{"id":33916,"date":"2016-10-31T16:33:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T15:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/sayama-forest-chapel\/"},"modified":"2016-10-31T16:40:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T15:40:34","slug":"sayama-forest-chapel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/sayama-forest-chapel\/","title":{"rendered":"Sayama Forest Chapel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sayama Lakeside Cemetery is open to various religions and denominations.\u00a0 <\/span>It is located in a nature-rich environment adjacent to the water conservation forest, and the site itself is in front of a deep forest.\u00a0 <\/span>I envisioned an architecture that reflects on the way of life as it lives by the water conserved by the forest, and eventually returns to this place after death.\u00a0 <\/span>Thereupon, I found the forest to be the subject of prayer that is mutual to various religions and conceptualized an architecture that prays to the forest while surrounded by trees.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The site is a small triangular plot of land that is adjacent to a municipal road with a low traffic and a non-legal street with almost no pedestrian.\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore, I have decided to create a space that devotes to the forest that is transcendent in its existence, by tilting the wall inward to avoid the tree branches and leaves.\u00a0 <\/span>It forms a traditional Japanese Gassho- style structure composed three-dimensionally as two leaning beams set against each other are developed in every direction.\u00a0 <\/span>The roof is covered with cast-aluminum tiles with ripple-like textures each made by hands of craftsmen. The floor inclined towards the forest by 1 centimeter guides people towards the departed and the forward bending posture for praying.\u00a0 <\/span>The patterns and seams of the slate extend towards the vanishing point deep into the forest to help one concentrate the mind on the forest. When one prays, a small warm space is created within the hands as the fingers gently join.\u00a0 <\/span>It seems as if that small space of prayer was taken out to form the architecture.\u00a0 <\/span>As people pray, so does the architecture.\u00a0 <\/span>For those who are in deep grief and inconsolable, how can architecture nurture them?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>With this in mind, I designed buildings that gently surround them and support their intentions.<\/p>\n