Suntory Museum

Tadao Ando Architect and Associates – Museum, Cinema IMAX 3D, restaurant – Osaka, Japan, 1994

The Suntory Museum and cultural center includes, an art and design gallery, an IMAX 3D cinema, numerous shops and a restaurant.
The complex as a whole can be considered one of the best projects by Tadao Ando in which he proposes to solve the problem of the relationship between man, water and architecture.

The museum overlooks the sea through various terraces, ramps and stairs, all to approach and establish contact with the water.
Near the water there are five monumental pillars which then repeat to a lesser extent also in the barrier opposite, reinforcing the sense of continuity between the square and the ocean.
The building consists of an inverted cone trunk intersected by two volumes with different angles. The cone has a large window that allows a wide view of the ocean, the theater is inside a large concrete sphere.
The building materials are steel, glass and concrete.
The large truncated cone has a reticular structure while the other structural parts have been made with prestressed reinforced concrete.