Designed by Shigeru Ban, the Simose Art Garden Villa is a unique destination located in Otake City, Hiroshima, Japan that combines an art museum, villas, and a restaurant, creating a harmonious blend of architecture, nature, and cultural experience.
Simose is a garden of art by the sea where art, architecture, cuisine, and nature arouse the senses, stimulate the mind, and expand the imagination.
The museum encourages visitors to “enjoy the pleasure of a day like a breeze that courses through you.”
The project is composed of sixteen buildings on a 4.6-hectare site along the Seto Inland Sea.
For its exceptional architectural concept, the project has been awarded a 2024 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The Simose Art Museum is a four-building center, surrounded by ten villas, a reception building, and a restaurant.
Simose Art Museum: The Simose Art Museum is a series of four buildings arranged parallel to the sea: the Entrance Building, Permanent Exhibition Building, Movable Exhibition Rooms, and Management Building.
The buildings are connected by a corridor and unified by a 190-meter-long, 8.5-meter-high “mirror glass screen.”
The Entrance Building is a mirrored, elliptical building, with two umbrella-like pillars composed of laminated cypress wood.
The generous open space beneath the radial timber structure serves as the museum’s lobby, café, museum shop, and workshop space.
With large, retractable glass doors, the waterfront café can be an open-air venue.
The Permanent Exhibition Building is surrounded by a pyramid-shaped embankment to minimize the building’s exterior presence.
Climbing this hill leads to an observation deck with views of the Movable Exhibition Rooms and the sea. In front of the mirror glass screen, eight Movable Exhibition Rooms enclosed in colored glass float on a water basin, creating a landscape reminiscent of the beautiful islands of the Seto Inland Sea.
North of the mirror, there is a garden inspired by the works of Emile Galle, which are included in the museum’s collection.
The mirror glass screen reflects these landscapes, amplifying the scenery of the Seto Inland Sea and minimizing the presence of the built environment. The expansive landscape offers views of the islands, sea, and the majestic Miyajima World Heritage site, a Shinto shrine.
The Movable Exhibition Rooms consist of eight 10m x 10m exhibition spaces constructed on floating platforms, which utilize a shipbuilding technology from Hiroshima. The design allows for easy rearrangement without requiring heavy machinery, utilizing buoyancy to float on the water basin.
This flexibility offers eight distinct layout patterns, catering to various exhibition themes. Depending on an exhibition’s needs, the rooms can be connected with bridges or arranged side by side, providing versatile configurations.
The Management Building serves as the museum’s backstage; this simple two-story building is covered with stainless steel mirrors to reflect the surrounding greenery and minimize the building’s presence.
Regarding the villas, the site is divided into two areas: on the north side, five Waterfront Villas facing the water basin reflect the sky, while on the south side, five Forest Villas are surrounded by trees, each with a spacious terrace overlooking breathtaking views of the sea.
The Forest Villas consist of four buildings based on Shigeru Ban’s iconic buildings from the 1990s: the House of Double-Roof, Wall-less House, Furniture House, and Paper House, as well as one newly designed villa, the Cross Wall House.
The Waterfront Villas include five newly designed Kielsteg Houses. As the name suggests, they utilize the “Kielsteg” structure – stress-skin panel enabling lightweight, large-span constructions with trusses composed of timber flanges and timber board webs.
The distinctive cross-sectional shape with staggered pitches and curved webs forms the basis of the villas. Variations are introduced through sliding doors and furniture, creating a unique atmosphere for each villa.
The Restaurant and Reception Building are centered among the villas. The Restaurant’s roof also features timber, with a hybrid iron and laminated cypress beam arranged in a cross at the center. Aside from the expressive roof, the structure does not reveal itself: horizontal forces are received by the central seating area’s fireplace and toilet.
The Reception Building utilizes L-shaped angles to create trusses, achieving a broad-span structure through the innovative use of compressed wood as an alternative to steel.
Truss-like columns and beams with bolted joints form a straightforward gable structure, complemented by shelves, partial doors, and storage sections for added stability and functionality.
Project: Simose Art Garden Villa
Architects: Shigeru Ban Architects
General Contractor: Kajima Corporation
Client: Shimose A&R Co., Ltd.
Photographers: Designboom
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