Meiso No Mori Issue 10

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issue 10 Meiso no Mori Crematorium

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Meiso no Mori CrematoriumGifu, Japan

Toyo Ito & Associates

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North elevation

East elevation

West elevation

With a line of wooded hills at its back and fl anks, its form

refl ected in the still water of an artifi cial lake, it stands as

a calm and contemplative place in which to observe the

rituals of cremation and honour the dead.

Designed by Toyo Ito in collaboration with structural engineer

Mutsuro Sasaki, this work continues Ito’s explorations into

spatial ambiguity, from his Serpentine Pavilion of 2002 in

London, in which he dispensed with conventional categories

of structures and infi ll, to the I-Project, a botanical garden

in Fukuoka, Japan, where he fused landscape and interior

spaces with a seamless, fl owing series of reinforced

concrete shells.

But with this building, the Meiso no Mori Crematorium

(it means Forest of Meditation), he has taken the game one notch

up. For here, in a park-like cemetery setting at Kakamigahara,

in the Gifu prefecture of central Japan, the master architect

has sought to dematerialize all sense of formal structure

by “fl oating” over the landscape a vast undulating shell in

which to shelter the ceremonial functions of the crematorium.

And though the roof appears free in form it was realized

through rigorous structural analysis.

The building replaces a former crematorium inside the

cemetery. The idea began with a series of simple sketches

of a fl owing reinforced concrete shell which combined a

billowing structure and columns struck as a single, uniform

surface. It was conceived, Ito says, “not as a conventional

massive crematorium but as architecture of a spacious roof

fl oating above the site like slowly drifting clouds, creating

a soft fi eld.”

Structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki worked out how to build

it. Sasaki, who also engineered Ito’s Sendai Mediatheque,

uses a computational method of evolving and testing

“shape design” so that you arrive at the most cost effi cient

structural solution.

The method uses an algorithm which, Sasaki says, “involves

generating rational structural shapes within a computer

by using principles of evolution and self-organisation of living

structures from an engineering standpoint.” Ito likens this

structural analysis to the growth pattern of plants in which,

as in nature, a process of great complexity, comprising several

hundred evolutionary cycles, produces the fi nal result.

What all that means in layman’s terms is that the architect

comes up with the shape, Sasaki number crunches it, tests

it through computer modeling and comes up with a better,

more beautiful, more elegant, more economic form, and tells

the architect how to make it.

The most economic material, in this instance, was reinforced

concrete. The challenge was how to make the various curved

formwork sections and tapered column shapes with absolute

precision. To achieve that Sasaki’s digitised data and computer

models were sent off to a formwork specialist

who produced each section.

“We designed with consideration for the relationship with

the surrounding landscape,” Ito says. “We determined the

degree of various bumps on the roof according to the ceiling

height required in each interior space of the building. Then

we made an initial digital model with which we did a series

of structural analysis tests to fi nd the form that achieves

the best structural solution.”

The form of the roof was determined precisely, using 3,700

check points on a grid. It was constructed by continually

cross checking the position of all points, one by one, with

laser level fi nders, to ensure a consistent depth of 200mm

for the concrete, with a tolerance of only 10mm. The process

was crucial for both the design and the structure. The roof

was completed in fi ve separate pours, using a quick-setting

mixture to eliminate the possibility of the concrete sliding

off the curving sections. Once hardened, all joint marks were

removed with grinding machines and the entire surface

trowelled with mortar to create a single surface. A fl exible

water proofi ng urethane layer was added later to compensate

for any slight movement in the concrete surface.

The result is an architecture of remarkable lightness,

of uplifting fl uidity. It is timeless and contemplative all at

the same time. But the starring role belongs to the roof, all

2,270 square metres of it, which fl oats overhead in peaks

and troughs, as a single sheet of billowing almost impossibly

thin reinforced white concrete.

