EDO-TOKYO MUSEUM

Vincent Hecht

• Architects

The Edo-Tokyo Museum is the first museum dedicated to Tokyo’s history. Since opening in 1993, it has explored the city’s evolution from the early Edo period to today. As part of the renewal of the museum’s iconic building by Metabolist architect Kiyonori Kikutake, OMA was asked to help envision its next chapter, marking the firm’s first public project in Japan.

We sought to enhance public experience of the museum by better communicating its identity to the city, creating incentive for repeat visits, and making it more accessible. At the same time, it was important to recognize and complement Kikutake’s architecture. The proposal aims to balance these considerations—treating the most special but underutilized spaces as canvases for surgical scenographic interventions.

photo_credit Vincent Hecht — Vincent Hecht

New marquees clarify and brighten the museum’s arrival sequences, especially in relation to traffic from nearby transit lines. The west entrance becomes a procession through gates inspired by traditional Japanese torii, and which evoke Kikutake’s original proposal for the space. On the east side, a circular sign recalls the museum’s logo, which is based on an eye in a famous ukiyo-e portrait.

In the galleries, projections at the sixth-floor ceiling transform exhibits into immersive environments, transporting people back in time. Changing skies, under which visitors encounter life-size and scale models of buildings and neighborhoods, bring artifacts to life. A panoramic effect is produced by projecting onto a curved screen composed of vertical louvers and adjacent walls.

On the third floor, the expansive outdoor plaza is activated to create a memorable conclusion for visitors as they exit the museum. During and after museum hours, moving images of traditional Japanese patterns, skies and foliage, prints and illustrations from the museum’s collection, and scenes from Edo and modern city life are projected on the building’s entire underside and massive pilotis. To project at this scale, projectors are lined across the plaza’s full length. Hidden from view, they’re housed in structures informed by the geometry of tusjiandons, lanterns that were popularized during the Edo period, and double as new plaza seating. Flexible modular furniture made from locally sourced wood can be used for events and informal gatherings. The plaza’s raised, open-air condition makes this imagery visible from afar, and the city a backdrop to the installation.