Nendo has uniquely used graphics and different sized ‘roofs’ to demarcate five exhibits in a large exhibition space. The invisible space defining methods cleverly make references to equivalent ancient Japanese practices with contemporary results.

The exhibition, which is divided into five sections devoted respectively to transportation, robotic technology, social status, consumer culture and play, uses a comparison between contemporary and Edo Period (1615-1868) Japan to explore and interpret the relationship between Japanese culture and design. Given the massive 650m2 space, nendo decided to use‘roofs’in a variety of sizes and heights to demarcate the different exhibits, rather than constructing temporary interior walls. A subway map-like graphic on the floor allows visitors to identify the different zones. Areas under larger, lower roofs are ‘closed’ spaces, and the light that falls between the many smaller roofs like sunbeams filtering through leaves creates a‘half-outdoor’space. Visitors look out into ‘outside spaces’from underneath the roofs and -conversely- peer back into ‘inside spaces’, producing a hybrid, effervescently-changing space in which the relationship between inside and outside can never be known for sure. At first glance, clearly-defined lines of movement seem to have disappeared, and objects to be jumbled about in no visible order, but in actual fact, the space is subtly, carefully divided using the invisible space-defining practices of ‘ma’and‘shikiri’, which have existed in Japan since ancient times. The result: the massive space loses its homogeneity, and provides visitors with the chaotic spatial experience of Japanese urban space.

DESIGNER: nendo, Tokyo, Japan & Milan, Italy. LOCATION: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 100 Laurier Street, Gatineau, Quebec. DESCRIPTION: Exhibition Design . STATUS: completed. AREA: 650 sqm. . DATE: 2011. No part of this web site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Morfae and the copyright owner.