourite works. ‘As an architect, I have been greatly influenced by the technique of showing depth of space with limited elements,’ he told the Tokyo Reporter, ‘and this is reflected in the construction of space at Nezu.
Environmentally Friendly
It is fitting, of course, that the new offices of The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi are inspired by the topography of the United Arab Emirates. The sabkha, or salt flats, that line the coast; the dominant desert landscape; the mountainous terrain that snakes along the Omani border; the dunes of the Empty Quarter; and the islands that hug the coastline; all had an influence on this interior design scheme.
RW Armstrong, a US-headquartered architectural, engineering, project management, planning and design consultancy with a presence in Abu Dhabi, was responsible for the interiors of the three-storey office. “The project brief was for 12,000m² of office space that would house the entire Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi.
“The agency was interested in a design that reflected its values and that showcased the UAE’s environment, but was also sustainable,” explained Mona Salem, senior associate and programmes director, RW Armstrong.
The Environment Agency is a govern-mental body that was established in 1996 to protect and manage biodiversity, create a clean environment and promote sustainable development in Abu Dhabi. “We are also committed to giving environmental protection, regulation and natural resources conservation a high priority on the national agenda. We provide a direction for government, business and the community to build environmental considerations into the way they plan and live, without compromising Abu Dhabi’s development,” says the agency’s mission statement.
As a highly prominent entity, the Environment Agency receives a high number of dignitaries from around the world, Salem explained. Furthermore, the offices are located in Abu Dhabi’s prestigious Al Mamoura Building, which presented an additional incentive to get the design absolutely right. Home to the Mubadala Development Company headquarters, Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council, The Council of Economic Development, the Emirates Foundation and various other high-profile inhabitants, the Al Mamoura building is no stranger to good interior design, Salem pointed out.
“What we did initially is we developed a concept that was based on the environment of the UAE. There are, I think, seven different environments in the UAE so, for example, we looked at the dune environment, the marine environment, the sabkha environment, the wadi environment, and we looked at the desert. We looked at all these different environments, at the colours, the textures, the type of animals and wildlife, the patterns, and incorporated those influences into the interior de-sign,” Salem detailed.
RW Armstrong introduced two distinct themes on each of the office’s three floors. Each theme was characterised by a specific set of forms, textures and colour schemes, which shaped the flooring, ceilings, façade and furniture.
Throughout the design, the focus was very much on sustainability. “The office has a luxurious feel, but it’s still sustainable. That’s a tough balance to strike but we believe that we accomplished that. We used a lot of recycled materials, environmentally-friendly materials, and materials with a low carbon imprint,” Salem said.
“Most of the materials were sourced locally or from a nearby source. Electrical consumption and MEP systems were a major focus and we introduced intelligent lighting and intelligent security systems. We also did a lot of customisation when it came to furniture and artwork.”
But while sustainability was a primary concern, it was equally important to create an intelligent space that facilitated the agency’s work flow and promoted progressive working principles. “We put in a RPX digital conference room, which is the first of its kind in this region,” Salem said. “We are very very proud of it.
“We spent a significant amount of time with the agency, developing the space programme. There are a total of 270 work stations. We took the structural hierarchy of the organisation and looked at having the majority of the staff occupying open workstations. Even the enclosed offices have sheer doors and sheer partitions to allow natural light to seep through and fl od the rest of the space.”
In this, and many other ways, the new office is strictly in keeping with current trends in workplace design, Salem pointed out. “The main trend in office design right now is sustainability. Use of technology is very important too – being able to plug in anywhere, not being limited and not having wires all over the place.
“IT is playing a major role in high-end commercial offices and conference spaces. Minimising bulk is also important, so there is a trend towards lightweight, modular furniture that can be assembled and moved around, and materials that are lightweight. Being able to use spaces for multiple functions is also popular.
”All in all, the Environment Agency project took nine months to complete, a time scale that presented significant challenges, given the size of the space. “The schedule was the greatest challenge. The agency was moving and had to vacate its old premises. They had to move into a temporary space and were very anxious to move into their new offices,” said Salem.
In spite – or perhaps because – of this, the project was particularly re-warding, Salem noted. “It was a fun job to do. It turned out very nicely and was well worth the headaches caused by the tight schedule,” she said.
“It’s a project that we are extremely proud of, for many reasons, but mainly because of the sustainability angle; the client’s mission was very near and dear to our hearts so we were happy to be a part of the project, and hope to do many more like it.”
