A forgotten corner of Japan has been transformed by art, architecture and nature – brought together with exquisite consequences.
Situated in the Seto Inland Sea of Southern Japan, Naoshima and its sibling islands have become firmly ingrained in contemporary art and architecture, thanks to the vision of reclusive Japanese billionaire Soichiro Fukutake.
A resident of New Zealand since 2009, Fukutake is the former director of Benesse Corporation, an education and publishing business known for its patronage of the arts. Over the past 25 years, Fukutake has united some of the world’s leading architects and the work of artists past and present to transform the tiny Japanese islands from dying industrial wastelands and dumping grounds into cultural meccas of contemporary design. Names range from Ryue Nishizawa to Tadao Ando, Claude Monet to Jackson Pollock, Yayoi Kusama to Walter De Maria, as well as James Turrell, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter.
Their work is scattered like beautiful debris over the landscape, but what elevates the islands beyond the white-walled and introverted urban museum is the interaction of art, architecture and landscape. For Fukutake, these are essential ingredients in order to “wake up the viewer”. And wake up we did.
Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av HOME.
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Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av HOME.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
The Past Is Present
In exhibitions at public galleries around the country, artists reflect on our collective, individual and cultural histories.
Why I Walk Carl Douglas
How the experience of walking reveals our world to us and informs our sense of our place in it.
My Favourite Building Chlöe Swarbrick
Built on Auckland’s Karangahape Road in the 1920s, St Kevin’s Arcade has served as vocational inspiration and a meeting place for the Green MP since she was a teenager.
Humble Special
PAC Studio designs a home on a tiny budget in the bush above the Kaipara Harbour.
Modern Love
Assembly Architects draws on lightweight Californian modernism to craftan elegant mountain retreat.
Family Tree
On a leafy site in the Waikato, Tane Cox crafts a subtle home for three generations
LOW PROFILE
Sometimes, strict covenants can be a blessing in disguise.
Fine Line
A house in a vineyard by Stuart Gardyne shows country living need not be rustic.
Elegant Shed
Ben Daly rehabilitates a farm building with a long family history on the Canterbury Plains.
Perfect Pitch
An encampment by an inlet casually inhabits land at Tawharanui.
