teamLab Phenomena Architecture
Since the 2000s we have been creating spaces where people can experience art without boundaries between the interior and exterior. In the beginning this began with small spaces, which gradually became larger spaces, and then collections of large-scale experiences/large-scale collections of experiences. What has remained consistent throughout is that we design experiences rather than something physical.
In this endeavor, we have focused on what the necessary form is to value the memory of each individual person’s experience. For example, we think that forms that are easy for anyone to recall a common shared image of, are ones that are remembered as the same form, becoming an obstacle to become a unique memory of the individual’s experience.
The architecture of teamLab Phenomena has no clear boundary between the exterior and interior, similar to a kind of living organism whose outer skin and internal organs are connected by an organic skin. The experience of both the interior and exterior are continuous without boundaries, and the architecture has no easily identifiable form with a certain purpose, and there is no single fixed symbolic characteristic. Some recall the image as like a cloud, some feel the winding curves of the desert, a group of mushrooms, or the bones of a sabre tiger. The form is shaped inside the mind through each individual person’s experience.
We believe that an organic form is important to experience, so we have incorporated an organic shape for teamLab Phenomena. Especially with floors that are in constant contact with people, whereas previously only polyhedral shapes could be realized, we have been able to create a floor in a three-dimensional form. Therefore, the organic shape is a visual experience as well as a physical experience that is remembered by the body through changing perspectives and movement of the body. The boundary between the physical body and the space becomes ambiguous, leading to discoveries of the physical body. This experience, which is physically ingrained, becomes a spatial memory, continuous from the internal to the external, and will become a unique image in each individual person’s memory.
The museum we create is built with the experience as the starting point, and the exterior of the architecture is the fabric for a collection of experiences. The interior and exterior are one and the same, without boundaries.
Designed by teamLab Architects