In-between, Hinoki + Sugi Pavilion / x-studio

Architect: x-studio
Location: Kamiyama, Myozai District, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
Architect In Charge: Ivan Juarez
Area: 30.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Ivan Juarez

Construction: comunidad local de Kamiyama (voluntarios) + Ivan Juarez
Project Manager: Mori San
Curadora: Keiko Kudo
Collaborator: Green Valley + KAIR

Text description provided by the architects. Ivan Juarez of x-studio has conceived a new approach to the natural landscape of Oawa mountain, a protected and sacred forest located in the town of Kamiyama, Japan. The region is covered by evergreen woodland where the predominant vegetation includes trees of hinoki 檜-Japanese cypress- and sugi 杉-Japanese cedar-. In-between pavilion consists of a sugi wooden space generated from two elevated planes supported by a series of vertical elements -trunks of hinoki and sugi- that merge together with the natural environment.

The wide frame suggests a fragment of the forest as a new viewpoint of reference. In this way, the pavilion pays homage to the traditional black-ink Japanese paintings made on landscape formats.

The project is drawn as a space that does not end in specific limits, but merges with the surrounding vegetation expanding the visual boundaries transforming into a large three-dimensional canvas. The visitor enters through a blue-green stone – awa aoishi 青石