DAY 8 (2/6): ARCHITECTURE OF THE 21st CENTURY, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (21世紀美術館), Kanazawa (金沢), Ishikawa Prefecture (石川県), Japan, 2018.06.01

For architects and designers, the single most important reason coming to Kanazawa is perhaps to visit the contemporary art museum just across the street from Kenroku-en Garden. Designed by Pritzker Prize awarded firm SANAA under Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa and opened in 2004, the unique 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (21世紀美術館) is one of the most widely published contemporary architecture in Japan during the 2000’s. Staying low as a single storey building, the circular building aims to minimize its impact to the surrounding landscape. Exhibition galleries, library, lecture hall, workshops, offices, lobbies, and courtyards are housed in a huge circular building fully cladded with glass at its circumference. Given we have seen the architecture in design magazines and Internet websites throughout the years, SANAA’s famous museum in Kanazawa is like a friend that we have never met. Since the museum would get crowded with its popularity not just for tourists but also local visitors coming for workshops and cultural events, we made the effort to arrive before the facility’s opening time.

With multiple functions configured within a circular plan with a diameter of 112.5m, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (21世紀美術館) is a unique piece of architecture accessible from all four directions.

The outer facade is entirely covered with full height glazing to express a sense of welcome and transparency for visitors.

Outside the circular building, there are a number of outdoor art installations erected around the museum.

Perhaps inspired by the building form, the outdoor art installations are also organic or circular in form.

Before entering the museum, we walked around the building once to check out the art installations as well as the building itself.

Workshops and other common areas lined along the circumference of the museum building.

Just like many tourist attractions in Japan, the famous museum is also popular with school kids.

We managed to get our admission tickets without much queuing minutes after the museum opened its doors.

The first thing we did was to find a locker to store our bags so that we could enjoy a carefree visit.

Along the curved glazed facade, there were a number of gathering spaces of different sizes available, perhaps catered for different programme.

Everything in the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art is clean, minimal and neutral in colour.

Photography was prohibited at indoor exhibitions. At the centre of the building, a glazed walkway passed through a courtyard dominated by a beautiful archway made of green wall.

In the glazed walkway, we could have a glimpse of the interesting art installation on the roof.

The Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich is the most famous art installation in the museum.

The piece is accessible from both the Ground and Basement levels. From the Ground level, spectators can look down and see the visitors in the basement level through a shallow level of water, as if looking looking into a real swimming pool.