Architects: Takayuki Kuzushima and Associates
Year: 2021
Photographs: Shingo Kanagawa
Lead Architects: Takayuki Kuzushima
City: Shizuoka
Country: Japan
Life and forms that blend in with nature.
The project site is surrounded by a mountain with large undulations, and is rich in nature. The site is lined with impressive trees such as plum trees, sarsaparilla, and maple trees. The owner planned to spend weekends here, and in the future, he would like to move here to run a farm.
They wanted to make minor improvements to the existing main house, demolish several shacks along the cliff, and build a new shack (agricultural warehouse).
The new hut was placed along the road surface. The location of the existing huts was difficult because they are located along a steep cliff, and it was also necessary to secure as much area as possible as a field on a flat site. The road is lined with a variety of trees, and we considered the shape of the flat surface and the height of the roof to avoid the trees.
To avoid damaging the roots of the trees as much as possible, the columns were planned with independent foundation legs, and the beams were connected at a height that would avoid overhanging the branches of the trees. The rafters are louvered in a continuous pattern, springing out from the post-and-beam frames.
The roof floats softly in response to the mountain range, passing under the tall trees and embracing the shrubs, and blending in with the trees. The under-roof space is divided by walls and lined up with five different spaces.
These are the approach to the building, a place to store farm equipment, a bench on the edge of a shaded area, a work space, and a space for drying out in the sun. Walking under the roof, the spatial composition is such that visitors move between the back and front sides of the five types of spaces.
The height of the roof is determined not only by dodging trees, but also by the use of space. For example, the approach is warped to welcome people, and the roof is raised to provide a large space for the work space.
Many of the secondary components are reused scrap wood from the dismantled shed. Flooring materials were used as partition walls, columns and joists were used as benches, and roof tiles were reused as flooring materials for the approach.
By using the waste materials, we thought that the new building would blend in with the landscape even though it is a new construction. The client and the design office did the DIY construction, and the structure is open to future use.
We planned this project while envisioning such a landscape where the client’s life and the architecture for nurturing that life would blend into nature. The architecture should have a direct relationship with nature. It is the appearance in a large landscape like a mountain, and the space created by each tree.
Building the architecture here was an affirmation of the existence of the beautiful satoyama and the trees in the garden.
