WHEN NATURE CALLS

In what way does Biophilia reconnect people in the city with nature?

Although our living environment is composed of a mixture of natural and man-made, we have been experiencing artificiality most of the time when we are inside. In Tokyo, the inside and outside relationship is not very straightforward and is not a clear division. The space inside the building is relatively small, opaque, artificial, and private, but when we go outside, the space becomes gradually bigger, getting transparent, natural, and public.

When we say “Toilet” today, which sounds more private and closed off to provide privacy. Having said that, we also had an experience of Toilet in Nature, with Nature, and by Nature experiencing the close relationship with natural environments and open feeling.

So, How to create such a kind of coexistence of openness and protected feelings?

The neighborhoods around Yoyogi park form a rich urban space with mid to small-scale mixed-use buildings that are densely packed and blend together with small trees and plants. So, we try to envisage bringing such a kind of neighborhood to the park to experience more natural than artificial things. The neighborhood buildings are segmented down as the geometry of the Toilets, the staircase, and the park’s terrain are played as the role of up and down the vertical city of Tokyo, and the relationship between the building and the natural environment is directly and spatially experienced. The In-Between space lies on the gradient between Inside and Outside, Private and Public to understand how deep we are inside and how far we are outside. The semi-transparent polycarbonate is used as a barrier to interrelate the natural environments while also giving enough privacy from the outside world.

In this way, the project signifies the user to experience reconnecting with nature through the conception of a relationship between private-public, inside-outside, and nature and artificiality.