Yamanashi
Prefecture is one of the
greatest producers of fruit
in Japan. The museum of
fruit was planned to be
part of a public park surrounded
by vineyards Historically,
fruits have always been
revered as aesthetic objects.
In thinking about a museum
devoted to fruit, we were
faced with spiritual aspects
involving sensuality, intelligence
and human desires, as well
as global ecological issues
involving our physical environment.
The object is to create
architecture as a poetic
machine that expresses this
spiritual, social and
environmental
context The
museum takes
the form of
a group of shelters
scattered around
the site as
a metaphor of
the vitality
and diversity
of
fruit;
a primordial
landscape hidden
deep in the
fantastic human
psyche. The
Fruit Plaza
represents the
final grown
up image of
seeds; large
trees, themselves
a beginning
of a new cycle
The greenhouse,
an encyclopaedia
of fruit, represents
the memory of
the tropical
sun
The
underground exhibit hall
is dedicated to the world
of fruit genes The workshop
is a symbol of 'foreignness'
inherent in the vitality
of seeds. The vitality of
fruit and the museum, like
an alien visitor landing
and taking off in the sloped
orchard, fuse into one ecological
totality of science fiction
quality.
