Yatsushiro Municipal Museum

Yatsushiro Municipal Museum

The Yatsushiro Municipal Museum in Yatsushiro, Kyushu was one of the earliest projects of Kumamoto Artpolis, a prefecture-wide program of innovative architecture. It was built in 1991 and designed by Toyo Ito.

It appears very light with its sweeping canopies, and to my mind is reminiscent of one of his most famous earlier projects, Steel Hut.

It appears to be a single storey building, but the artificial hill it stands on contains a lower floor.

The large cylindrical form on top is actually a storage space. Traditionally museums have storage in the basement, but the water table here is quite high.

I've been here twice but on both occasions it was closed so I cannot report on the museums content.

Steel Hut

The Steel Hut, along with the Silver Hut, make up the Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture.

Unsurprisingly it was designed by architect Toyo Ito.

It is located near the small fishing village of Munakata on Omishima in the Seto Inland Sea between Hiroshima and Shikoku.

On the website for the museum you can download the plan of its design and construct one yourself out of paper........ here

The building consists of four different polyhedrons and is constructed in steel.

Construction finished and the museum opened in 2011.

Silver Hut

Silver Hut is a copy of architect Toyo Ito's home that he built for himself in 1984 in Tokyo. It won the Architecture Institute of Japan Award in 1986. This copy was built in 2011 and is located on the island of Omoshima between Hiroshima and Shikoku.

According to Ito he got the idea for the building after watching a TV program showing astronauts sharing a meal together on the space station.

Photos ive seen of the original show it surrounded by trees and foliage and looks better as a living space than this new version which sits alone.

Silver Hut and the adjacent Steel Hut form the Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture. I will post on the Steel Hut later.

The building houses an archive of ito's drawings and plans and is used for workshops and other events.

Ken Iwata Mother & Child Museum

The Ken Iwata Mother & Child Museum opened a few months ago in the tiny fishing village of Munakata on Omishima island in the Set Inland sea. It is part of Imabari City on Shikoku.

I can find very little information about the sculptor Ken Iwata other than he was born in 1924 and lives in Saitama. Mother and child seems to be a major preoccupation of his work.

I can find no connection between him and Omishima, and the only connection seems to be the architect of the museum, Toyo Ito.

Toyo Ito is also not from Omishima, but within the village of Munakata he has built 4 structures, the other three I will post on in the coming weeks.

The museum is basically a circular concrete wall with an overhanging lip and a couple of glass walls.

The museum is open from 9 to 5 and entrance is 300yen.

A few of the 44 sculptures on display....

Inside Grin Grin

Grin Grin, or Gurin Gurin, or Green Green is a park and greenhouse complex on Island City, a man-made island in Hakata Bay.

Its planned to be a city of the future, with residnetial, business, education, and leisure facilities.

When I was there a few years ago there was no-one else there other than me

It was designed by Toyo Ito, and while it was certainly pleasant enough I dont think it deserves all the accolades it has received.

A previous post on Grin Grin can be found here

Grin Grin Park

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....