TORAFU ARCHITECTS

The renovation plan for the Green Gallery in Japan’s first open-air museum “HAKONE OPEN-AIR MUSEUM”. The facility originally consisted of a cafe on the first floor and a gallery on the second floor, which lacked enough indoor rest space. For this renovation, it is required to make the second floor a space for both resting and exhibition.

In this museum, visitors cannot touch artwork exhibited outdoors. In response, the unique and mountainous environmental specific cedar logs are chosen as a material that visitors wish to touch unconsciously. The grid arrangement of these logs cut down in the Hakone mountain and 360mm-square laminated lumbers keeps consistency and uniformity in the thin-rectangle space divided by a stairwell. The logs installed across as like bridges, set grids in the space and amongst other uses are utilized as benches and tables, where the museum visitors can eat, drink, relax and rest. In the area with the rubber-chip mat, visitors take off their shoes, lean on the square lumbers or use them as low tables. The floor is defined with simple rules which leave plentiful space that affords visitors the opportunity to actively find how to use it.

The grids of these logs let visitors feel the powerful and dynamic material. These depict subtle scenes nestling the visitors, where visitors regard the grids as though they are art pieces or furniture in themselves.