I might be 23 years late to the game, but when Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Appropriate Proportion” resurfaced on my feed recently, I couldn’t stop thinking about it or planning a trip to see it. Installed in 2002 as part of the Art House Project on Japan’s Naoshima Island, this work of architectural glass design bridges earth and heaven, turning a humble Shinto shrine into a meditation on light itself. Each translucent step seems to float, refracting sunlight into liquid geometry.

The installation transforms traditional architecture into a dialogue between weight and lightness. Stone, wood, and glass converge, joining the ancient and the modern, the tangible and the spiritual. Like the reflective installations in Outdoor Art with a Reflective Edge, Sugimoto’s work invites the viewer to pause between worlds.

Viewed from below, the staircase appears suspended in air, its surfaces melting into the surrounding landscape. Up close, it feels impossibly solid, proof that material can be both ethereal and grounded. More than two decades later, “Appropriate Proportion” still offers a physical meditation on stillness, structure, and the quiet precision of architectural glass design, showing how contemporary art can elevate traditional form.