Sometimes written Gurin Gurin, Grin Grin Park opened in 2005 on Island City, the artificial island in Hakata bay.
A series of connected forms, organically shaped, seem to emerge from the ground.
The structures are concrete and steel covered in glass and in places vegetation.
The spaces inside and under the structures contain plants of the area.
Grin Grin was designed by Toyo Ito who is often referred to as a visionary architect. Much is made of Grin Grin's supposed "eco" qualities, but as it is on an artificial island whose construction destroyed bio-diverse wetlands, I find it hard to see.
walkways snake up and over the structures.
entrance into the greenhouses is only 100 yen.
It was a few years ago when I visited, and maybe the growth of the vegetation has improved its appearance....
i think this is closed now. maybe? i remember there being signs up about "ending" at a certain date last year. (i drive by here all the time on my way back from uminonakamichi.) it looks really interesting, though, so maybe i'll take the kids and check it out!
ReplyDeleteand maybe i'm thinking of a certain flower garden there that closed. because what you've blogged about here seems to be a permanent structure!
Please, don't do that to your photos. The first two rival Michael John Grist at his worst. You have enough eye for composition that you don't need over-the-top tonemapping to make your photos have impact.
ReplyDeleteThat second image is absolutely bloody brilliant... not all images need to be 'realistic' and the occasional stretching and manipulating is well worth it. Also, at the end of the day, I'd say they were your images (referring to above comment), and you can express yourself how you want.
ReplyDelete