issue 10 Meiso no Mori Crematorium

Meiso no Mori
Crematorium
Gifu, Japan

Toyo Ito
& Associates
12 13
 issue 10 Meiso no Mori Crematorium

Meiso no Mori
Crematorium
Gifu, Japan

Toyo Ito
& Associates
12 13

This sublime building, a crematorium, is like

a drifting white cloud come to rest gently on a small
forest of gracefully tapered pedestals.

With a line of wooded hills at its back and anks, its form
reected in the still water of an articial lake, it stands as
a calm and contemplative place in which to observe the
rituals of cremation and honour the dead.
Designed by Toyo Ito in collaboration with structural engineer
Mutsuro Sasaki, this work continues Itos explorations into
spatial ambiguity, from his Serpentine Pavilion of 2002 in
London, in which he dispensed with conventional categories
of structures and inll, to the I-Project, a botanical garden
in Fukuoka, Japan, where he fused landscape and interior
spaces with a seamless, owing series of reinforced
concrete shells.
But with this building, the Meiso no Mori Crematorium
(it means Forest of Meditation), he has taken the game one notch
up. For here, in a park-like cemetery setting at Kakamigahara,
in the Gifu prefecture of central Japan, the master architect
has sought to dematerialize all sense of formal structure
by oating over the landscape a vast undulating shell in
which to shelter the ceremonial functions of the crematorium.
And though the roof appears free in form it was realized
through rigorous structural analysis.
The building replaces a former crematorium inside the
cemetery. The idea began with a series of simple sketches
of a owing reinforced concrete shell which combined a
billowing structure and columns struck as a single, uniform
surface. It was conceived, Ito says, not as a conventional
massive crematorium but as architecture of a spacious roof
oating above the site like slowly drifting clouds, creating
a soft eld.
Structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki worked out how to build
it. Sasaki, who also engineered Itos Sendai Mediatheque,
uses a computational method of evolving and testing
shape design so that you arrive at the most cost efcient
structural solution.
The method uses an algorithm which, Sasaki says, involves
generating rational structural shapes within a computer
by using principles of evolution and self-organisation of living
structures from an engineering standpoint. Ito likens this
structural analysis to the growth pattern of plants in which,
as in nature, a process of great complexity, comprising several
hundred evolutionary cycles, produces the nal result.
What all that means in laymans terms is that the architect
comes up with the shape, Sasaki number crunches it, tests
it through computer modeling and comes up with a better,
more beautiful, more elegant, more economic form, and tells
the architect how to make it.
The most economic material, in this instance, was reinforced
concrete. The challenge was how to make the various curved
formwork sections and tapered column shapes with absolute
precision. To achieve that Sasakis digitised data and computer
models were sent off to a formwork specialist
who produced each section.
We designed with consideration for the relationship with
the surrounding landscape, Ito says. We determined the
degree of various bumps on the roof according to the ceiling
height required in each interior space of the building. Then
we made an initial digital model with which we did a series
of structural analysis tests to nd the form that achieves
the best structural solution.
The form of the roof was determined precisely, using 3,700
check points on a grid. It was constructed by continually
cross checking the position of all points, one by one, with
laser level nders, to ensure a consistent depth of 200mm North elevation
for the concrete, with a tolerance of only 10mm. The process
was crucial for both the design and the structure. The roof
was completed in ve separate pours, using a quick-setting
mixture to eliminate the possibility of the concrete sliding
off the curving sections. Once hardened, all joint marks were
removed with grinding machines and the entire surface
trowelled with mortar to create a single surface. A exible
water proong urethane layer was added later to compensate
for any slight movement in the concrete surface.
The result is an architecture of remarkable lightness,
of uplifting uidity. It is timeless and contemplative all at
the same time. But the starring role belongs to the roof, all
2,270 square metres of it, which oats overhead in peaks
and troughs, as a single sheet of billowing almost impossibly
thin reinforced white concrete.
The roofs form is a ne balance of functional, servicing,
structural and aesthetic requirements. Freely dispersed
columns as slender and graceful as those of Eero Saarinens
legendary tulip table and chairs - drop seamlessly from the
undulating ceiling which rises as high as 11.5 metres in parts.
The columns conceal storm water drains and appear to have
East elevation
been cast as one with the roof. The roof canopy extends to
protect a screen of 19mm glass encasing the entire building.
The interior plan is organized around a regular arrangement
of rectilinear functional and ceremonial rooms placed between
the columns as windowless, top-lit boxes of travertine stone.
Beyond the entrance, visitors access two areas where
mourners pay their last respects. A corridor leads to waiting
rooms and a hall before entering the cremation zone.
Detailing is subtle and theres a clean formal relationship
between all parts of the building. JR
West elevation
 issue 10 Meiso no Mori Crematorium

