地中美術館
Designed by Tadao Ando, Chichu Art Museum opened on Naoshima in 2004. Most of its building lies below a hill, while courts, openings and passages bring daylight into the spaces around works by Claude Monet, Walter De Maria and James Turrell. Each room’s dimensions, surfaces and light were developed in relation to the art it contains.
The museum opened on July 18, 2004.
Triangular and square sunken courts organize different parts of the building.
Daylight and artificial light play distinct roles in its galleries and artworks.
The chosen hill contained remains of stepped salt fields and overlooked the Seto Inland Sea. Ando’s account relates sinking the building along the terrain to retaining the seascape. Most of the structure is covered with earth, but the outlines of its courts and other voids remain visible at the surface.
Ando describes a gallery block around an equilateral triangular sunken court and an entrance block around a square one. Trench-like outdoor connecting passages link them. These geometric outdoor spaces provide a way to understand the composition below ground.
Ando describes light narrowing as visitors descend. Courts and openings then admit daylight into the underground composition. Brightness changes with position as well as time of day, weather and season, linking the passages to the rooms and works they serve.
Construction began in April 2002 and finished in April 2004. The museum’s archive explains that a tunnel-like method was considered but rejected because of hard ground and water-control difficulties. The team instead excavated roughly 14–15 meters, built the structure and covered it with earth afterward.
Rain penetrating the surrounding soil can accumulate and raise pressure against a buried building. The archive describes waterproofing, rainwater and drainage tanks, and discharge once collected water reaches a set amount. Crushed stone around the structure also helps water pass through.
Reinforced concrete forms the main structure, alongside iron, glass and wood. During construction, ready-mixed concrete of the required quality came by ferry from Okayama. Limited deliveries made joints between successive pours an important concern for both a smooth surface and resistance to leakage.
The museum relates the initial concept to acquiring a Water Lily Pond work measuring about two by six meters overall: two canvases, each two by three meters. Room models tested a single space, connected spaces and overlapping spaces as the design developed.
The size and height of the suspended ceiling affect daylight levels. Models were tested on the site with light measurements before those dimensions were settled. White walls and frames, softened room corners, plaster and small marble floor pieces all contribute to the room’s viewing conditions.
Indirect natural light illuminates the Monet room, while glass cases integrated with the walls protect the paintings. A 2009 notice explains that the seaside setting and the alkalinity of concrete informed this choice, with temperature, humidity and air composition controlled inside the cases.
The museum’s 2009 notice announces Water Lilies, Cluster of Grass alongside the four works already there. The 2024 press kit lists five. Permanent installation describes an enduring relationship between art and room, while the collection still has a history of additions.
Time/Timeless/No Time (2004) combines a 2.2-meter-diameter sphere, 27 gilded wooden forms and the room itself. Its east–west orientation and natural light from above make the work’s appearance change through the day. The sphere is one part of that full composition.
In a lecture published by the museum, Michael Govan distinguishes projected light in Afrum, Pale Blue (1968) from light defined by a framing boundary in Open Field (2000). The press kit lists a projector for the former and fluorescent and neon lighting for the latter.
Open Sky (2004) has an opening overhead to the outdoors. The museum’s account of its sunrise and sunset programs describes artificial light changing in relation to the shifting sky. Daylight and programmed light have separate roles within this work, as they do across the museum.
The Chichu Garden uses plants associated with Monet’s garden at Giverny, including water lilies, willows and irises. It connects the approach at ground level with the plant subjects of his paintings, within a garden arranged for its own Naoshima setting.
No. The builders excavated the site, constructed the building and then backfilled around it.
The equilateral triangular court belongs to the gallery block, and the square court to the entrance block.
Two canvases, each two by three meters.
The 2009 notice describes adding Water Lilies, Cluster of Grass to four existing works; the 2024 kit lists five.
Turrell’s works also use equipment such as a projector, fluorescent and neon lighting, and programmed artificial light.