The building is located by a forest and a stream. It is adjacent to the site's existing buildings, which are built in the old traditional Japanese style of timber architecture. The buildings we design are in contrast to this traditional architecture and nature. It is also a contrast between traditional and ancient timber structures and modern, powerful concrete structures. The design is designed not to disrupt the landscape of the site, keeping the height low and sloping along the sloping land.
The building was built along the river, so when building the foundation, special equipment had to be used to remove large rocks from the riverbed. Therefore, in order for the construction work to catch up, this is a rethinking of the design. We used large rocks in the landscape design to achieve a blend of landscape and architecture, while also saving a lot of construction time.
For the building materials, we chose a concrete structure to respond to the natural environment. For the sake of aesthetics, the structural columns and beams are made of 380 mm thick concrete. The building is surrounded by a large continuous space of 380 mm thick concrete. The thermal insulation of concrete makes the building warm in winter and cool in summer, without the need for air conditioning equipment.
The building's functional uses include creative studios, painting and pottery galleries, swimming pools, billiards rooms, and garages. Sometimes, it can also be used as a theater room or party space. Its functional space also changes over time. Large stones on the riverbed that had to be removed during construction were used in the landscape design. Therefore, the contrast between soft curved surfaces and sharp straight lines, the contrast between organic and artificial forms, the contrast between open space and closed space, and the contrast between dynamic and static give a deep impression. The aim of the design was to create a natural environment surrounded by a quiet forest and an ever-changing invisible stream in harmony with the man-made architecture.