Simose Art Museum in western Japan said Tuesday it has received this year's Prix Versailles award naming it the world's most beautiful museum.
The French world architecture and design awards, established in 2015, are announced annually at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The museum category was added this year, and the Japanese museum was nominated along with six others, including the A4 Art Museum in Chengdu, China, and the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt.
Simose Art Museum was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, winner of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the Nobel prize of architecture. It opened in 2023 in Otake, Hiroshima Prefecture, and displays works of French artist and designer Emile Galle, among others.
The museum has eight mobile galleries that can be rearranged to form different layouts depending on the exhibition.
The prize website introduces the structure as "galleries with walls made of colored glass that light up at night over the water of a reflecting pool."
"This symbolic scenery amplifies the physical scenery of the Seto Inland Sea with a nod to the beauty of the Setouchi Islands," it adds, mentioning the beachfront location of the museum.
"I believe the innovative approach, such as the mobile gallery floating on water and the wooden structure, was recognized. This was the first occasion I was given the chance to design freely, and I truly appreciate everyone involved," Ban said in a statement.
