When the airy and rarefied gestures of Japanese culture merge with pragmatism and the ability to create all-Dutch landscapes, the outcome is the new visitor centre at the historic Vijversburg Park in the Netherlands dating back to the late nineteenth century. The shape of the new extension building came from the structure of the existing park path. Junya Ishigami decided to establish the extension to the historic villa, the nerve centre of the park, in the organic form of a transparent pavilion with a fine gravel roof and a floor sloping approximately 0.8 metres below ground level in order to reduce its impact on the park and offer visitors a continual feeling of the beautiful park experience inside the building.
At the entrance of the east corridor, the level of the interior and the outside ground are the same, and while the visitors walk through the gently ramped corridor from the east end to the central hall, the level of the view gradually changes. Once visitors arrive at the center of the building, the beautiful panoramic view of the park scenery appears and surrounds them, giving the impression of sitting in the middle of nature.
This place will be used for special events, exhibitions, and lectures. From the centre, like a sinuous and almost invisible jellyfish, three transparent walkways intersect and open outwards, penetrating the surroundings with geometric simplicity. Each “tentacle” extends along a slight slope to offer a view of a different area of the landscape including a pond, a line of trees, and the historic villa along with its backyard. The long curved load-bearing glass walls were developed in collaboration with Jun Sato and ABT Engineers to leave the view totally free and maintain the architectural idea of transparency through structural resolution.
It is these same insulating glass elements which support the top surface and thus make the roof appear as if it is floating. The park has recently been expanded with the addition of a further fifteen hectares of land redesigned by the Rotterdam Lola Landscape studio together with Deltavormgroep, the great Piet Oudolf, and the German artist Tobias Rehberger.
PROJECT Park Vijversburg visitor center
ARCHITECT Junya Ishigami Associates & Studio Maks
LOCATION Tytsjerk, Netherlands
YEAR 2017
PHOTO Laurian Ghinitoiu and Giovanni Emilio Galanello
AUTHOR: Maria Vittoria CAPITANUCCI
BIOGRAPHY
JUNYA ISHIGAMI+ASSOCIATES IS AN INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE OFFICE BASED IN TOKYO, JAPAN, FOUNDED BY JUNYA ISHIGAMI IN 2004. THE OFFICE HAS VARIOUS TYPES AND SCALES OF PROJECTS ALL OVER THE WORLD, AND HAS BEEN HONORED WITH SEVERAL AWARDS.
MAIN PROJECTS
Botanical Garden Art Biotop/Water Garden, Tochigi, Japan, 2018
Yohji Yamamoto Store, New York City, USA, 2008
KAIT Workshop, Kanagawa, Japan, 2008
IN PROGRESS
Chapel of Valley, Shandong, China
Cloud Arch, Sydney, Australia
House of Peace, Copenhagen, Denmark
Polytechnic Museum, Moscow, Russia
House and Restaurant, Yamaguchi, Japan
University Multipurpose Plaza, Kanagawa, Japan
