This document outlines a thesis project for a museum of contemporary Japanese art and architecture called the Museum of Contemporary Japanese Art (MCJA). The client for the project is Nintendo and the site is an existing building on the Lower East Side of New York City. The design of the museum will be inspired by recent Japanese contemporary art museums that allow the building itself to be a work of art. It will utilize a series of independent white cube galleries connected by interior bridges, responding to both the existing building structure and creating an urban environment within the space. Renovating an existing building rather than new construction respects history and allows a powerful interaction between old and new elements, celebrating the future of Japanese art.

1. THESIS SPRING 2009
PROFESSOR: BARBARA LOWENTHAL
YASUKO NISHI

2. New York City is a
world center of
finance, entertainme
nt, and art. New
Yorkers know that
many aspects of
Western modern art
and architecture
were influenced by
Japanese art and
architecture. But
their ideas about
contemporary
Japanese culture are
limited, stereotypes,
or out-of-date. They
only know Japanese
computer
games, comic
books, and sushi.
My project is a
museum devoted to
contemporary
Japanese fine art and
architecture.

3. My client is the Nintendo Company,
one of the most influential and
largest game manufacturers in the
world. Nintendo’s company
philosophy is to make their products
accessible to people of all
generations; they want people to
have many ways to enjoy life. One
of the goals for this museum is
providing the space to celebrate art
and make the art work
approachable for people who are
interested in Japanese culture.

4. The site is on the Lower East
Side, right next to the Williamsburg
Bridge. The existing building, shared
by the Police and Fire
Departments, was designed by an
American architect, William F.
Pedersen, in 1975. The building has
unique curves, horizontal ribbon
windows, and various roof
heights. The building is an
appropriate setting for this museum
because of the abundance of natural
light and because the qualities of its
massing resemble the setting of
Nintendo's legendary game, Super
Mario Brothers.

5. The design is inspired by the most recent Japanese contemporary
museums and art work. One goal of these buildings is to trust the
power of art and allow the building itself to be a work of art, the
final piece of the collection. In the West, the typical modern
museum is a white cube with an open plan – a flexible and cost-
effective way to display art – but not visually compelling. Tadao
Ando said quot;The white box does not show any respect for the art
workquot; so he designed a unique, strong museum space, such as
Chichu Museum to fight with the art. In contrast, the museums of
Ando and SANAA have reconceived the idea of the white box
exhibition space. The New Museum in New York City and the
Kanazawa 21st Century Museum, for example, utilize a series of
independent white cubes, with interior bridges connecting the
volumes. My design is inspired by this idea but within an existing
architectural framework. A series of volumes responds to the form
of building and also creates an urban environment, a microcosm of UNIQUE USE
a city, within the space.
AGAINST WHITE CUBE:
OF WHITE CUBES:
TADAO ANDO SANAA

6. BASIC IDEA DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
SKETCHES

24. WHY INTERIOR DESIGN?
Finally, one could ask why Nintendo wouldn’t simply
commission a new building for this museum, rather than
renovate an existing structure.
Of course it makes ecological sense to use an existing
building and green materials but that answer is not good
enough. On a recent trip to Japan I saw a building and an
exhibition which inspired my project and also helped me
to begin to answer this question. In the exhibition, called
“House Project” in Naoshima, each artist renovated an
empty hose to display their work. The museum, called
quot;Seirensho (Refinery)quot; turned a ruined copper smelter on
a small island into an art space with natural air ventilation
and recycling systems. In both cases, I was struck by the
powerful interaction of an existing building with
contemporary art. The respect for history, the visual
interplay of the new and the old, and the celebration of
the future of Japanese art were overwhelming. These are HOUSE PROJECT REFINARY
some of the most important goals of the MCJA.