Kadokawa Culture Museum / Kengo Kuma & Associates + KAJIMA DESIGN

Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates, KAJIMA DESIGN
Area: 87,433 m²
Year: 2020
Photography: Forward Stroke
Lead Architect: Kengo Kuma, Suguru Watanabe
Design Team: Keiko Onohara, Katsuhito Komatsu, Hiroyo Yamamoto (CG), Yohei Mochizuki (CG), Dasom Lee
Structure: KAJIMA DESIGN
Exterior: Landscape Design
Interior: Y+A Yojitakahashiarchitects
Construction: Kajima Corporation
Other Collaborators: Seigow Matsuoka, Tanseisha, Dessence, Hiroshi Aramata, Usagi No Nedoko, Tansei Display, 10 Inc, FROM TO, Kume Sekkei
City: Tokorozawa
Country: Japan

The Kadokawa Culture Museum, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates and KAJIMA DESIGN in Tokorozawa, Japan, blends modern architecture with the region’s tectonic history. Completed in 2020, the building features a striking granite exterior that complements its dynamic interior, which merges elements of art, anime, and literature. The museum incorporates a gallery, library, and exhibition spaces into a cohesive concept called “Edit Town.” Notable features include “Book Street” and the “Bookshelf Theater,” which together form a spatial labyrinth, offering visitors an immersive experience that connects various forms of cultural expression.

Kadokawa culture museum / kengo kuma & associates + kajima design

Situated on the Musashino Plateau, an area shaped by the collision of four tectonic plates, the design explores the intersection of modern cultural binaries, such as urban vs. suburban and high vs. low culture. The museum’s labyrinthine structure reflects the geological forces at play in the region, creating a dialogue between architecture and the earth’s natural history.

The architects aimed to create a building that evokes the image of granite, a material formed from magma and solidified from the earth’s tectonic processes. The museum’s rock mass design interacts with its suburban context, connecting the surrounding factories, residential areas, and nearby Higashi Tokorozawa Park.

The 20,000 granite pieces that cover the exterior walls, named Black Fantasy and quarried in China, feature a striking contrast of white spots against a black background. The rough texture, with uneven joints, enhances the building’s raw, tactile presence, merging artificial and natural elements.

Though the structure is supported by a steel frame, the exterior is composed of steel-framed reinforced concrete, capable of supporting the heavy stone cladding. This construction allows for a unique, multi-layered appearance, giving the building an abstract presence that transcends typical architectural scales.

Inside, the museum blends high and low cultural references, from contemporary art to anime, creating a chaotic, fragmented spatial experience. However, the architects integrated these various elements through careful selection of materials such as cedar plywood, cypress, and stainless mesh, bringing unity to the space. The design of the museum incorporates a hybrid program—what the architects referred to as “Edit Town”—which merges the functions of a museum and library. A central gallery is surrounded by libraries, with the museum extending outward.

To separate the museum from the library, six walls of varying angles are used, with cutouts creating a sense of programmatic distinction. The “Book Street” within the museum is lined with shelves made from cedar plywood, forming a network that evokes the brain’s structure.

The shelves are arranged in a chaotic rhythm, with 44 units composed of six different types, each 1.8 meters wide and 2.4 meters high.

At the end of Edit Town, the “Bookshelf Theater” features shelves with uniform depths, but the vertical cedar plywood panels create a dramatic sense of verticality, transforming the bookshelf into a cliff-like structure. This dynamic form extends upward to the ceiling, blending several programs on the upper floors and creating a three-dimensional labyrinth.