Sendai Mediatheque

Related person

Toyo Ito (architect)

Date

1995-2001

Location

Asia->Japan->Miyagi Prefecture->Sendia

Description

Sendai Mediatheque is a center for activities in the fields of art and film. It is a public facility to help people freely exchange information with each other through various media. The Mediatheque is located on a tree-lined avenue in Sendai, its transparent facade allowing for the revelation of diverse activities that occur within the building. Along this main facade the six 15.75-inch-thin floor slabs seem to be floating within the space connected only by the 13 vertical tube steel lattice columns that rise up from ground floor to roof, similar to the trunks of trees of a forest. The tubes are both structure and vector for light and all of the utilities, networks and systems that allow for technological communication and vertical mobility, including elevators and stairs. Each vertical shaft varies in diameter and is independent of the facade, allowing for a free form plan which varies from floor to floor. --http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/sendaimediatheque/index.htm

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