Naoshima: An Island Revitalized with Art
Naoshima is a small island in the Seto Inland Sea. For the past quarter century, Ando has been creating work here through engaging its natural environment.
The Seto Inland Sea, one of Japan’s first national parks, has always been known for its beauty. As German physician and naturalist Philipp Franz von Siebold once said about it, “Every time the ship changed course, there appeared another alluring view of beautiful islands”.
Naoshima Smelter and Refinery in the early Showa period by photo Yoichi MidorikawaOriginal Source: (C) Yoichi Midorikawa
The Islands that Supported Japan’s Modernization
There have historically been many copper mines in the Setouchi region (the coastal areas and islands of the Seto Inland Sea). In the 1910s, Naoshima was chosen as the site for constructing a large-scale refinery that was needed for processing the ore collected in the region.
Naoshima in the mid-Showa period by photo Yoichi MidorikawaOriginal Source: (C) Yoichi Midorikawa
Dilapidated Nature
The island’s economy flourished once the refinery was built in 1917, but it also started suffering from a serious problem: pollution. Trees both on Naoshima and the neighboring islands were decimated by the acidic emissions, and the once beautiful hills were turned bare.
Encounter with Naoshima
Tadao Ando visited Naoshima for the first time in the late 1980s, when the island’s landscape was still in a state of ruin.
Moved by the grand vision to revitalize the island into “an art site that builds on the nature and culture of Setouchi”, Ando began his 25-year-long involvement with Naoshima, searching for ways to create architecture that can coexist with its beautiful landscape.
Benesse House Museum (1992) by Tadao AndoOriginal Source: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
Benesse House Museum (1992)
The first project that he developed was a museum hotel called the Benesse House Museum. The site he was given to work with was located on a promontory at the southern tip of the island, surrounded by the sea.
A Museum that Embraces Nature
Ando carefully positioned the architecture so as not to spoil the natural landscape. More than half of the museum is embedded in the earth.
When approached by boat, the building falls out of view and gives way to a concrete wall that pierces the green hill and contrasts beautifully with its settings. Visitors walk across the pier, a stepped terrace, and a path along stone walls to reach the greenery-covered building
Awaiting visitors as they step inside from the lush approach is a cylindrical room with rough-looking exposed concrete walls and a sole skylight. Ando characteristically composed the tranquil space using a combination of pure geometries.
Rather than being cut off from the outside world, the museum’s spaces open up to the surroundings through the overlapping of the different geometries. A sharp but pleasant relationship is established between nature, architecture, and art where the inside and outside meet.
Benesse House Oval (1995) by Tadao AndoOriginal Source: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
Benesse House Oval (1995)
The hotel wing known as the Oval was built on the hill behind the Museum three years later. As its name implies, the building forms an oval. The elliptical pool that reflects the blue skies at its center creates a visually striking space of ever-changing light and shadow.
The guest rooms are arranged around the reflecting pool. The tranquil space of abstracted nature captures the passage of time.
Ando attempted to create an architecture that does not face nature as a detached object but rather merges with it as a way of helping restore the beautiful Setouchi landscape.
Chichu Art Museum (2004) by Tadao AndoOriginal Source: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
Chichu Art Museum (2004)
In 2014, this museum with fully subterranean galleries was built on a hill that was once occupied by salt terraces. When viewed from above, the concrete geometric forms can be seen embedded in the greenery, giving the appearance of an ancient ruin.
An Invisible Building Melded into the Earth
Ando chose “light” as the theme for the project despite the fact that the building is buried almost entirely in the ground.
However, the darkness is what makes the light more intense and, in turn, the spaces become more articulate.
The intense contrast of light and shadow lends an out-of-the-ordinary feel to the space. People are guided further into the depths by the line of light that shines into the dim passageway.
Ando designed the three galleries as site-specific spaces through engaging in dialogues with the artists and art director. Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” are enveloped by a gentle, diffused light.
In this museum, the artwork is inseparable from the spaces. The wonderful fusion of nature, architecture, and art creates an experience unique to this location.
Lee Ufan Museum by Photo:Tadasu YamamotoTadao Ando Architect & Associates
Lee Ufan Museum (2010)
Ando designed this museum for the international artist Lee Ufan after completing the Chichu Art Museum. He again aimed to create a building that would blend into Naoshima’s landscape.
Lee Ufan Museum by Photo:Tadasu YamamotoTadao Ando Architect & Associates
A Place for Dialogue with Artwork Shaped by White Space
In designing this building, Ando wanted to create “white spaces” like those found in East Asian paintings to stir the imagination of the viewer.
When visitors arrive at the museum sited in a depression in the landscape, they are first presented with a view of works by the artist set on a gravel forecourt backed by three mute concrete walls that form a passage leading into the building.
Lee Ufan Museum by Photo:Tadasu YamamotoTadao Ando Architect & Associates
After proceeding down the passage between the concrete walls that get progressively taller, visitors arrive in a triangular entrance court that leads into the subterranean galleries. The lighting and materials of each room are tailored to the artwork on display.
Lee Ufan Museum by Photo:Tadasu YamamotoTadao Ando Architect & Associates
These generative white spaces are carefully designed to set up encounters and dialogues between the visitors and the artwork.
ANDO MUSEUM (2013) by Tadao AndoOriginal Source: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
ANDO MUSEUM (2013)
This museum was founded to commemorate Ando’s long involvement with Naoshima, and it is dedicated to the architect’s own work. He designed it by remodeling a 100-year-old house with the aim of preserving the townscape that embodies the lives of the local people.
A House Redesigned with the Concept of Rebirth
In contrast to the museum’s outward calmness, the spaces inside are formed by newly inserted concrete structures. The design speaks to Ando’s determination to always create something new even while respecting the existing context.
Past and present, wood and concrete, columns and walls, light and darkness.
The various clashing elements colliding intensely within the spaces give expression to the architecture’s transition from old to new.
Today, many people visit Naoshima from around the world to have a unique experience. The concept of creating an art site that builds on the local nature and culture has also spread to nearby islands, and it is bringing hope to communities that are suffering from depopulation.
Regenerating bare mountain as a sacred place for nature and art by Tadao AndoOriginal Source: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
Another major draw of the island is unquestionably the opportunity that it provides for one to follow the evolution of Ando’s architecture over the long years.
Text：Shinichi Kawakatsu
Editor：Ryusuke Wada
Direction：neucitora
Supervision：Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
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