Completed in 1992 by Japanese architect Hiroshi Naito, the Sea Folk Museum is an example of wood Japanese craft. Its 18.5-meter-wide (60.7-foot) roof is constructed of laminated timber trusses. A central skylight fills this generous space, illuminating the fishing boats and exhibits below.
Sea Folk Museum Technical Information
- Architects 1-2: Naito Architects & Associates
- Location: Toba, Mie Prefecture, Japan
- Typology: Cultural Architecture / Museum
- Project Year: 1992
- Total floor area: Collection: 2,026㎡ + Exhibition Hall: 1,898㎡
- Material: Wood, Reinforced Concrete
- Images: © Courtesy of Hiroshi Naito Architects
Architecture is the place where the lives of the people who live within it dwells, and the architecture itself comes to life as the memories of the space and time experienced by the people cohere to it.
– Hiroshi Naito 3
Sea Folk Museum Photographs
Materiality and Structure: Crafting a Cultural Narrative
Naito’s approach to the Sea Folk Museum demonstrates a careful balance between the building’s environmental context and its structural details—a harmony he describes as navigating dimensions from 1/1 to 1/2,000. The museum’s design integrates seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, utilizing materials and forms that resonate with the local environment. The building’s low profile and organic curves echo the undulating waves of the nearby sea while using locally sourced wood and reinforced concrete to ensure the museum’s durability against the elements.
The site selection and orientation were meticulously planned to harness natural light and ventilation, enhancing the museum’s sustainability. A central skylight spans the 18.5-meter-wide (60.7-foot) roof, constructed from laminated timber trusses, flooding the exhibition space with natural light. This illumination highlights the fishing boats and other exhibits below, drawing visitors’ attention to the cultural treasures.
The laminated timber trusses of the museum’s expansive roof are a structural achievement and a symbolic gesture, representing the strength and flexibility required of the sea folk who once navigated these coastal waters. The use of wood and reinforced concrete throughout the museum’s 2,026-square-meter collection space and 1,898-square-meter exhibition hall creates a tactile connection to the natural world, grounding the architecture in the region’s cultural and environmental context.
Naito’s design stance is characterized by an ability to unify the seemingly opposing scales of detailed architectural components and broader environmental considerations. This dual focus is evident in the museum’s structural design, which balances innovation with tradition. Using laminated timber provides the necessary structural support for the large spans and imbues the building with a warmth and organic quality that resonates with the museum’s cultural narrative. On the other hand, the reinforced concrete elements provide durability and resilience, ensuring the building’s longevity in the face of the coastal environment’s challenges.
A Journey Through Space and Culture
The spatial experience of the Sea Folk Museum is a carefully curated journey through the history and culture of the sea folk, guided by Naito’s thoughtful design. The museum’s layout is designed to evoke a sense of discovery, with the meandering paths and varied ceiling heights reflecting the unpredictability of life on the sea. As visitors move through the museum, they are constantly reminded of the sea’s presence, whether through framed ocean views or the gentle play of light and shadow created by the central skylight.
The museum’s interior spaces are flexible and intimate, accommodating a range of exhibits while maintaining a consistent thematic thread. The interplay between solid and void, between enclosed and open spaces, creates a dynamic visitor experience that mirrors the ebb and flow of the tides. This balance between movement and stillness is further enhanced by Naito’s careful consideration of scale, from the detailed craftsmanship of the wooden trusses to the broader environmental context of the building’s placement within the landscape.
Sea Folk Museum Plans and Model
Sea Folk Museum Image Gallery
About Hiroshi Naito
Hiroshi Naito is a Japanese architect born in Yokohama, Japan 1950. He is the principal architect at Naito Architect & Associates based in Tokyo.
He received an M.Arch from the Graduate School of Waseda University and was chief architect at Fernando Higueras in Madrid, Spain, from 1976 to 1978. He worked at Kikutake Architects in Japan from 1979 to 1981 before establishing Naito Architect & Associates in 1981. Naito is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo.
Notes and additional credits
- Principal Architect: Hiroshi Naito
- Model by: Guillaume Burietz, Lolita Leblanc, Laura Cuvelier and Paul-Eugène Gilbert
- Innerscape by Naito Hiroshi
- Contemporary Japanese Architecture by Philip Jodidio
Just for your information the model is from guillaume burietz, Lolita Leblanc, laura cuvelier and Paul-Eugène Gilbert. Can you fix that please
Thanks for the feedback Paul. It´s been updated.