Gold Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design · 2025
Takanabe Ninomaru Historic Museum
- A' Design Award 2025 Gold Winner in Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Takanabe Town Hall
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 76,305
- Verification code CE8192242D · Verify this award
About Takanabe Ninomaru Historic Museum
Takanabe Historical Museum, established in 1986, was reimagined to address declining visitor engagement due to outdated exhibits. The redesign embraced JIN, the philosophy of benevolence, transforming it into a cultural and educational hub fostering civic pride. Through visual storytelling and spatial design, the renewal introduced thematic curation, immersive exhibitions, and layered acrylic panels symbolizing historical continuity. Renamed Ninomaru History Museum, it now serves as an interactive space where heritage, education, and community connect.
The installation environment created for Takanabe Ninomaru Historic Museum represents a distinguished contribution to contemporary heritage interpretation design, demonstrating how spatial graphics and environmental typography can transform archival documentation into compelling experiential narrative. This exhibition design appears to engage thoughtfully with the challenge of presenting historical lineage and biographical information within a format that respects both traditional commemorative conventions and contemporary museum visitor expectations. The designer seems to have made deliberate choices regarding chromatic intensity, selecting a saturated red palette that carries significant cultural resonance within heritage contexts while maintaining sufficient visual authority to command attention within the industrial exhibition space. The integration of traditional calligraphic forms alongside contemporary typographic treatments suggests a considered approach to bridging temporal distances, honoring historical subjects through familiar visual languages while asserting the relevance of this heritage to present-day audiences. The vertical banner format evokes ceremonial standards and processional traditions, transforming the gallery into a space of commemoration that invites measured, contemplative movement through the installation. Particularly noteworthy is the relationship established between the suspended graphic elements and the architectural container, where exposed ceiling infrastructure and reflective flooring create productive dialogue between raw contemporary materiality and refined historical content. The central white column functions as both wayfinding anchor and tonal relief, providing visual respite that allows the surrounding chromatic intensity to register more effectively. Viewers might consider how the design choices establish relationships between past and present, between individual historical figures and collective cultural memory, and between documentation and spatial experience. What does it mean to walk among these suspended testimonies to historical presence, and how does the physical act of navigation through the installation shape understanding of the narratives presented?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This design centers on the concept of a history of benevolence, creating a space that visually and intuitively conveys the region's heritage through storytelling. Located on the historic site of Takanabe Castle, the museum was renamed and redesigned as a cultural hub to rediscover the town's uniqueness and foster civic pride. From curation and visual identity to signage and narrative design, the space was fully reimagined to serve as an educational and inspiring environment.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Scale:
Site area: 7,763 meter square
Building area: 904.43 meter square
1st floor area: 461.58 meter square
2nd floor area: 442.85 meter square - Tags
- historical museum, cultural heritage, exhibition design, storytelling, visual identity, graphic design, spatial design, civic engagement, SDGs
- Production Technology
- This exhibition uses graphic and spatial design to make history visually engaging. The entrance features a concept display with a tagline, while the first exhibition room includes zoning signs with symbolic designs. The second exhibition presents Takanabe Domain's history, the Meirindo school, and the 7th lord Akizuki Taneshige's SDGs-related policies. At the center, acrylic panels display successive lords and their policies, with a red gradient symbolizing historical continuity.
- Design Challenge
- The biggest challenge of this project was creating an engaging exhibition with limited historical materials and budget. From a historical and social perspective, extensive document research and discussions with experts were conducted to highlight the region's uniqueness, shaping the exhibition narrative around the culture of human development. As large-scale renovations were not feasible, we utilized graphic and spatial design to create a visually compelling and immersive exhibition.
- Project Duration
- The project began in autumn 2023 in Miyazaki, Japana and finished in December 2024.
- Operation Flow
- This exhibition utilizes visual storytelling to help visitors intuitively understand the region's history. The layout is designed for a sequential experience, guiding visitors through zoned spaces categorized by theme and era, ensuring a natural flow of information. The design creates an immersive experience where history is learned through narratives, while layered acrylic panels symbolize temporal connections, resulting in a visually engaging and easily comprehensible exhibition.
- Research
- This study aimed to revitalize a historical museum through design and narrative. The objective was to enhance visitor engagement, promote cultural heritage preservation, and foster civic pride. The methodology included comparative studies of museums and interviews with historians. We introduced content curation and visual solutions. By highlighting the region's unique history of human development, we proposed a narrative-driven exhibition design, enhancing historical understanding.
- Inspiration
- This project was inspired by the need to revitalize a declining local region by restoring its historical museum. Established in 1986 under the Akizuki domain, the museum's outdated exhibits led to a decline in visitor engagement. With the town's rich history in education and culture, revitalizing its significance was crucial. The goal was to transform the museum into a cultural hub where people can learn, connect, and take pride in their heritage and traditions.
