OCAT Osaka City Air Terminal

 

Osaka City Air Terminal does have buses that run to both Kansai Airport and Itami Airport, but in reality it is a multi-use business and commercial complex in Namba.

As well as the bus terminal, which was the biggest in all of west Japan at one point, the complex hosts government offices, commercial offices, and a variety of retail establishments.

I rarely visit cities, so for me they are somewhat similar to safari parks... the chance to see exotic, possibly dangerous, creatures in their natural habitat.

As many of you know, I am also a sucker for modern architecture, and that is usually where my gaze falls....

Two floors of OCAT are below ground, and one of the underground passageways was the subject of the previous post.

I have been unable to find out who created the large metal sculpture in the underground entrance...

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Luminous Wall OCAT Walk Namba

 

Not long after arriving in Japan, and having seen the massive complex of underground shopping malls and passageways in Osaka, I entertained the notion that maybe the Japanese were becoming troglodytes.

Of course they do offer protection from the traffic and inclement weather, including the dangerous sunshine that the Japanese female lives in terror of....

As a visitor, I hate them, not least because I get lost a lot and find the direction signage confusing...

However, in OCAT WALK, an underground passage that connects Namba Station with OCAT, I found this delightful art installation cum lighting system.

An undulating wall of fairly standard glass bricks with subtle lighting behind and miniature artwork in some bricks.

I have been unable to learn anything about it, who designed it, etc.

This is the first in a series of posts on an afternoon I spent in Namba.

I spend very little time in cities. I find them strange, and if I can I treat my visits to them as if visiting a theme park like disneyland

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More AIAV by Isozaki

 

The Akiyoshidai International Art Village is a major project of renowned Japanese architect Arata Isozaki.

It is located in a narrow valley below the Akiyoshidai Karst and near to Akiyoshido, the biggest cavern in Japan.

In the previous post I showed you the ancillary buildings that include a copy of one of  Isozaki's earliest works. In this post I look at the large main building.

It was quite eerie exploring as there was not a single other person around.

Most of the doors were locked....

I would have liked to have seen the main auditorium, capable of seating 300. It has a very unusual layout and has three floors. The space can be rearranged to make any part of it the stage.

To the rear is an outdoor performance area. This has a fan-shaped grassy slope that enables up to 600 people to view a performance.

There is a central courtyard that has a square stage in the middle of shallow pools of water. Some of the rooms facing the courtyard can open up to blur the distinction between inside and outside.

There is a large gallery for exhibiting visual arts, but there was no exhibition when I was there.

There are a bunch of studios, to be used by artists in residence. They appeared to be empty.

There is also a cafe space, but that was closed.

There are rooms for seminars, and dressing room spaces for performing arts.

I liked some of the spaces,... the outside area with canopy held up by narrow pillars..... the narrow tunnels between the main building and the outside performance area....

I also liked the various materials used on the different eteriors... concrete, marble, metal sheeting, glass....

I have posted on several of Isozaki's buildings before, like his early library, now the Art Plaza in Oita that also has a gallery of his models and drawings.

I also  did a short piece on the occasion of  his death in 2022.

The previous post was on the other structures that make up the AIAV.

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Akiyoshidai International Art Village

 

The first place I stopped at to explore when I got to Akiyoshidai was the Akiyoshidai International Art Village.

It is tucked away up a narrow valley at the edge of the karst and I had never seen it before on any of my previous visits to the karst and cave.

A huge red sculpture stands at the entrance. It is Untitled No. 218 by the Japanese sculptor Yonekichi Tanaka.

The main reason I wanted to see AIAV was because it was designed by Arata Isozaki, a major Japanese architect whose work I appreciate.

The first section was the residential complex. Terraced concrete pools emukate the rice paddies that stood here before.....

An then a complex of buildings that includes a rebuilding of one of his earliest works that has been demolished at its original site in Oita.

The Nakayama House was the first house designed by Isozaki after he set up his own arhitectural firm in 1964.

The facsimile built here in 1998 is now used as a salon, connected to another small building and with the large restaurant building behind it.

AIAV was set up to be an arts center that brought international artists to stay in residence. Both visual arts and performing arts.

I think it is still ticking over with a few projects each year, but it did not become as successful as hoped. In some ways, it reminded me of the sports centre in Kagoshima, which was also built with numerous residential facilities and was intended to become a hub for national and international sports training. However, it now only offers gateball for its elderly population.

The largest structure in this set of ancillary buildings is the restaurant, which still seems to be operating.

Clad in unpolished marble, it is a huge cathedral-like space measuring 7 meters wide by 13 meters tall and 30 meters long.

Each end of the building glass, with one framing the main arts center building which I will cover next...

I did read that the location and idea for the arts centre actually came from Isozaki himself. Another intriguing rural art museum by him is the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Nagi, Okayama.

The previous post was on the Iwanaga Hachiman Shrine I visited earlier on my walk.

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