In-Between: Hinoki + Sugi Pavilion | Kamiyama, Myozai District, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan | 2017

Architects: x-studio 
Client: KAIR Kamiyama
General Contractor: Local community of Kamiyama
Photographers: Ivan Juarez

The architects have 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.