Escaping seeking the forest protection. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects
25/08/2021.
[Rankoshi - Hokkaido] Japan
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
The architecture studio Florian Busch Architects, based in Tokyo, has designed a house on a three-hectare plot in a forest near a ski resort in Niseko, at Hokkaido, northern Japan, whose program unfolds between the trees, as if it was the branches of a tree.
Named "House In The Forest", the house is clad in cedar and raised off the ground by stilts. The homeowners wanted a place where they could escape of density, hustle and bustle of the city, find the tranquility of the forest, and spend time together as a family.
Named "House In The Forest", the house is clad in cedar and raised off the ground by stilts. The homeowners wanted a place where they could escape of density, hustle and bustle of the city, find the tranquility of the forest, and spend time together as a family.
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects. Photograph by FBA
Floor plan. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects.
Branch views. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects.
Elevations. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects.
Elevations and floor plan. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects.
Floor plan with dimensions. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects.
Model. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects.
Model. House in the Forest by Florian Busch Architects.
The house designed by Florian Busch Architects has 230 square meters branching horizontally to accommodate and dialogue with the trees. More than a house, it is the search for a time within and with the forest.
"Moving through the house is moving through the forest. As our views keep changing from far to near, the forest is both distant background and tactile environment. The end of each branch is cut open. The closer we move to the extremes (the end of the branches), the more we are drawn into the forest."
Project description by Florian Busch Architects
This project begins with close to three hectares of barely touched forest. Only a short distance from Niseko’s ski slopes, the silence here is the antithesis of the vacation bustle that has turned several of the renown ski area’s towns into a haphazard sprawl of increasingly suburban dimensions.
Solitude
Enchanted by the beauty of the region but disturbed by this relentlessly encroaching pseudo-suburbia, the owners, a large family, are seeking escape in the forest’s solitude. Consequentially, the brief is not for a house but for a time in and with the forest.
Trees
The site is an almost perfect square with 160-metre-long edges, filled with tall pine trees. As we approach, a mound prevents any views into the site: The only access, a small rural road running along the northern boundary, was lowered many years ago. After we climb up this mound, we stand between the trees. A gentle slope leads down towards the south for about 100 metres before the top of a steep acclivity demarcates the site’s southern border. About half-way in, there’s a clearing at the site’s western boundary.
Instinct
Moving between the trees evokes curiosity. We are probing the surroundings. Every subtle movement changes the depth of our perception. The clearing that we have discovered is the site’s only place where the distance turns the trees into an abstract background. Yet instead of placing the building in the middle of the clearing (which would result in 360 degrees of background), we keep meandering between the trees at the edge to the clearing, protected by the trees around us.
Forest
The building branches out horizontally. Moving through the house is moving through the forest. As our views keep changing from far to near, the forest is both distant background and tactile environment.
The end of each branch is cut open. The closer we move to the extremes (the end of the branches), the more we are drawn into the forest. While the protection of the inside separates us physically from the experience of the forest, the focus and scale of the windows to the forest intensifies it. We are sitting in the forest.
In the house’s central spine, this focus of selection is replaced by a multi-faceted instantaneity. As a multitude of views of the forest around us are filling the space, the original experience inside the forest is always present.
Dialogue
The House in the Forest is not about a fixed form but an ever-changing dialogue with the forest. The eventually built is merely the result in a process of probing and responding to the surroundings to create a place where the family can be both together and by themselves, where they can become part of the forest.
More information
Architects
Design team
Florian Busch, Sachiko Miyazaki, Mayo Shigemura, Luca Marulli, Tenesha Caton, Max Duval.
Collaborators
Structural Engineering.- OAK (Masato Araya, Takayuki Fujimoto).
Contractor
Wakisaka Corporation.
Area
GFA.- 230 m².
Dates
2017-2020.
Location
Rankoshi, Hokkaido, Japan.
Photography
FBA.
FLORIAN BUSCH ARCHITECTS
Florian Busch Architects is an office practicing architecture and urbanism. Based in Tokyo, FBA draws on a worldwide network of experts accumulating several decades of experience in the field of building. Founder and owner Florian Busch studied architecture in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. From 2004 until 2008 he worked for Toyo Ito & Associates. FBA are licensed architects in Japan (一級建築士事務所 東京都知事登録第56523号) and Germany (183.537).
2003, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London: Master in Architecture and Urbanism. 2001, Bauhaus University Weimar: Diplom-Ingenieur Architektur.
