Toyota Municipal Museum of Art

Toyota Municipal Museum of Art

LOCATION
Toyota City, Japan

CLIENT
Toyota City Government

Completion Date
1995

Architect
Taniguchi & Associates

TypE
Cultural Institutions
Parks and Gardens

Description
PWP created the landscape for a museum complex sited at the top of a hill overlooking the industrial city. The site included an ancient castle and a 300-year-old teahouse sitting in a small forested park. In 1995 Taniguchi added two museum buildings and a large new teahouse. A large pond in the redesigned landscape provides a setting for the new buildings while separating them visually from the older structures. It features a linear bog of Japanese iris, a striping of stone, and a circular fountain of air bubbles. A reinforced forest completely surrounds the site providing tree-framed views along a winding pedestrian path. Formal paths move from building to building around the pool. Three special garden spaces were designed to exhibit sculpture: one by Taniguchi for changing exhibits, two by PWP - a space for monumental pieces and a delicately-scaled garden with plantings reminiscent of historic Japanese farms and orchards. A path designed by the great stone carver Masatoshi Izumi begins in the rusticated manner of the seventeenth-century castle and gradually changes to a perfectly smooth surface as it approaches the museum.

Collaborators
Local Landscape Architect: Kazumi Mizoguchi Landscape Office
Artist: Masatoshi Izumi