A Trendy Addition to an Historic Web site
Kengo Kuma & Associates has just lately accomplished the Aoi Aso Shrine Memorial Corridor in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The brand new timber construction sits alongside the Aoi Aso Shrine, a nationally acknowledged Shinto shrine recognized for its thatched roof. The architects aimed to create a harmonious relationship between the brand new and the previous. The Memorial Corridor combines a shrine workplace, a museum, and a big tatami room for neighborhood gatherings. The design acknowledges the highly effective presence of the prevailing shrine with its conventional thatched roof.
photos © Masaki Hamada / Kkpo, ©︎ Masatoshi Hoshino / HOSHINO DESIGN CONSCIOUS
kengo kuma replicates thatched texture with timber
Designing its Memorial Corridor at Aoi Aso Shrine, the architects at Kengo Kuma & Associates employed a singular facade manufactured from picket louvers. These flame-resistant louvers create a rhythm that echoes the gaps and curves of the thatched roof. This strategy represents a problem, making an attempt to bridge the hole between conventional vocabulary and modern know-how. The architects discovered inspiration in a particular development approach. The overlapping layers resting on metallic roof seams, a way used within the Hiroshige Museum of Artwork (one other Kengo Kuma undertaking accomplished in 2000), supplied a brand new perspective. This method was reinterpreted to evoke the comfortable, porous texture of thatched roofs in a contemporary context.
Kengo Kuma & Associates builds a memorial corridor subsequent to a historic Shinto shrine
materials and that means at aoi aso shrine
With its undertaking at Aoi Aso Shrine, Kengo Kuma & Associates incorporates a symbolic ingredient. The massive columns supporting the roof have been crafted from a fallen 400-year-old Sano cedar tree from the Sano Shrine in Miyazaki Prefecture. This tree’s age mirrors that of the Aoi Aso Shrine, subtly linking the 2 constructions. The undertaking confronted a big hurdle early on.
Hitoyoshi skilled record-breaking torrential rain simply earlier than development started. The flooding brought on by the Kumagawa River destroyed the handrails on the close by Misogi Bridge and inundated the deliberate constructing web site. Regardless of the potential setback, the undertaking persevered. The unwavering ardour of the shrine’s chief priest, Mr. Fukukawa, and the local people’s dedication to restoration ensured the Memorial Corridor’s completion, almost as initially envisioned.
the brand new constructing homes a shrine workplace, museum, and a big neighborhood room 
the design incorporates picket louvers that echo the prevailing thatched roof 
the textural cladding displays a problem to merge custom with trendy know-how