- Image Credits
- Illustrations: Tomohiro Kaji
Image #1-#5: Photographer Kai Kanno (Nacasa & Partners)
Colors of Takanabe Ninomaru Historic Museum
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Strategic Branding and Exhibition Design
We transform brands and cultural spaces through strategic design. Our award-winning expertise spans global branding, visual storytelling, and spatial experiences. From brand identity to museum exhibitions, we create compelling narratives that connect audiences with heritage, products, and ideas.
G0E23 ShopGrand Interview about Takanabe Ninomaru Historic Museum
Philosophical Foundation: JINThe project established JIN (benevolence), a Confucian virtue, as its central philosophical framework. Rooted in the ethical principles of the Akizuki clan that once governed Takanabe, this concept aimed not merely to restore the physical structure but to reconstruct the civic and moral values embedded within the region’s historical context. By integrating JIN into spatial composition and information design, the project re-contextualized historical ethics as a contemporary civic principle, transforming an abstract virtue into a tangible social form through design.
Acrylic Panels and the Red GradientThe acrylic panels depicting successive lords and their policies were designed to visualize the temporal continuity inherited across generations. Through the use of transparent acrylic with a red gradient, the design enables visitors to perceive the accumulation of time as overlapping layers of varying density. This visual system allows history to be understood not as a collection of discrete events but as an interconnected chain of succession and transformation. The gradation of color symbolizes the deepening of collective memory over time.
Exhibition Design under ConstraintsFaced with limited archival materials and a restricted budget, the project emphasized narrative construction through graphic and spatial design. Controlled use of light, texture, and typographic hierarchy allowed for an immersive experience without dependence on artifact volume. Minimal visual language and rhythmic sequencing compensated for material scarcity, promoting intellectual focus and emotional engagement. This approach demonstrates how spatial semiotics can serve as an effective interpretive strategy in heritage presentation.
Balancing Historical Authenticity and Contemporary InterpretationThe design sought to preserve historical authenticity while ensuring accessibility for contemporary audiences. Rather than reproducing traditional motifs or materials, the design extracted and restructured their underlying geometries and compositional rhythms. The combination of wood and acrylic materials symbolizes permanence and transparency—representing a dialogue between the past and the present. This dual structure allows the museum to function both as a site of preservation and as a civic platform for reconstructing local identity.
Influence of Creative Direction ExperiencePrior experience in brand and communication design informed the exhibition framework. Methods such as structural hierarchy, editorial rhythm, and narrative sequencing were applied to ensure coherence across graphic, spatial, and textual layers. The exhibition was organized as a narrative structure—introduction, development, and reflection—allowing educational content to be received as both intellectual and affective experience.
Zoning and Spatial Sequence (Revised)The spatial composition was designed as a two-level structure: the first floor dedicated to historical archives and the second to narrative exhibition. The first level introduces factual materials and chronological data, while the second transitions visitors into a more immersive, story-driven experience through graphics, video, and installations. The zoning of themes—policy, education, and community—was based on a psychological progression from observation to emotional immersion and comprehension. Subtle thresholds were introduced along the circulation path, enabling understanding through spatial rhythm rather than textual explanation.
Akizuki Taneshige’s Governance and the SDGsResearch on the seventh lord, Akizuki Taneshige, revealed governance principles consistent with contemporary sustainability values, such as forest management, public education, and equitable water distribution. These policies were compared with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting structural parallels between early modern administration and present sustainability frameworks. Infographics were employed to visualize these correspondences, presenting historical governance as a prototype for sustainable regional management.
Implications for Other Cultural InstitutionsThe project demonstrates that regional museums can achieve revitalization through clear narrative frameworks and participatory processes, even under economic constraints. Collaboration among historians, designers, and municipal officials redefined the museum from a static preservation site to a communicative cultural infrastructure. This case provides a model for integrating heritage conservation with community engagement, positioning design as a medium for cultural regeneration.
Future DevelopmentFuture plans envision the museum as an interdisciplinary platform connecting education, regional culture, and industry. The focus will shift from quantitative expansion of exhibits to qualitative deepening through participatory programs. Collaborations with local producers and educational institutions will link the exhibition to regional economies and cultural practices, ensuring its sustainability as a dynamic public resource that continues to generate relevance over time.
Archival Discoveries and Their ImpactArchival research uncovered letters from local farmers expressing gratitude for Akizuki’s administrative reforms. These documents provide primary evidence of the reciprocal relationship between governance and community. Incorporating these materials reoriented the exhibition from a ruler-centered narrative to one that includes the perspective of ordinary citizens. This reframing introduced the concept of mutual recognition as a foundation for social cohesion, offering a new interpretive model for historical exhibitions.