Waterscape

The site is surrounded by a rich natural environment centering around a Lake Ashi and Mount Hakone. For the purpose of the museum renovation project, Moriyuki Ochiai Architects was tasked with designing a space inside this entrance that could accommodate a kitchen, a dining space, and a stage for temporary exhibitions and performances, such as concerts and plays.

First, the Japanese architecture firm poured new concrete over the entire floor and created an octagonal amphitheater at the center of the entrance dome. A transparent resin was then spread at the bottom of the amphitheater floor to form a spring filled with the profound serenity and mystery surrounding water by acknowledging the memory of the botanical garden’s naturally occurring body of water, as well as the Hakone landmark that is Lake Ashi.

The transparent resin floor was flooded with elegant and lively elements using different reflective materials, such as mirrors, pieces of glass and fragments of metal, to produce a variety of light shining off the water surface.

Furthermore, vivid colors have been applied, such as purple and light blue to the steel frame (columns and beams) and concrete parts of the dome walls, as if the vibrant colors contained in the lake surface were splashed onto its surroundings, to lend the gloss and freshness of water to the entire space.

Waterscape – Memory of Water, Hakone, Japan
Program: museum renovation
Architects: Moriyuki Ochiai Architects
Design Team: Moriyuki Ochiai, Wakana Sujishi, Jillian Lei, Charlotte Jacob, Florentina Carrier, Marina Masuda
Area: 420 sqm
Contractor: Ueno Construction
Completion: 2016