Osaka Maritime Museum, Maritime museum in Osaka Bay, Japan
The Osaka Maritime Museum was a museum in Osaka Bay dedicated to maritime history and culture. It sat inside a glass hemisphere dome that rose 40 meters above the water, and visitors reached the exhibition halls through a 60-meter underwater tunnel that opened into the main space below.
The museum opened in July 2000 after construction started in March 1998. French architect Paul Andreu designed the structure with a glass dome resting on the water and connected to shore through an underwater passage.
The museum displayed a 30-meter model of a higaki-kaisen cargo ship, illustrating the trade routes that connected Osaka to other ports during the Edo period. Visitors could walk around the vessel and see the wooden hull and sail construction up close, representing the type of craft that carried goods along Japan's coasts centuries ago.
The museum was reached through the underwater tunnel accessible from the shore, leading directly into the exhibition halls. The four floors surrounded the central ship model and offered different sections focused on Japan's maritime history and trade.
The dome's glass panels were designed with varying hole densities to filter sunlight according to the time of day and season. Engineers developed special solutions to protect the structure from earthquakes and wave loads, since the dome rested directly on the water surface.
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