Maishima Incineration Plant

An incineration plant on the artificial island of Maishima in Osaka Bay, designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1997 as a condition of his involvement: no straight lines, maximum colour. The result is a pyrotechnic piece of architecture with a gold-and-blue onion dome, ceramic mosaic towers, wavy facades, and rooftop plantings — a building that looks entirely wrong for its purpose and entirely right as a piece of urban spectacle.

Hundertwasser believed that industrial buildings imposed psychic harm on communities by their ugliness, and this plant was his demonstration that useful infrastructure could also be a gift to the city. Tours of the interior are available and can be booked through the city's waste management bureau. The facility actually processes waste, so tour availability depends on the operational schedule. Viewable from the outside at any time from the access roads.

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The Maishima Incineration Plant — designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser — looks less like a garbage disposal facility and more like a collaboration between Gaudi and Wonka. Hundertwasser designed it in 1997 on the condition that it have no straight lines; the result is an explosion of gold and coloured ceramic spirals, undulating walls, and a golden onion dome visible from the highway. Around 12,000 people visit each year, most of them accidentally while looking for something else.

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