Project Overview
- Location
- Kyoto, Japan
- Year
- 2022
- Category
- Cultural Space
- Size
- 410 m²
- Status
- Completed
About the project
A public pavilion stepping down a wooded slope, its timber roofline echoing the terraced gardens that surround it.
How This Project Came Together
01
The Brief
02
The Problem
03
The Approach
04
The Outcome
A gathering space the garden had been missing for decades.
The City of Kyoto's Cultural Affairs office wanted a small public pavilion for tea ceremonies, quiet study and seasonal events, sited within a terraced garden that had never had permanent structure inside it — only groundskeeper sheds since the 1970s.
Any new roofline would compete with a listed garden.
The garden's terraces are protected landscape heritage. Planning rules meant no structure could exceed the sightline of the surrounding hedges from any garden path — effectively capping the building at 2.4 metres at its tallest point, ruling out a conventional hall.
Let the building step down instead of standing up.
We split the program across the existing terraces themselves, one function per level, connected by a covered timber stair that reads as a extension of the garden path. No single roof plane rises above its terrace's own hedge line.
A pavilion visitors often don't notice until they're inside it.
From the main garden path, the pavilion reads as terracing and timber fencing. The city now hosts twice the seasonal events it did before, and several visitors have told the groundskeepers they didn't realise a building was there at all.
In Detail
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