PRIZES
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Experimental Technology Prize
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Bartlett School of Architecture Medal, BSc
PROJECT STATEMENT
The relationship between man and nature, psyches and gardens, the wild and the curated, comes together in the ‘Garden of Rebirth’, capturing it through a laborious but healing process of drawing and flow state (a spiritual discipline in itself).
The site is Aokigahara, the suicide forest, known for its unusual geography and abandoned objects. A garden is constructed in this forest of death, to transform the forest into a growing garden of the everyday. It is a building that never ends and grows; to be stood for all of eternity.
As a hybrid between a garden, monastery and hotel, the building records the passing of time. Maintained by the gardener, the garden also acts as a refuge for visitors and lost souls that wander in the forest seeking an end – a place for the dead and the living to exchange moments.
The building is informed by the pine trees in the forest, with technical investigation into the study of shaping trees; pleaching and grafting to construct desired elements; harvesting furniture as a self-sustained structure; and exploring notions of the evanescence of life and the essence of Zen.
PRECEDENTS & THEMES
THE GROWING DRAWING & JAPANESE TEMPLES
SHAPING TREES
TECH EXPERIMENTS: SHAPING SAPLINGS
A GROWING BUILDING
BUILDING SYSTEMS
TECH DETAILS
FINAL DRAWINGS COLLECTION
Growing Drawings and Simultaneous Timelines
Exploring the idea of architecturising nature through a growing drawing (top) and isometric drawing (bottom) with different timelines occurring simultaneously.
Plan and Section
Embracing the forest and the trees surrounding the building.
Allusion to Time and Growth: Detail Series
A series of detail drawings demonstrate the building’s growth over time.
Key Sections: Main Building and Cells
Grafted trees support the building. Spirits enter the top floor with falling petals dancing in the wind. Paper fortunes connect the large sacred tree to the cells.
Inhabiting the Trees and Framing the Landscape
The Grand Hall’s interior space in juxtaposition with the building sitting in the forest.