Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban – All photos by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

Architecture. The Japanese city of Toyota is best known for its extensive automotive factories. Yet it is also blessed with luxurious nature and a rich cultural heritage, which is now celebrated in the new Toyota City Museum, designed by Shigeru Ban Architects.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

The Pritzker Prize-winning architect used wooden architecture crafted from locally sourced cedar wood to minimise CO2 emissions. A distinctive 90-metre-long roof supported by tapered, asterisk-shaped columns extends beyond a floor-to-ceiling glazed facade to create a sheltered outdoor porch.

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Shigeru Ban drew inspiration from Toyota City’s emblem—two overlapping V-shaped arrows—and integrated symbolic elements into its architectural features. The underside of the roof features a skylight that casts an emblem-like shadow during the summer solstice, providing a visual connection to the city’s identity.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

A screen of tall, evergreen white oak trees separates the museum from the adjacent Museum of Art, a modernist glass and metal masterpiece completed by Yoshio Taniguchi in 1995. The city’s plan initially didn’t allow for a connection between the two cultural venues, placing it on a disconnected plot. Shigeru Ban seized the opportunity to combine them, creating one museum zone.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

“By positioning the new museum parallel to the other and echoing its facade and proportions, the Japanese architect made both cultural venues more accessible to visitors, fostering a synergistic relationship.” Shigeru Ban told Archipanic.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

A rounded room wrapped with a curved ramp is at the museum’s core. Here, the permanent collection and artefacts originally planned for storage are displayed on a large glass-covered display rack in the middle of the exhibition space.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

The new Toyota City Museum is Japan’s first architecture to achieve the Net Zero Energy Building Ready certification. In addition to its environmental initiatives, it is also designed to be resilient. Indeed, the museum was designed to transform into a disaster relief centre. In the event of a calamity, a disaster headquarters can be established in the museum.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban: all photos are by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

Toyota City Museum by Shigeru Ban - Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.