Spoon & Tamago - japanese art, design and culture

Every now and then we come across a work of architecture that makes us desperately want to uproot our city dwellings and relocate into the mountains. This stunning glass and wood cabin, recently completed in mountainous Japan, is one of those times.

The project was completed late in 2016, and was designed as a vacation home for a family that lives in the city. Titled “One Year Project,” it was spearheaded by architect Kotaro Anzai, who heads up the architecture firm Life Style Koubou.

The elevated structure prevents residents from becoming snowed in

The cabin is located at the foot of Mt. Bandai (Fukushima prefecture), a popular vacation spot that’s dotted with resorts. The cabin’s unique, elevated structure was informed by the region’s heavy snowfall, which typically sees about 6.5 ft of snow. An outdoor bridge connects “wet” (bathroom, kitchen) and “dry” (living room, bedroom) areas. This way only one of the structures required plumbing.

In many ways the home was intended to have a neutral impact on the environment. Only locally harvested wood was used for the project. The construction process began not with the foundation, but with the felling of trees, and took exactly 1 year, ending with the final step of planting and replacing trees in order to restore the environment. This is where the project gets its name.

the slanted columns mimic the surrounding trees

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