The design is for a gallery dedicated to an artist in a Taisho-era building located in Kobe’s former foreign settlement. The idea was to ingrain into the architecture the kind of space and time that allow visitors to distance themselves from worldly affairs and return to solitude.

Black granite was selected as the edging material to stage an atmosphere dissociated from everyday life. Viewers can stand in the interior space, but it is separated from the other world by gravel laid out on the periphery. The sacred, forbidden ground surrounds the place for humans and, by doing so, creates a tranquil and worshipful space.

The darkness of the space, the vivid colors of the paintings, the diverse textures of the materials, and the delicate sounds merge to carefully uncover the viewers’ sensitivity. The design intends to conceive in visitors’ minds a tranquil place and an expanse of another world, away from the ordinary.