Project Details
- Project Name
- Birch Moss Chapel
- Architect
- Kengo Kuma & Associates
- Client/Owner
- Karuizawa New Art Museum
- Project Types
- Religious
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Size
- 710 sq. feet
- Year Completed
- 2015
- Shared by
- Miabelle Salzano
- Team
-
Masafumi Yukimoto
Ayumu Shimotsukasa
- Project Status
- Built
Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
We built a small chapel in Karuizawa aiming for its presence to be blended into the nature of birch trees.
By combining the steel and the trunk of the birch, we designed a structure that might be mistaken for a real birch tree. Branches of a birch are extremely thin, but we stood them at random in the site to support the glass roof of the chapel, and the border between the forest and the building disappeared. Benches in the chapel are made of glass and acrylic, and we spread moss on the floors both inside and outside so that the glass chapel itself could fade away into the forest.
On the approach toward the chapel, Jean-Michel Othoniel’s artwork modeled after the shape of a heart was placed to welcome the guests.
