“Yoshio Taniguchi is world renown for his beautiful museums. His attention to detail extends beyond the obvious and the tangible to the subconscious idea of beautify and balance that we all recognise but cannot define. His prescriptive yet considerate approach makes sure that his buildings deliver the most appropriate response to both surroundings and exhibits from day one. The Marugame museum is both a public space and a building.

“The Izu Photo Museum is part of the Clematis no Oka, a beautiful complex that combines art and nature at the slow pace of the hills of mount Takayama. It is a very understated yet beautiful building where every detail has been designed with the light touch of an intrinsically Japanese manner. The building feels like a journey, a story told through a series of spaces, and gardens that interlink naturally, unpretentiously, allowing the exhibition to talk to the visitor without interruption.

“A creature like building cladded in traditional fish-scale like ibushi style tiles, must have looked completely futuristic as it emerged from the most intriguing pantadome system. It was the first building of the kind where precast concrete panels were used to erect both walls and roof simultaneously. The overall appearance, to Isozaki’s credit, mixes successfully tradition and future and still feels contemporary all those years later.” (Extracted from the Mimoa Project Page I created: here)