Mizuta Museum of art
Case Study Project By: Brandon Orth & Lucas Ewing
table of contents
background information floating: The second floor floating: the lighting on the wall floating: the stairs floating: the gallery and the art movement diagrams axonometrics section cuts elevations
background information
The Mizuta Museum of Art was designed by Studio SUMO in 2008, an architecture firm based out of New York, USA. the building is located on the Josai International University campus in Sakado, Japan, and was constructed in December of 2011. This building was designed with two programs in mind. The first of which was that, because it is located at the front entrance of the university, to serve as the ‘gateway’ to the university. For this reason, the building was fitted with an information center on the bottom floor of the building, which can also be used as a temporary art gallery and a lecture hall as well.
Site Plan of the Mizuta Museum
background information
front of the mizuta museum. the lower level is the info. center, currently being used to display art
The second program for the museum is to house artwork, but not just any artwork. this museum’s primary meaning is to hold japanese woodcut art, otherwise known as ukiyo-e. This artwork is fairly delicate and cannot be exposed to an incredible amount of natural light. with these things in mind, the architects at studio sumo needed to find a way to incorporate these two necessary programs into one building. the majority of the buildings’ design, however, rests within the japanese to english translation of ukiyo-e, which is “pictures of the floating
world.”
the architects at studio sumo decided to incorporate this idea of floatation throughout various parts of this building, from the entire structure of the building to how the artwork is displayed in the building.
picture of one of the galleries in the museum displaying the japanese woodcut art ukiyo-e.
background information
The first example of the building hosting the idea of floating involves the entire second floor. Because of the maximum height requirement being 30 feet above ground level, the designers were forced to place part of the building beneath the ground, which actually helped contribute to their design. The front third or so of the first floor (the info. center), is entirely compsed of glass with small columns that are hidden behind it. Because it cantelievers out past the edge of the glass, it makes the second floor appear to be floating above the ground about 5-10 feet.
the picture on the left shows the front of the building, while the diagram on the right is an elevation of the building, which graphically illustrates the potential difficulty in seeing the suppor ts for the second floor.
Floating: The second floor
another example of floating that is still on the exterior of the building is the lighting through the outer envelope, which is created by each of the 52 individual precast concrete blocks. each block has a notch cut out of it that allows a small amount of light through it, which displays itself along the side of the building. this light is in contrast with the building material, and therefore the light “floats� on the side of the building. the picture (left) is looking up at these notches in the concrete, where the light shining through makes the light float above. The diagram (right) is an abstraction of the envelope, where the envelope is incredibly darker than the light that shines through, further emphasizing the floating effect of the light through the notches.
Floating: the lighting on the wall
yet another floating aspect of this building is in the staircase between the two floors. the stairs aren’t supported by anything underneath them but rather to the sides, and also have an opening between each stair. these two abnormalities allow the entire stair to appear as if it is floating. the picture on the left is takenfrom the first floor of the building looking up into the staircase. the diagram on the right is an abstraction of the picture on the left, which further emphasizes the floating effect the staircase holds.
there is also a couple of steps that lead into the front gallery of the museum, which offser a similar floating effect as the main staircase between the two floors.
the diagram on the left is an abstraction of the staircase leading into the fron t gallery. this drawing not only shows the floating effect the stairs have in this room, but also the lights overhead, which resemble the floating effect the envelope provided on the exterior of the building.
Floating: The Stairs
one of the final reasons this building displays a floating aspect is the gallery itself that houses the floating art. the front gallery has large glass panels that allow more light than is preferred to house this rare woodcut art, but the back gallery is suitable. the gallery itself is mostly blacked out, including the walls, floor, and ceiling. in the middle of the wall, however, there is a white recessed band where the artwork actually sits. this white bar happens to float in the middle of the room, along with the lit up display cases on the opposing wall. The artwork hangs in the center of this white band and in the display case, which makes the floating artwork float inside of a “floating� display.
the diagram on the right is an abstraction of the second gallery. this diagram shows the white recessed band across two of the walls and shows the display case adjacent to it, all of which appear to be floating inside of the gallery.
Floating: the gallery and the art
these diagrams show the flow/movement of people throughout the museum. this is suggesting that people will start on the lower floor (left), and circulate through the information center before either heading up the staircase or circulating around the ramps to the second floor (right). From here, you would circulate through the galleries before exiting the building.
Movement Diagrams
these two drawings are axonometrics of the museum, and separate the building into three general parts: the lower floor, the upper floor, and the outer envelope. The drawing on the right shows the larger programs the building has to offer. The Red box signifies the information center located onthe lower floor, while the two blue boxes on the upper floor show the two galleries that are inside of the mizuta art museum.
Axonometrics
these two drawings are section cuts through the building, one of which is a cross-section (left) and the other a longitudinal cut (right). The respective axonometric drawings are provided to help further understand where in the building the section cuts were made from.
Section Cuts
the drawing on the left is an elevation looking at the front of the building, whereas the other elevation (top right) is looking at the side of the building. The mass and void drawing (bottom right) is showing where the open area in the building is versus where the walls, foundation, and floors are located.
Elevations
Thank You