House of the Sacred Rock
Many distinct remnants of mountain worship are still much evident in northern Kyoto, where Yamazumi Shrine, which deifies a rock where a mountain god descends and dwells, and many temples with garden that harness the scenery of Mt. Hiei and worship it from afar exist. The people who live in this area today also admire and look to Mt. Hiei to read weather and seasonal changes. Hence, we decided to create a garden and space that draw the sensibility and behavior of the people in this region toward the mountain.As the site is located in a densely residential area, we provided views and sunlight for each room through a courtyard. A mound was created using the soil excavated for the foundation to prevent the bedrooms and dining room from viewing each other, and also to reflect sunlight into each room. In the center of the garden, a sacred rock where a god dwells was dedicated. While the rock has a very material presence, it also has transcendency as a sacred space.With the sacred rock in the center, the garden thus became a modeled scenery of Mt. Hiei. Plants of smaller scale such as haircap moss, enkianthus perulatus, and ruscus bamboo provide additional depth to the perspective. Also, by increasing density of the garden below the eye level when sitting, we elicit the behavior of lowering eyelids to have the eyes half-closed. This is the natural eye level when practicing seated Zen meditation and a state of contemplating the inside of one’s mind and outside world simultaneously. When opening the entrance hall door that leads to the living-dining room, a cedar log with partial roots standing straight and just slightly to the left of the center, drawing you to the sacred rock on the right.Many distinct remnants of mountain worship are still much evident in northern Kyoto, where Yamazumi Shrine, which deifies a rock where a mountain god descends and dwells, and many temples with garden that harness the scenery of Mt. Hiei and worship it from afar exist. The people who live in this area today also admire and look to Mt. Hiei to read weather and seasonal changes. Hence, we decided to create a garden and space that draw the sensibility and behavior of the people in this region toward the mountain.When the log rafters made of Kitayama cedar trees that descend like eyelashes synchronize with half-closed eyes, time and space instantly warp. The Japanese maple transforms to clouds, the cedar moss to a cedar forest, and one transcends scale to float in the sky above Mt. Hiei. As a place for spirits to travel to, mountains are thought to be the Pure Land in Buddhism and Mandala in mountain asceticism-shamanism. As the origin of garden is said to be a place for worship, the garden embodies a virtual experience aiming for such world, a landscape of peace characterized by enlightenment and nirvana.☯
Ribbon Chapel
The chapel is midway on a hill enjoying a panoramic view of Seto Inland Sea of Japan. Mainly used for weddings, the chapel stands in a garden of a resort hotel, “BellaVista SPA&MARINA ONOMICHI,” in Onomichi, Hiroshima.A wedding chapel is originally a building type that consists of passage. The aisle a bride walks down with her father becomes the departing passage for the bride and groom, and along the way is filled with profound memory and emotion.By entwining two spiral stairways, we realized a self-supporting structure that architecturally embodies the act of marriage in a pure form. Fortunately, in this chapel, the ceremony also takes form as the bride and groom climb separate stairways to meet at the top, ask for heaven’s forgiveness to join as one, and declare their marriage. The two who used to walk separate paths unite as one at the top, and descend the stairway together. It is essentially an architecture purely composed of flow of movement.
Sayama Lakeside Cemetery Community Hall
This cemetery is located in the lush forests of the Sayama hills. The community hall stands midway on a slope above the city. We gathered the service-related rooms in a central, reinforced-concrete core and arranged the visitor lounge and dining rooms around the core on a circular plan open to the exterior. Surrounding the building with a tranquil reflecting pool, resonant with nearby Lake Sayama, we located the parking and other miscellaneous functions out of view.When people were in sorrow that couldn't be comforted by words, they thought what they could do in the space, and aimed to build an architecture that gently supports their behavior. The site is in the midst of a beautiful landscape, but the eave is deliberately 1.35m above the inner floor, in line with the eyes of people who tend to get depressed. A bench that rests your tired mind and body awaits you as you walk into nature and the window by being invited to the lower eaves. If you sit down, you can see the scenery far away. Beyond the eaves, you can think of distant memories beyond the Sayama forest, hills and cityscape. Speaking with the deceased begins in a quiet time. In response, changes in the wind, clouds, and sunlight appear above the head as water ripples and sunbeams, reverberating in the room like a message from an individual.There was no downlight in the break room, and the illuminance constantly changed depending on the reflected light from the basin and the sunlight from the high side. I wanted to express the ever-changing beauty of the world for those who live in the future while thinking about the deceased and talking with the deceased.
