Osaka & Awaji, October 15.
Japan is a nation of islands, and today was my first venture off of the main island of Honshu. Awaji is a smallish island west of Osaka and southwest of Kobe, and it happens to be home to two interesting – and extremely different – Tadao Ando projects. The first is the Water Temple, a small, Buddhist temple set up on a hillside away from Awaji’s more populated areas. To enter, you walk up a hill, then through an outdoor hallway formed by two curved walls of concrete. The arced passage way opens to the far end of an ovular lily pond. The path turns back on itself and leads you to the center of the long side of the pond, at which point a slender stair slices through the center of the pond and leads you down beneath it. The pond forms the roof of the temple below, though this relationship is not immediately recognizable when you first enter the pond space. A contrast to the bright and shiny blue-green waters of above, the interior is dark, and red wood slats over the areaway windows create a glowing red light that follows you around to the central shrine. The whole experience – beginning with the walk up the rural hillside covered with flower farms, and ending with a glowing red Buddha – was a peaceful respite from my hectic time navigating the Osaka region.
My next stop was Awaji Yumebutai, a hotel complex that includes a vast set of gardens, indoors and out, and a series of restaurants and cafes. For all that the design of the Water Temple was small, subtle and serene, the Yumebutai design was over the top and high energy. I entered through a tall, angular and completely forgettable Westin Hotel and into an expansive, angular and far less forgettable “shell beach”: an intricate, multistory maze of outdoor pools, waterfalls, ramps and walkways. It garners its name from the white cockle shells that line the base of most of the pools; images of this area were one of the things that led me to add Yumebutai to my list of projects of interest. After exhausting myself wandering through all the ins and outs of the shell beach, I excavated into some restaurant and café buildings set partially into the ground and then began my climb up to the top of of colorful tiered gardens that crawl up the hill that forms the backdrop to the complex. The Yumebutai site was quite a spectacle, sparkling under the afternoon sun and sprinkled here and there with wealthy hotel guests.
It had a somewhat eerie feeling, however, because there were relatively few visitors; most meandered through the tiered garden or made a beeline straight for the bonsai exhibit in one of the winter garden spaces. The shell beach was almost completely unoccupied, especially in the lowest levels that are not easily accessed; I only saw other visitors in areas that were direct circulation paths to other destinations. This wasn’t very surprising, given the its expansiveness, but it’s too bad; the interplay of light colored stone, concrete, and white shells is really nice – like a tropical beach, but extremely architectural. I wish that it had been designed to be more interactive with the rest of the complex.
Despite some very biophilic traits (e.g. use of water, prospect/refuge, natural materials), there is nothing natural about this development. Exhibits and photos dot the walls of the hotel demonstrating how invasive the excavation and construction process was. Sustainable this is not – it must require a huge amount of resources (water, energy, maintenance, money, etc.) to keep this joint running. None the less, I had a great time making my way in, out, up, down, around and through the project.
Transportation count: 1 subway, 1 train, 1 ferry and 2 buses (3 hours) each way
My next stop was Awaji Yumebutai, a hotel complex that includes a vast set of gardens, indoors and out, and a series of restaurants and cafes. For all that the design of the Water Temple was small, subtle and serene, the Yumebutai design was over the top and high energy. I entered through a tall, angular and completely forgettable Westin Hotel and into an expansive, angular and far less forgettable “shell beach”: an intricate, multistory maze of outdoor pools, waterfalls, ramps and walkways. It garners its name from the white cockle shells that line the base of most of the pools; images of this area were one of the things that led me to add Yumebutai to my list of projects of interest. After exhausting myself wandering through all the ins and outs of the shell beach, I excavated into some restaurant and café buildings set partially into the ground and then began my climb up to the top of of colorful tiered gardens that crawl up the hill that forms the backdrop to the complex. The Yumebutai site was quite a spectacle, sparkling under the afternoon sun and sprinkled here and there with wealthy hotel guests.
It had a somewhat eerie feeling, however, because there were relatively few visitors; most meandered through the tiered garden or made a beeline straight for the bonsai exhibit in one of the winter garden spaces. The shell beach was almost completely unoccupied, especially in the lowest levels that are not easily accessed; I only saw other visitors in areas that were direct circulation paths to other destinations. This wasn’t very surprising, given the its expansiveness, but it’s too bad; the interplay of light colored stone, concrete, and white shells is really nice – like a tropical beach, but extremely architectural. I wish that it had been designed to be more interactive with the rest of the complex.
Despite some very biophilic traits (e.g. use of water, prospect/refuge, natural materials), there is nothing natural about this development. Exhibits and photos dot the walls of the hotel demonstrating how invasive the excavation and construction process was. Sustainable this is not – it must require a huge amount of resources (water, energy, maintenance, money, etc.) to keep this joint running. None the less, I had a great time making my way in, out, up, down, around and through the project.
Transportation count: 1 subway, 1 train, 1 ferry and 2 buses (3 hours) each way
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