Asian Art Museum (Nice)
The Museum of Asian Arts in Nice (French name: Musée des arts asiatiques de Nice ) is an art museum built in 1987 by the Japanese architect Kenzō Tange (1913-2005) in the Alpes-Maritimes department in France . It is the only museum building by this architect in Europe and is located on an artificial lake in a 7 hectare flower park, the Parc Phoenix , near the Promenade des Anglais , opposite the airport . In addition to classical works, it also includes contemporary exhibits.
shape
The blueprint is based on the basic geometric shapes of the square and the circle, which in Asia represent the symbol of the earth and the sky, and is thus reminiscent of the structure of the Tibetan mandala . On the ground floor with a four-step pedestal facing the lake, four cubes, which are dedicated to the Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Cambodian civilizations, tower above the lake. The pavilions do not have a base, but are cantilevered over the surface of the water. The museum hall on the ground floor resulting from the disposition of the pavilions as a square is illuminated by the glass walls made of frameless glass constructions that open towards the small lake terraces and a circumferential skylight that jumps back to the round body of the upper floor.
The daylight-flooded hall with its views of the lake forms a contrast to the four windowless exhibition pavilions. The round building with a flat roof and a glass pyramid placed in the center to illuminate the central stairway is located above these four pavilions. The ground floor to the upper floor is connected by a large elliptical, self-supporting spiral staircase made of steel and glass and thus thematizes philosophical and religious currents in the Asian world, as represented by Buddhism . Symmetrically arranged glass elevators and spiral staircases also connect the floors.
Annex buildings
The symbolic architecture is created by the single-storey semicircular annex building around the building with the main entrance, reception, bookstore and tea pavilion, which is separated from the main structure by a moat and connected to the main structure via open and closed walkways. The tea pavilion at the end of the semicircular ring structure can be reached from the entrance via the walkway of the foyer or from the main exhibition building via a bridge. The walls, floors, terraces and roofs of the entire building are clad inside and out with white marble . The glass fronts of the glass walls and skylights are made of frameless glass constructions. Towards the park, the circular ring of the annex building is separated from the lakeshore with exotic plants by a light ditch. The roof of this extension forms an accessible roof area that is also used as an exhibition area. As an extension of this extension, a square two-storey tower protrudes from the lake, like a signal tower, which is connected to it by a bridge. The upper floor of the tower consists of a simple steel frame without a roof to accommodate the textile advertising sails for the respective temporary exhibition. The exhibition areas are supplemented by the basement level of the main and annex building in the lake. The workshops and depots are also located in this basement.
Collections
The collections of the Museum of Asian Art come from private and public collections. The museum with the exhibition contents on art brings together the most important civilizations of Asia.
The architectural ideas of Walter Gropius , Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe , Alvar Aalto , Oscar Niemeyer , Johannes Duiker , Eero Saarinen and Louis I. Kahn have been incorporated into the works of the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange . His buildings document contemporary international architecture and include the components economy, symbolic form, structurism and urbanization.
Quote
Kenzo Tange himself described its construction with the words:
“This museum is a swan that swims on the water of a calm lake in the middle of lush vegetation on the Mediterranean coast. In my mind, this museum is an 'all-white' piece of jewelry that shines over the Côte d'Azur. "
literature
- Pevsner, Honor, Fleming: Lexikon der Weltarchitektur , Prestel-Verlag Muenchen 1992 ISBN 3-7913-2095-5
- Alfred Werner Maurer : Vademekum Museumsbau, Philologus Verlag Saarbruecken 2007
- Alfred Werner Maurer: Kenzō Tange -The mandalas symbolism as spatial planning- in: Architectural icons on the Côte d'Azur and Provence, Philologus Verlag Saarbruecken 2007.
Web links
swell
Coordinates: 43 ° 40 ′ 5 ″ N , 7 ° 12 ′ 58 ″ E