Home is permanent
Ridged lines worn soft by time
Nature is changing

Echigo-Tsumari House #01 uses the platonic house as the basis for its formal representation. This form is then carved away from using the landscape of the surrounding areas as its guide. Mountains, valleys and rice terraces reshape the ridged volume, creating pieces that possess qualities of both man and nature.

These pieces are pulled away from the central mass to find a home within the landscape. Once touching faces, newly exposed, are highlighted with a mirror finish, pulling reflections in from the immediate surroundings. The mirrored surface stands in stark contrast to the clean white faces of the house calling attention to the balance between man and nature, the battle between permanence and change.

Visitors discover pieces of the whole before the whole itself. Drawn to a seemingly out of place yet irresistible object in the forest, we can first interpret its meaning on its own before following the path that leads to the next and to the next and eventually the whole. While on this path we build on the knowledge we have learned at each step, culminating in the final destination: the mass that all of the shapes were extracted from.