Learning

On the northern tip of Shikoku Island, surrounded by the Seto Inland Sea, is Mt. Yashima, a peninsula with historical significance for Japan. This scenic locale hosts Shikoku Mura, a leading open-air architectural museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing traditional houses from the Shikoku region. Our challenge was to redesign its entrance, transforming it into a new focal point complete with information spaces, ticketing, restrooms, and a shop—all while symbolizing renewal. The site was a parking lot elevated above the main access road, loosely connecting a shrine to the east, the museum’s udon restaurant within a traditional house (Waraya) to the south, and an old Western-style house (Ijinkan) to the west. To the north, leading the visitor deep into the museum grounds, is Nagarezaka, a stone road by sculptor Masayuki Nagare. 

On the northern tip of Shikoku Island, surrounded by the Seto Inland Sea, is Mt. Yashima, a peninsula with historical significance for Japan. This scenic locale hosts Shikoku Mura, a leading open-air architectural museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing traditional houses from the Shikoku region. Our challenge was to redesign its entrance, transforming it into a new focal point complete with information spaces, ticketing, restrooms, and a shop—all while symbolizing renewal. The site was a parking lot elevated above the main access road, loosely connecting a shrine to the east, the museum’s udon restaurant within a traditional house (Waraya) to the south, and an old Western-style house (Ijinkan) to the west. To the north, leading the visitor deep into the museum grounds, is Nagarezaka, a stone road by sculptor Masayuki Nagare. 

The project site is located in Hengxi Town, Yinzhou District, Ningbo. To the west and south of the site are thousands of acres of rice fields operated by the Puluo Farm. To the east and north are hilly terrains with bamboo forests. The eastern mountainous area is planned for a hotel campsite, with tents nestled among the bamboo forests. On the western slope, the original agricultural warehouse location is designed as the public area of the campsite hotel. The grouping is oriented towards the fields, with the bamboo forest at its back, creating a complementary scene with the camp on the eastern side.

When planning the Mindszentyneum, the goal from the beginning was to create an open, inclusive building, that continues the socially sensitive approach to urban development, which was left to us by the ancestors of the city, including the namesake József Mindszenty, the later Archbishop of Esztergom. Behind the structure that falls on the facade as a strict veil, open spaces both horizontally and vertically welcome the visitor and create a connection between the disjointed neighborhoods, building parts, and functions.

The new Erlebnis-Hus in St. Peter-Ording marks the culmination of the expanded beach promenade as part of a landscape project that emerged from a competition win in collaboration with the landscape architects Uniola. It aims to serve visitors of all ages and backgrounds as an inclusive meeting point, deeply rooted at a local level in both form and function, while radiating a strong regional identity.

KAAN Architecten was commissioned by the American Battle Monuments Commission to design a Visitor Center for the only American Cemetery on Dutch soil. Guided by the landscape setting and the monumental atmosphere of the site, the building complements the serenity of this vast memorial.

The transformation of the space for the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House is based on two main ideas.