ARCHITECTURE:21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, is one of Japan’s most unique museums. It’s circular form and sleek modern aesthetic give the museum a highly futuristic look, yet distinct inner courtyards still lend a humble, natural juxtaposition to the stylized building. The Museum is located in the center of Kanazawa, one of the Japan’s historical centers, on the country’s North coast.

By Efi Michalarou

The building has a circular form, with a diameter of 112.5 metres. This shape aims to keep the appearance of the overall building volume low, to mitigate the scale of the project and allows access from multiple points of entry. The transparency of the building further manifests the wish to avoid the museum being perceived as a large, introverted mass. The building contains community gathering spaces, a library, lecture hall, children’s workshop, as well as museum spaces. The Museum is one of the most important works designed by SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima+Ryue Nishizawa Architects and Associates). Using simple geometry and minimalist language, the project explores the permeability of the public space through different levels of transparency. The museum is like a prototypical diagram of the ideal contemporary art museum, an iconic enclosure containing White Cube Galleries of various sizes, with secondary functions in the interstices. The architecture itself is reduced to the fewest possible tectonic elements, comprising flat surfaces with a minimum of articulation at their junctions. The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa seeks to present the world’s contemporary art from an independent standpoint and far-sighted perspective. It offers both art and creations from wide-ranging fields related to art, including music, the performing arts, and film. The Museum places great emphasis on its promotional programs aimed at better acquainting people with such fields.