Trees for the Earth. Let’s get planting — Earth Day Theme for 2016

After inserting the Miho Museum building in the beautiful mountain site, I.M.Pei wanted to replace the mountain along with 7,000 trees and other plantings. And, he did. 

The Miho Museum is located in southeast of Kyoto, Japan.

Photo source: Archdaily 

In 1991, I.M. Pei accepted the commission from Mrs. Koyama. When Pei saw the mountainous location that the Miho Museum would be, Mr. Pei recalled a classic Chinese poetry entitled the “Peach Blossom Spring” written by Tao Yuan Ming in the 4th century. Pei’s idea was to bring the joy of discovering the Peach Blossom to visitors at their arrival.

Challenges:

The most formidable difficulties was providing access to the mountainous site. The next one was to accommodate the 187,500 sq ft of space and to preserve the landscape of the mountains.

Solution:

Pei decided to provide a theatrical sense of arrival using a combination of a 660 ft tunnel dug through an adjacent mountain and a 400…