The Toyota City Museum, designed by Shigeru Ban Architects, has been completed in Toyota City, Japan. The museum seamlessly integrates with its surroundings, featuring an open layout that connects it to the existing Toyota City Museum of Art, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi in 1995.
The museum’s design showcases a unique wooden roof, made from local cedar, which merges with the existing art museum. This design choice creates a sense of continuity and defines the area as a “museum zone.” The connection between the two museums is facilitated through an “interstitial space.”
According to Shigeru Ban, “If the art museum by Yoshio Taniguchi is a masterpiece of modernist architecture… then the Toyota City Museum is its polar opposite โ a work with an organic facade and space in which wood is used in abundance… contributing to the solving of the problem of the environment.”
The museum’s use of cedar wood minimizes CO2 emissions, making it Japan’s first museum to achieve ZEB (Net Zero Energy Building) Ready certification. This eco-conscious approach establishes the Toyota City Museum as a leader in sustainable public architecture.
Image courtesy: parametric-architecture.com
