Converted from commercial facilities in city center, Arts Maebashi is a structure reborn as a full-fledged public art museum. In addition to its rebirth as an art museum, the new facility was also created to revitalize the downtown area.
Because it was located so close to the downtown area for an art museum, we considered on many levels the question of how to connect the museum with the city to be an important point. We are planning the architectural design according to three major considerations: 1) make it a museum with a walkway that tours the whole facility, 2) preserve the form (memory) of existing buildings, and maximize the appeal of the conversion, and 3) create an attractive locale that is not only for exhibitions but can also be used actively by the public.
The building’s exterior utilizes perforated aluminum placed along the existing wall as if dressing the building in new clothing, creating an expression to serve as the city’s new face. Moreover, the interior of the art museum is unique in having a series of exhibition rooms with diverse spatial and cross-sectional volume structured to connect the entire facility. As visitors walk around the facility, entranceways of varied rectangular shapes and dimensions connecting the exhibition rooms will allow visitors to feel various sense of distances as they come across the works to be appreciated, the charms of the building itself, and the activities of the people inside.
Although it won’t happen overnight, we look forward to creating a new kind of museum that will play constructive role in revitalization and that connects autonomously to the city.