Riffing on the traditional shoji screen, Shigeru Ban adores architecture with moving parts. Among other things, the Pritzker Prize–winning Japanese architect has created rooms that roll, facades that retract like garage doors, and sail-shaped solar panels that rotate. Pushing that concept in a new direction, his Simose Museum in Hiroshima Prefecture features eight floating galleries, each one a different color. Inspired by the small islands dotting the Seto Inland Sea in front of the site, they can be unmoored and repositioned, enabling not just the rearrangement of the art but of the building itself.

A mirrored glass wall running along the side of the museum's fixed gallery space reflects the surrounding landscape. Photo © Hiroyuki Hirai