The Simose Art Museum in Otake Hiroshima is home to around 500 works of art in the personal collection of Yumiko Shimose, president of Marui Sangyo Corporation. The museum’s motto is “admire art, inside art”. Its buildings – exhibition spaces, the gardens, garden villas and a restaurant – and their composition in a garden landscape are themselves works of art. An important part of this integration into a Gesamtkunstwerk has been contributed by architect Shigeru Ban, winner of the 2014 Pritzker Prize. Eight floating exhibition spaces designed by him create a context for historically significant works of art. And in the form of the Simose Art Waterfront Kielsteg Villas, the architect has installed inhabitable works of art. With persuasive simplicity, Shigeru Ban developed not only the entire loadbearing structure, but also, equally, the formal expression of the villas, from Kielsteg. This involves completely new uses of the material.