Hironaka Ogawa & Associates

Forest Chapel

Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano

FOREST CHAPEL

Hironaka Ogawa & Associates

PHOTOGRAPHS
Daici Ano

AREA
135 m²

YEAR
2011

LOCATION
Shibukawa, Japan

CATEGORY
Chapel

Text description provided by architect.

This is a new chapel built in the garden of an existing wedding facility which is surrounded by trees.

Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano

The building looks like a simple white box floating in the air to be in harmony with the existing facility.

On the other hand, I took in the trees in the garden as a design motif and proposed a chapel with randomly placed, tree-shape columns using angle irons.

In detail, I gathered eight angle irons composed of four 90 x 90 x 7mm L-angle irons and four 75 x 75 x 6mm L-angle irons to create a cross-shape column.

Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano

I intended to create a column that branch out up above depicting gentle curves of a tree.

I applied two different curves for both size L-angle irons and created two types of tree-shape columns.

Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano

I intended to create various looks by rotating the columns and placing them throughout the space.

The tree-shape columns serve as decorations as well as important structural elements that receive the building’s vertical load and wind pressure.

Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano

Each tree-shape column is placed a decent distance from each other by their branched out, angled irons. It is also rational for the building structure.

The forest in the nature also consists of trees that keep certain distances from each other under different conditions.

The distances and shapes of the columns’ branches made by rigid angle irons created the silence and tense that is appropriate for a place like a wedding chapel where people make their vows.

Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano


Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano
Forest Chapel
© Daici Ano


Forest Chapel
Plan
Forest Chapel
Site Plan


Forest Chapel
Section
Forest Chapel
Detail


Forest Chapel
Diagram
Forest Chapel
Elevation

Hironaka Ogawa & Associates
T +81 3 64590209 F +81 3 64590109
Hironaka Ogawa & Associates
Tuda-Building 2・3F 6-18-2 Shinbashi Minato-Ku Tokyo,105-0004, Japan