Japanese architect Akihisa Hirata has always been interested in the organic and tangled structure of trees.
"A tree is made up of roots, a trunk, branches, leaves and flowers. And it is made unique and beautiful by the moss and mushrooms that grow there, and by insects, birds and squirrels that inhabit it. Explains the architect. His latest project, "Tree-ness House" in Tokyo, may well be the perfect embodiment of this philosophy. In the same way that tree growth takes years, Tree-ness House has also taken years, going through conceptual stages, before materializing.
Hirata first met her client Taka Ishii, who owns three eponymous art galleries - two in Tokyo and one in New York. Ishii was tired of white cube space. His office was a white cube, his gallery too, just like the museums he visited. So, he wanted something completely different for his house. And he thought that Hirata could conceive something for him. Hirata did not disappoint. The house consists of several floors, including an exhibition space on the ground floor and the private part on the other levels. The building is made of an organic stratification system that intertwines boxed spaces with many voids cut into these boxes, creating indoor and outdoor spaces and gardens.
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