TOYAMAキラリ and Glass Art Museum

photo by Mapmoe · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by 極地狐 · CC BY-SA 2.0

A thousand panels imitate the ice veins of Tateyama: the building has been open since 2015.

The architect Kengo Kuma clad the building in about a thousand panels of different materials (aluminium, glass, white granite), designed to evoke the ice veins of the Tateyama mountains and to change their reflection with the light and the viewing angle. Inside, a slanting void runs through the floors from the second to the sixth to bring natural light in from above, with walls clad in local cedar. On the sixth floor, the Glass Art Garden holds permanent works by Dale Chihuly, including the installation ‘Toyama Millefiori’, which can be seen even on days when the exhibition on the fourth floor is closed.

A public complex in the centre of Toyama that brings together the city library and the Glass Art Museum, opened in May 2015 after three years of construction; it adjoins Fugan Kansui Park, the canal-side park that is also home to the Starbucks awarded in 2008 as the brand's best store design in the world.

ℹ️ Museum open 9:30–18:00 (last entry 17:30), closed on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. Permanent collection ticket 1,200 yen for adults; the Glass Art Garden can still be visited when the fourth-floor exhibition is closed. Source: the museum's official website.

🚉 Dentetsu-Toyama · 18 min walk

Sources: toyama-glass-art-museum.jp · ja.wikipedia.org · secure.j-bus.co.jp

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