International Design Competition: 2001
Project scope: competition design
Type: Cultural
Project size: 32,000 sq. ft.
Christoph Kapeller: design architect

The brief called for the museum to be built in Tomihiro Hoshino’s home town, Azuma Village, Seta, Gunma Prefecture. Visitors to this museum approach the destination guided along a serene stream and beautiful mountains and directly perceive the environment that inspired the Artist’s work exhibited.

The design suggests a painter’s brush-stroke in plan, mimicking the landscape’s contour lines at the museum plateau and offering views of all directions and aspects of the surrounding nature and scenery. Lifted above the steep slope and suspended on slender pillars, the elliptical, womblike museum section forms a low, horizontal element in the verticality of the surrounding hills a feature that enhances the views of nature from the road and entrance plaza.