- Area: 1005 m²
- Year: 2016
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Photographs:Kiyoshi Nishioka, Augusto Cesar Oyama
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Manufacturers: AGC Inc. , Bullerjan, Seiwa Inc.
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Lead Architect: Hiroshi Nakatani
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Structural Consulting: Kibako, Yuji Yamanaka
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Landscape Design: Shigeno Kunihiko Factory, Candy Farm, Kunihiko Shigeno
Text description provided by the architects. La Collina Omihachiman, a project of the confectionery manufacturer Taneya Group that aims to coexist with the natural environment, is being developed with many facilities at the foot of Mt. Hachiman near Lake Biwa in Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture.
On the project site, the headquarters, main store, and restaurant are being designed by Terunobu Fujimori and constructed one after another, but the "Candy Farm / Tanaya Agri-Culture" was one of the first to be completed and stands back of the site surrounded by trees. The architectural concept was to create a building with the same sense of materiality as Japanese confectionery, which delicately handles natural ingredients.
The main role of this facility is to serve as a base for "Candy Farm / Tanaya Agri-Culture," an organization responsible for the cultivation, arranging, and potting of wildflowers for display in Japanese confectionery stores nationwide, as well as research and practice of agriculture and management of landscaping in the area. The work of carrying and arranging the wildflowers in pots naturally evoked the image of a wooden work shed. The organic shape of the building is a slight arc in response to the site, which is surrounded by trees and a gently sloping mound.
The main materials used are a grass roof, wooden plank walls, and bare iron, which will slowly change along with the surrounding nature. The neighboring cultivation building, which is a nursery house for wildflowers, is juxtaposed with the main building as a pair of distinctive buildings with contrasts in space, color, and quality of lighting while keeping in sync with the form of the main building.
In the landscape, we tried to connect the building with the nearby satoyama resources, such as bamboo groves, trees, and wildflowers. For example, bamboo chip pavement was created by maintaining an abandoned bamboo grove, acorn seedlings collected in satoyama were planted to create a forest on the site, and wildflowers were used as pallets for seedlings to grow into grass roofs.
Nearly 10 years after its completion, the bamboo chips have begun to blend into the soil, the trees around the building have grown, and the vegetation on the grass roof has settled. The collaboration between nature and people will continue as we search for the ideal building and landscape that will fit in with the natural environment of Omihachiman.