Meiso no Mori
Crematorium
Gifu, Japan

Toyo Ito
& Associates
12 13

Floor plan

01 waiting room
02 storage
03 sub-entrance
04 dry area
05 telephone area
06 kitchenette
07 toilet
08 pump room
09 rest room
10 control room
11 furnace room
12 machine room
13 sub-entrance hall
14 hall
15 charnel
16 ante-room
17 administrative
18 valedictory room
19 inurnment room
20 entrance hall
21 windbreak room
22 lobby

01

03 02
01

02 01
04

02

03
22
05
19 19
07
06

02 08

09 16 20 21

14
11
10 18

18
12

12 17
11 16
13 15

03

12
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Several hundred evolutionary cycles produced

the nal shape. The curved line becomes landscape,
in line with the edge silhouette of the surrounding
mountains. We imagined a soft place, as if a gentle
snow fall had settled lightly upon the site.

Toyo Ito
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 issue 10 Meiso no Mori Crematorium

The starring role belongs to the roof,

all 2,270 square metres of it, which hovers
overhead in peaks and troughs, as a single
sheet of billowing almost impossibly thin
reinforced white concrete.
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Project Statement
Meiso no Mori was planned to reconstruct a decrepit
crematorium as part of a cemetery in a park. This cemetery
is located in a serene site, nestled in mountains with various
trees and plants in the south and facing a pond in the north.
The design brief called for a sublime space, appropriate
to give last honours to the deceased, while subtly integrating
the surrounding landscape of the park cemetery.
Our idea was to respond not with a conventional massive
crematorium but with architecture of a spacious roof oating
above the site like slowly drifting clouds creating a soft eld.
We investigated a freely curved reinforced concrete shell to
construct a roof characterized by concavities and convexities.
The shape of the roof was determined by an algorithm generating
the optimum structural solution. Since this type of structural
analysis resembles the growth of patterns of plants which
keep transforming following simple natural rules, we call the
process evolution. Several hundred such evolutionary cycles
produced the nal shape. The curved line becomes landscape,
in line with the edge silhouette of the surrounding mountains.
Four structural cores and twelve cone columns with built-in
rainwater collection pipes are positioned evenly under the roof
structure. Ceremonial spaces are placed between the cores and
columns. The smooth roof line also articulates the ceiling of the
interior. Indirect light softly illuminates the curved ceiling and
spreads in all directions with expressive nuances of light.
Toyo Ito and Associates
 issue 10 Meiso no Mori Crematorium

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Ito has sought to dematerialize all sense

of formal structure by oating a vast undulating
shell over the landscapeit stands as a calm,
contemplative place in which to observe
the rituals of cremation and honour the dead.

03

01 05
07 09 10
02 04 06
08

East-west section

01 dry area
02 control room
03 furnace equipment room
04 furnace room
05 hall
06 valedictory room
07 entrance hall
08 wind break room
09 pavement
10 drive way

North-south section
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Project Meiso no Mori Crematorium

Location Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Architect Toyo Ito and Associates
Project team Toyo Ito, Takeo Higashi, Leo Yokata,
Zai Shirakawa, Takayasu Hirayama
Structural engineer Sasaki Structural Consultants
Mechanical Engineers Kankyo Engineering Inc
Landscape Design Professor Mikiko Ishikawa
Builder Toda, Ichikawa & Tentyu in joint venture
Photographer Shinkenchiku-sha