Forest Gardens at Oyunuma: A Landscape in Progress

4B Studio | Comprehensive Design Studio | 2018

Coordinator: Andrew Levitt, University of Waterloo

Many of Japan’s rural communities are becoming increasingly fragmented due to demographic change. As younger generations continue to move to urban centres such as Osaka and Tokyo, a disconnect is growing between Japan’s rural areas that are rich in heritage and the city. The lodge houses programs that attract people of all ages, which provides an increasingly rare opportunity for older and younger generations to interact. Activities relating to the production of food, cooking and preserving, as well as tending to the lodge farm and gardens inform the architecture and site strategy. Sustainable communities need opportunities where all members can come together with equal involvement. Japan’s rural areas, such as Oyunuma, are cultural landscapes in progress as Japan faces a future of unprecedented demographic change and resulting effects.

A meandering path winds down the sloping site, separating the site into gardens and architecture. Each garden is intended to evoke a different atmosphere through planting and texture that responds to the site. 

A large portion of the site area is dedicated to food production, with terraced vegetable and tea production, as well as traditional Japanese gardens. The three dispersed buildings on the site are linked by a productive trellis system that envelopes the architecture and creates a green buffer zone. 

These outdoor spaces and the trellis require daily maintenance, so it is proposed that visitors the lodge would be required to participate in farming and gardening activities as part of their experience. It is imagined that this would result in an educational and collective experience that would promote preservation of Japanese rural culture.  The trellis system is important to the passive strategies of the building. It becomes a shading device in summer when overgrown and a comfortable place to rest. Planting and production are further integrated in the building through greenhouses dispersed among the three buildings that house living machine biofiltration systems.