Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum / Kengo Kuma & Associates

© Takumi Ota Photography

Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates
Location: 3799-3 Taro-gawa Yusuhara-cho, -gun, Kochi Prefecture, Japan
Client: Tomio Yano, Town Mayor of Yusuhara
Site area: 14,736.47 sqm
Completion: 2011
Photographs: Takumi Ota Photography

© Takumi Ota Photography

This is a plan to link two public buildings with a bridge-typed facility, which had been long separated by the road in between. The museum technically bridges communications in this area. It functions not only as a passage between the two facilities but also as an accommodation and workshop, ideal location for artist-in-residence programs. In this project, we challenged a structural system which composes of small parts, referring to cantilever structure often employed in traditional architecture in Japan and China. It is a great example of sustainable design, as you can achieve a big cantilever even without large-sized materials.

* Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
Cite: "Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum / Kengo Kuma & Associates" 16 Feb 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 22 May 2013. <http://www.archdaily.com/199906>

11 comments

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    realy nice..
    but I’m worried a bit about the resistance of structure against earthquakes.

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  4. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    Inspired by Arata Isozaki’s “Clusters in the Air”. I like this project very much. Well done Kuma

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  5. Thumb up Thumb down +1

    The bracket systems developed in Japan and China were in response to the seismic activity. Wood is inherently flexible and the lattices wood allows the structure to dampen the overall affect of an earthquake. However, I am not sold on the single pier. That’s the weak point. There is an interesting base on the pier that may be some sort of base isolation (as seen here http://mceer.buffalo.edu/infoservice/reference_services/adveqdesign.asp).

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