Nezu Museum
Kengo Kuma & Associates · Tokyo, Japan · 2009
Kengo Kuma's rebuilding of the Nezu Museum creates a deliberately quiet transition from busy Aoyama to the museum's historic garden. A deep tiled roof, long bamboo-lined approach and dark eaves reduce the building's apparent scale, while the galleries open toward greenery rather than the street. The visit is as much about the sequence between city, architecture and landscape as it is about the collection itself.