The Tokyo firm founded and headed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, recently opened the City of Culture of Tsuruoka, a small city on the northwest coast of Japan’s Honshu Island. Located close to an old samurai school, it is surrounded by greenery, and the enormous, sweeping canopies that crown it contribute to the creation of an inviting and welcoming image. Several interconnected volumes diminish in size as they stretch towards the perimeter of the premises, in a strategy that reduces the scale of the construction and helps to integrate the complex into its at once urban and natural environment. The heart of the project, a huge concert hall, features a main stage surrounded by seats set at different heights, in tiers. The public spaces adjacent to the centrally positioned auditorium, like most of the other volumes comprising the complex, are designed to be flexible, allowing a variety of uses.
