Nakanoshima Museum of Art Osaka / Katsuhiko Endo Architect and Associates
Nakanoshima Museum of Art Osaka / Katsuhiko Endo Architect and Associates
Text description provided by the architects. The concept is to design an art museum like a metropolis where a variety of people and activities intersect. It is a museum that can be described as an “urban space”, where anyone can casually visit, learn, relax, enjoy, be inspired, and share knowledge.
Osaka Nakanoshima, a sandbank lying between two rivers, the Dojima River and the Tosabori River, has been a thriving area for trading and commercial activities since the Middle Ages. Also, this site was an important nexus between the east and west sides of Nakanoshima, thus, making it important to connect the flow of people and guide them in all directions. For this reason, instead of having a “front” of the building to create a specific route, a series of entrances were designed to welcome people in all directions.
In preparation for the risk of river flooding in this area, artwork-related storage rooms are positioned on the 3rd floor and above. On the other hand, the 1st and 2nd floors are public spaces that can be used by people other than exhibition visitors. The five-story steel-framed building is composed of the main museum building, designed with a base-isolated structure, and the parking lot building, designed with an earthquake-resistant structure, which is integrated through expansion joints.
The external spaces on the 1st and 2nd floors are continuous to the surrounding landscape, being conscious of enhancing urban accessibility. In order to make a seamless connection, it was necessary to eliminate the height difference to the surrounding site. As a result, on top of the “typography” of the 1st and 2nd floors, a clear geometric “architecture” with massive square facades was designed to express the museum as a floating formation in the city.
The 2nd floor is connected to the surrounding public facilities by a walkway deck. A connecting walkway is planned to be further extended to the west side of the building, contributing to the future liveliness of the neighborhood area and the ease of getting around. By designing these complex aspects embedded in a very simple form, we aim to keep exploring what is the key factor in designing architecture today.
