Hara Museum ARC is a branch museum of Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Located at the Green Farm in Ikaho, it is open during summer seasons. Surrounded by the vast and abundant nature at the foot of Mount Haruna, the building has a distinctive character, which is completely different from urban architecture in many aspects.
The museum consists of a gallery with a pyramid-shaped skylight at the center, with two rectangular gallery wings spread on both sides, and an entrance lobby, which is open like a loggia, connects the three galleries. The terrace occasionally becomes a stage for concerts and other open-air events. On such occasion audience can sit on the gently sloped ground at the front garden while the gallery wings become the background. The building is entirely constructed of wood because of the two reasons: the owner of the museum deals in timber; and due to the rural location of the site wood construction is permitted according to the building code.
The interior space, where works of contemporary art are on display, is entirely painted while. On the contrary the exterior walls and wood members at the lobby area are all stained black. The pyramid-shaped roof is finished with black slates and the vault roofs are finished with zinc sheets. The exterior is entirely colored black.
ARC Cafe was built as an annex to ARC, accommodating a museum shop and a cafe. The building is split in two levels on the lower side of the hill, and staff rooms and storage are accommodated on the lower level in front of car parking area. On the higher level the museum shop and the cafe are located, and a spacious open terrace is placed at the higher side of the hill, offering the best view of Mount Haruna. The building is basically combination of 6mX6m cubic units, with the same pyramid roof as the one used in ARC. The three units are placed in L-shape, and the pyramid roofs are connected at the top by the glass roof, indicating the relationship with ARC itself.