Tobikan’s Highlights
0. Introduction
Overview of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Tobikan opened as the Tokyo Prefectural Art Museum in 1926 (designed by Okada Shinichiro).
Due to aging, constructions began on the new building in 1972 under architect Mayekawa Kunio, and were completed in March 1975.
The Museum boasts an area of approx. 12,000 m², with three floors below ground and two floors above. The outer wall is made of burnt-brick cast-in tiles.
Renovations started in 2010 and finished in 2012 for the Museum’s reopening.
Exciting approach
Step through Ueno Park’s groves and into the premises, and you will be led along an exciting walk to the Museum’s entrance that takes you on a zig-zag detour one second, then below ground level the next.
A place to meet
Museums are urban spaces. Mayekawa believed that open spaces like the Esplanade and the Inner Court, where people can meet and wander at will, should be the center of cities.
Mayekawa the gourmet
Mayekawa was a food lover who once said, “it isn’t right that you can’t have nice food at a museum.”
That’s why Tobikan has its own restaurants right at the front.
Sense of movement
By joining blocks of the same shape with corridors, and by staggering them, Mayekawa created a building with a sense of motion and transformation.
The Citizen’s Galleries, for example, consist of four identical blocks staggered and placed next to each other.
Choice materials
Mayekawa’s stance, in his own words, was to “produce extraordinary results out of ordinary materials.”
By incorporating features such as cast-in tiles, which take a lot of time and effort to build, he gave Tobikan’s architecture composure and grace.
At one with the scenery
By setting almost 60% of the building underground, Mayekawa kept Tobikan’s height low so that it harmonizes with the surrounding scenery.
Doesn’t Tobikan blend right into Ueno’s groves?
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