Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto Designs the "Ideal Museum" in Japan

“This is the worst space I have ever encountered,” claimed Hiroshi Sugimoto in regards to the OMA-designed main gallery space at Seoul’s Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. Not a stranger to criticism, the Japanese photographer has decided to take museum design into his own hands, drafting what he claims to be the “ideal museum” on a coastal site in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture.

A renowned artist, and recent founder of a Tokyo-based architecture studio in which three young and licensed architects assist him in realizing his built work, Sugimoto has plans to complete his first museum complex by early 2016. 

Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto Designs the "Ideal Museum" in Japan - Image 2 of 7
© Odawara Art Foundation via WSJ
Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto Designs the "Ideal Museum" in Japan - Image 3 of 7
© Odawara Art Foundation via WSJ

Guarded by an original 15-century entrance gate, the Odawara Art Foundation will feature a simple, 100-meter long exhibition space whose impeccable quality of light could make, according to Sugimoto, “not-very-good artworks” seem “first-class.”

The grounds will also include a contemporary Japanese tea house and Noh theater, complete with a suspended performace stage facing the Pacific Ocean. 

Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto Designs the "Ideal Museum" in Japan - Image 4 of 7
© Odawara Art Foundation via WSJ

Reference: WSJ

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Cite: Karissa Rosenfield. "Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto Designs the "Ideal Museum" in Japan" 01 Feb 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/473034/photographer-hiroshi-sugimoto-designs-the-ideal-museum-in-japan> ISSN 0719-8884

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