For the roof, Tsuyoshi used Nippon Steel's TranTixxii with cider gold shine.
Home ＞ User’s voice ＞ Architect Tsuyoshi Tane
Architect Tsuyoshi Tane
Titanium is a material of the 21st century that embraces the passage of time.
Tsuyoshi Tane ©Yoshiaki Tsutsui
Born in Tokyo in 1979 and currently based in Paris, France, Tsuyoshi is an architect and founder of Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects. He has multiple ongoing projects around the world, mainly in Europe and Japan, which are themed after the concept "Archaeology of the Future," which means "building based on the memories of the place."
Some of his main works include, among many others, "Estonian National Museum" (2016), "Kofun Stadium, New National Stadium of Japan (proposal)" (2012), "Todoroki Housein Valley" (2018), "Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art" (2020).
He is a winner of many awards including the Emerging Architects Award of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of France, the Nomination for the European Prize of Mies van der Rohe 2017, the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artist for the 67th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Grand Prix of the French Foreign Architecture Award 2021.
He has also authored books including "Tane Tsuyoshi Archaeology kara Architecture e (From archaeology to architecture)" and "TSUYOSHI TANE Archaeology of the Future," both of which are published by TOTO Publishing.
Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art
"The shining oxidized silver of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao"
This characteristic of titanium was one thing that caught my attention when I revisited Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 2014. Since then, I had wanted to try using titanium for my works too. This came true with Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 2020. This museum was originally a brick warehouse that had been built 100 years ago, in the Meiji and Taisho periods. The mission of this project was to transform this warehouse into a museum of modern art in the provincial city that will be loved by locals for a long time.
In the days when the warehouse was built, there was no other brick building in Hirosaki. Made of bricks burned manually and individually, this warehouse was Japan's first large-scale cider (apple low-malt beer) factory. For the design of the museum, I wanted to succeed such memories associated with this place while incorporating messages for the future. That's why I proposed replacing the old roofing with the TranTixxii cider gold titanium. The TranTixxii titanium changes its color in response to the interference of light, expressing various colors.
The cider gold titanium used for the roof turns into various colors, ranging from deep green to light yellow, from the sunrise to the sunset. This represents the transition of time over which green apples gradually ripen until the golden cider is finally completed in the light of sunset. You never get bored observing this beautiful transition all day long. I heard that a nurse of a hospital near the museum had said that she feels always vitalized to see the shine of the roof illuminating the hospital ward in the morning.
For the roofing, we employed diagonal roofing, an elaborate and complex roofing method. Because this region is snowy, the roof was elaborately designed to look beautiful with a pile of snow on it, rather than applying a shape that makes the snow fall off easily. This was achieved by a traditional crafting technique I saw in the City of Hirosaki. With the large roof surface sectioned into small areas, the cider gold titanium expresses various colors with subtle inclination and distortion by accumulated snow. I believe that the expression of this titanium will become even more rich as it gets older.
Hirosaki-style Brick Laying Method
The igloo-like shape of the roof blocks the rain and snow, allowing the facility to welcome visitors with the warm environment.
"A material with a magnificent ability for expression"
The architecture of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art embraces the surrounding natural light and reflects the unique local features and environment. In the modern age central to the environment and local communities, I think that titanium will become an ever more important material for architects for its magnificent ability for expression.
I'm currently working on a project for the museum in Hôtel de la Marine, which was built by Louis XV in Place de la Concorde in Paris. For the exhibition showcases in the private museum space inside this historical building, I'm planning to use recrystallized titanium prototyped by Nippon Steel.
The exhibition room of the art wing
A warehouse built in the Meiji and Taisho periods was transformed into a museum.
The cafe and shop wing
The cider (apple low-malt beer) tanks are reminiscent of the historical cider factory that used to be located in this place.
I wanted to use titanium because I was impressed by its beautiful emerging patterns I had never seen and thought it also had potential for enriching expressions in terms of material properties. In particular, I was fascinated when I saw the sample of the recrystallized black titanium for its deep shade that is different from the regular black. The museum features collections from ancient civilizations of the BC era, which titanium complements effectively. The material properties of the minerals generated over tens of thousands of years has a timeless ability for expression. I think that titanium can express the art of architecture we can only create in the 21st century. This material still has uncultivated potential. I want to commit to continuous research so that I can achieve design for bringing out the beauty of this material more effectively.