The roof’s form is a fi ne balance of functional, servicing,

structural and aesthetic requirements. Freely dispersed

columns – as slender and graceful as those of Eero Saarinen’s

legendary tulip table and chairs - drop seamlessly from the

undulating ceiling which rises as high as 11.5 metres in parts.

The columns conceal storm water drains and appear to have

been cast as one with the roof. The roof canopy extends to

protect a screen of 19mm glass encasing the entire building.

The interior plan is organized around a regular arrangement

of rectilinear functional and ceremonial rooms placed between

the columns as windowless, top-lit boxes of travertine stone.

Beyond the entrance, visitors access two areas where

mourners pay their last respects. A corridor leads to waiting

rooms and a hall before entering the cremation zone.

Detailing is subtle and there’s a clean formal relationship

between all parts of the building. JR

This sublime building, a crematorium, is like

a drifting white cloud come to rest gently on a small

forest of gracefully tapered pedestals.

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Floor plan

01 waiting room

02 storage

03 sub-entrance

04 dry area

05 telephone area

06 kitchenette

07 toilet

08 pump room

09 rest room

10 control room

11 furnace room

12 machine room

13 sub-entrance hall

14 hall

15 charnel

16 ante-room

17 administrative

18 valedictory room

19 inurnment room

20 entrance hall

21 windbreak room

22 lobby

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Toyo Ito

Several hundred evolutionary cycles produced

the fi nal shape. The curved line becomes landscape,

in line with the edge silhouette of the surrounding

mountains. We imagined a soft place, as if a gentle

snow fall had settled lightly upon the site.

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The starring role belongs to the roof,

all 2,270 square metres of it, which hovers

overhead in peaks and troughs, as a single

sheet of billowing almost impossibly thin

reinforced white concrete.

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Project StatementMeiso no Mori was planned to reconstruct a decrepit crematorium as part of a cemetery in a park. This cemetery is located in a serene site, nestled in mountains with various trees and plants in the south and facing a pond in the north. The design brief called for a sublime space, appropriate to give last honours to the deceased, while subtly integrating the surrounding landscape of the park cemetery. Our idea was to respond not with a conventional massive crematorium but with architecture of a spacious roof fl oating above the site like slowly drifting clouds creating a soft fi eld. We investigated a freely curved reinforced concrete shell to construct a roof characterized by concavities and convexities. The shape of the roof was determined by an algorithm generating the optimum structural solution. Since this type of structural analysis resembles the growth of patterns of plants which keep transforming following simple natural rules, we call the process “evolution”. Several hundred such evolutionary cycles produced the fi nal shape. The curved line becomes landscape, in line with the edge silhouette of the surrounding mountains. Four structural cores and twelve cone columns with built-in rainwater collection pipes are positioned evenly under the roof structure. Ceremonial spaces are placed between the cores and columns. The smooth roof line also articulates the ceiling of the interior. Indirect light softly illuminates the curved ceiling and spreads in all directions with expressive nuances of light. Toyo Ito and Associates

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North-south section

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02 04

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East-west section

01 dry area

02 control room

03 furnace equipment room

04 furnace room

05 hall

06 valedictory room

07 entrance hall

08 wind break room

09 pavement

10 drive way

Ito has sought to dematerialize all sense

of formal structure by fl oating a vast undulating

shell over the landscape…it stands as a calm,

contemplative place in which to observe

the rituals of cremation and honour the dead.

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Project Meiso no Mori Crematorium

Location Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, Japan

Architect Toyo Ito and Associates

Project team Toyo Ito, Takeo Higashi, Leo Yokata,

Zai Shirakawa, Takayasu Hirayama

Structural engineer Sasaki Structural Consultants

Mechanical Engineers Kankyo Engineering Inc

Landscape Design Professor Mikiko Ishikawa

Builder Toda, Ichikawa & Tentyu in joint venture

Photographer Shinkenchiku-sha

Meiso No Mori Issue 10

Documents

Transcript of Meiso No Mori Issue 10