21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

From the 1980s, Issey Miyake (三宅一生) was convinced that Japan needed a design museum, and he discussed it with Isamu Noguchi (イサム・ノグチ), Ikko Tanaka (田中一光), Shiro Kuramata (倉俣史朗) and Tadao Ando (安藤忠雄). On 13 May 1988, Ando, Noguchi and Miyake were together at the Pace Gallery in New York. In January 2003 Miyake published an article in the Asahi Shimbun titled "Time to Create a Design Museum" (造ろうデザインミュージアム), which caused a stir. Mitsui Fudosan joined in and put forward a place in the project on the site of the former Defense Agency: this became Tokyo Midtown.

The creation of the venue was announced on 14 July 2006 at a Tokyo Midtown press conference. Design of the building ran from March 2004 to September 2005, and construction from October 2005 to February 2007. The venue opened on 30 March 2007, together with Tokyo Midtown.

The name comes from the English phrase "20/20 vision", meaning perfect eyesight: 21_21 aims to see one step further. It is read "two-one two-one design sight", and the gap between the two 21s stands for the distance between human eyes.

Three directors, Issey Miyake, Taku Satoh (佐藤卓) and Naoto Fukasawa (深澤直人), together with associate director Noriko Kawakami (川上典李子), set the programmes from the opening. In 2014 the venue received the Special Prize of the Mainichi Design Award. In March 2017, for its tenth anniversary, it opened Gallery 3, and Taku Satoh became the institution's overall director.

The building is low: one floor above ground and one below, with almost all of the volume buried. Ando (安藤忠雄) chose to place 80% of the floor area underground so that the building would not disturb the public space around it, and so that it would sit wrapped in the line of Himalayan cedars behind it. The theme he set himself was "architecture as the face of Japan" (日本の顔としての建築).

The roof is the signature: large steel plates, fully welded, slope toward the ground. Ando started from the concept "a piece of cloth" (一枚の布) that guides Issey Miyake's clothing design and imagined a roof like a single folded sheet of steel. About 54 metres long, over about 450 square metres, it demanded highly advanced techniques; Ando says the project would not have succeeded without the skill of the craftsmen on site. The double glazing, 11.4 metres long, is the longest in Japan. The exterior walls are exposed concrete.

Inside, the space opens out at a scale nothing outside would suggest. The ground floor holds Gallery 3 and the shop; the basement holds two galleries and a sunken court that receives natural light. The basement ceilings rise to 5.0 metres (Gallery 1) and 4.8 metres (Gallery 2). The galleries of 133, 443 and 110 square metres together offer 686 square metres of exhibition space, within 1,932 square metres of floor area. Stairs, handrails and ceilings were worked out with the site teams.

The structure is reinforced concrete, partly steel. Ando's office, Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, designed the building with Nikken Sekkei (日建設計).

The venue presents itself as a place to think about the world through design and to make proposals, together with designers, engineers, craftsmen, companies and the public. Its exhibitions, often directed by designers, take everyday life as their theme; talks and workshops go with them.

Galleries 1 and 2, in the basement, host these exhibitions. Gallery 3, on the ground floor, is a design presentation space where programmes run in partnership with companies in Japan and abroad and with educational, research and cultural institutions.

The venue's symbol, a plaque made from a single sheet of steel and inspired by house-number plates, was designed by Taku Satoh. The shop sells goods that draw on Ando's architecture and on this "product logo".

No reservation is needed: admission is paid at the reception desk. The venue is open from 10:00 to 19:00 (last entry 18:30) and closed on Tuesdays, from 27 December to 3 January and while exhibitions are being changed. The price depends on the exhibition or programme, and opening hours, closing days and prices can differ from one programme to another between Galleries 1 and 2 and Gallery 3. An online ticket can be bought through ArtSticker (an account is required); it is valid for the length of the exhibition and non-refundable. Groups of 15 or more must reserve.

Photography and filming are allowed only in permitted places, without flash, tripod or selfie stick. Only pencils and mechanical pencils may be used for writing; eating and drinking are not allowed in the venue, pets are refused (service dogs excepted) and there are no lockers: large bags are left at the cloakroom at reception.

Address: 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, in the Midtown Garden of Tokyo Midtown. It is a 5-minute walk from Roppongi station (Oedo and Hibiya lines) or Nogizaka station (Chiyoda line). The venue has no car or bicycle parking: vehicles use the Tokyo Midtown car parks.