Sendai Mediatheque

A civic media building organised around open floors and structural tubes.

The project, in context

Opened in January 2001, Toyo Ito’s mediatheque combines library, exhibition and media functions. Its tube-like structural elements allow different activities to occupy broad floor plates behind a transparent urban façade.

What to look for

1. 01

   Mixed civic programmes

2. 02

   Tube-like structural elements

3. 03

   Transparent street edge