Marugame Station Plaza

Marugame Station Plaza

LOCATION
Marugame, Japan

CLIENT
Kagawa Prefectural Government

Completion Date
1996

Architect
Taniguchi & Associates

TypE
Civic Landscapes
Transportation

Description
An oblique view of Japanese tradition permeates the plaza, which links the train station to the sculpture terrace of Taniguchi’s Inokuma Museum. Lines of common asphalt and the fine cobbled stones used in Japanese gardens create a patterned paving that connects the buildings as it moves across previously “empty” spaces, traversing buildings and jumping across streets. In the plaza the fountain is composed of four identical painted steel rectangles inspired by traditional torii, the gates of Shinto religion. They also suggest the cranes of the harbor’s high-tech shipping industry. When they “rain” into the pool they evoke the translucent quality of traditional shoji screens. A spiral of “boulders” mirrors the circular basin of the fountain; they reveal their true fiberglass nature only on touch or at dusk when, lit from within, they glow like lanterns. These heavy-looking weightless stones, although paradoxical, function perfectly as seats and bollards.

Collaborators
Urban Design: Gen Kato
Urban Design: Nihon-Toshi-Sogo-Kenkyusho Landscape Construction Observation: Toshi-Keikan-Sekkie