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Click
on images by scarletgreen
for larger views. [Google Earth link]
Sitting within Fukuoka's Hakata Bay is Island
City, a manmade island built by national and local governments
and private interests with container ports, a business hub,
and a residential area. This last element includes "environmentally-friendly
green parks," the main one being the island's central
park, aka Grin Grin Park and designed by Toyo
Ito.
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While the strict zoning
of green space in the island's masterplan
(4mb PDF) points to economy over environment, the park's integration
of architecture and landscape is a commendable strategy for
creating a recreational and education place for residents.
The undulating forms provide access
to the roof as well as the interior, allowing visitors
to witness, for example, the ventilation
of the spaces below. Additionally the botanical
displays of the interior spaces educate visitors to the
region's flora. |
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Ito's design is composed of three
covered areas strung, like irregular pearls on a string, along
the side of a pea-shaped lake. A complex series of walkways
take people up, over, underneath, and into the three shells,
if you will. Each shell is partially covered by glass roofs
articulated in a scale-like manner; the rest is covered by
vegetation. Portions of the domes cantilever
to provide shade and shelter, while also signaling entries
and making suitable seating areas. |
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The interior spaces appear to
meander in the same manner
as the exterior pathways. This is suitable for what are basically
greenhouses, or the compartmentalization of nature by humans.
Ito embraces the apparently irregular qualities of nature's
ever-evolving presence. These forms allow for a multitude
of experiences across his architecture, an important consideration
for an island city so close, yet so far removed from the landlocked
city. |
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Click
on images below for larger views.
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