On the small island of Inujima in Japan, where industrial ruins and traditional village life coexist, SANAA’s F-Art House emerges as an understated yet transformative architectural gesture.
Developed as part of the Inujima Art House Project, this initiative seeks to weave contemporary art into the fabric of everyday life, embedding exhibition pavilions within the island’s residential landscape. Unlike the grand historical framing of Seirensho, this project dissolves the boundary between art and the lived environment, inviting a dialogue between past and present, materiality and ephemerality.
Led by Kazuyo Sejima in collaboration with art director Yuko Hasegawa, F-Art House and its accompanying galleries—S-Art House and I-Art House—meld seamlessly with the island’s vernacular, using lightweight materials and glass to foster transparency and permeability. The architecture, while contemporary, is deferential to its surroundings, allowing light, air, and landscape to flow through. With site-specific works by Yukinori Yanagi and others, the project activates a fluid relationship between art, architecture, and community, subtly revitalizing the village without overwhelming its delicate scale.
Since its inception in 2010, the project has expanded, with A-Art House and C-Art House joining in 2013, furthering the vision of an inhabited art space. By embedding these pavilions within the existing urban fabric, SANAA challenges conventional exhibition formats, proposing an alternative model of engagement where art does not merely reside in isolated institutions but coexists with daily life. The F-Art House is not simply a gallery; it is a quiet but radical reimagining of how architecture and art can recalibrate human interaction with place.