Balloon Glass Office
This is a 1,500 square-meter office where the personnel of four group companies specialized in IT business system architecture, gather to work in one space. Because more group companies are expected to participate, hereafter, and because the number of personnel continually varies for each company, we chose a one-room space for maximum flexibility. The four companies’ personnel, while sharing a kitchen, café tables, and small conference rooms, can intermix and communicate, generating an overall sense of integration. Designers working in the office’s spaces can trail green ivy across the LGS ceiling and hang objects from it, and otherwise create what is for them, a comfortable space. The aim was to promote a mood of creativity with spaces that appear as if still under construction.So as not to impede visibility in the overall space, we housed the large conference room in a transparent glass membrane. The glass was produced using three-dimensional heat-shaping technology, by artisans who produce windshields for Shinkansen high-speed train cockpits. The resulting conference room has a lively mood, as if the heat of the discussion were inflating the room, balloon-likeThe round, 4m-diameter table seating 16 people, like the round table of King Arthur’s knights, grants equal status to all personnel present. By giving the table a slight 8mm gradient toward its center, moreover, those attending naturally bend forward as they sit, a posture that motivates them to participate actively in the discussion. We have created an office where the personnel of the group companies can take pride in their work and gather together to unite their strengths.☯
Roku Museum
This is a private art museum situated in suburbs of Tochigi, Japan. The collection by the owner’s deceased father mainly consisted of figurative paintings of natural environment such as forests. Because the owner desired a museum with a parlor-like mood that local people could casually visit, we proposed of creating a park-like place. First, we visited nearby mountains with a local gardener to determine the trees to plant and their orientations prior to the design of the museum. We planned to plant the trees in a grid formation so the branches would not overlap while evenly filling the sky. We then measured each tree three-dimensionally, modelled them on a computer program, and designed the building that snuggly fit between the trees using the data. The pre-measured branch is taken in as a view from the picture window.For instance, the entrance has a ceiling height where one would duck to enter. Just as a “nijiri-guchi,” crawl-through doorway of a teahouse causes people to bow and induces a mood of modesty, here too, visitors slightly lower their heads and recall their simpler being, allowing them to be immersed in the art viewing. While the gallery space is a white cube so the visitors can focus on the small paintings, the ceiling reflects the shape of the surrounding trees. The interior has many intimate spaces in which the human body, architecture, and trees nestle close to each other.In the café, the same behaviors that can be seen in a natural environment, such as resting under the tree branches in order to avoid the sunlight or rain. It is an art museum where one can enjoy the art as if walking through a forest by avoiding branches and resting under tree shadows.
Coconca
This is a renovation plan of a store for “coconca,” a new brand by Fujiiya, a venerable maker of momiji manju (maple leaf-shaped Japanese confections) in Miyajima of Hiroshima Prefecture, a small island in the Seto Inland Sea that is known as one of the most scenic places in Japan. The store is located in a shopping district between Miyajimaguchi station and the ferry terminal to Miyajima. For the feeling of the anticipation of heading to Miyajima, the façade comprises 1,630 glass tiles, expressing the glittering waves of the Seto Inland Sea. The front half of the existing building that faces the street was removed and replaced with a lush green garden. The architecture has the atmospheric presence of a mountain dwelling in the city. Wavy tiles are laid on end in the ground and spread to evoke the open sea while the native plants of Miyajima continue like the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.On the first floor, the open kitchen allows people to see the making of confections and creates a proximity between the makers and customers.
