| i. m. pei. miho museum, shiga, japan ..................................................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||||||
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| miho museum, shiga, japan http://www.miho.or.jp/english/index.htm in 1991 pei was commissioned to design a museum to house a private art collection. the site for the miho museum was in the shigaraki mountains in japan. the structure of the building is mostly underground, but rather than digging into the earth, 'which is a very expensive and slow method, especially given the seismic problems we had to face... the decision was made that it was easier to remove the earth, build the building, and then put the earth (and the same kind of trees) back... as a consequence (I think the building is in harmony with this particular site) ...it blends with nature. (in my opinion), you cannot separate the two from each other.' the difference between the way eastern and western architects use this relationship, though is striking: 'look at the works of le notre, the great 17th century french landscape architect. he reshaped nature into a work of architecture. I can think of no better example to illustrate the difference between the east and the west with respect to the relationship between architecture and nature. (since the site was) considered to be a sacred place, once chosen to be the site for an important temple... (we) took great care in planning the museumwith minimum disturbance of the surrounding nature.' the second challange pei faced was how to meld 'tradition with modernity', creating a building that was rooted in japan's cultural history - pei drew inspiration from large farmhouses of the edo period - while rendering it a stable, luminous and spacious space, using steel, glass and aluminum. 'this is a building built in our times... but I had the responsibility to respect the tradition that has developed through the centuries.' (quotations from 'conversations with i.m.pei' all photos courtesy prestell verlag) 1 of 6 pages on i.m.pei, click on the icons to see more
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