IKUYO NAKAMA
ARCHITECT/ASSOCIATES

An architecture that inherits
the original landscape and quietly hands culture to the future.

The planned site is surrounded by Fukugi trees that are over one hundred years old.
There, a traditional Okinawan folk house,built approximately 130 years ago, stood quietly, marking the slow passage of time. We carefully explored the possibility of restoration, but the deterioration had progressed further than anticipated, and we ultimately chose to rebuild.

However, this was not an act of renewing the landscape, but rather a rebuilding to hand down its presence and memories to the next generation.

What the client company sought was not merely a resort or accommodation facility, but an “open folk house” that would quietly convey Okinawa’s original landscape and culture and pass them on to future generations. This place was called upon to assume a new role while continuing to carry the memories embedded in the land.

The deep eaves (amaba) and expansive openings, symbols of traditional Okinawan houses, are originally forms of wisdom that receive wind and shadow and allow people to live in harmony with nature. At the same time, under current wooden construction regulations, they present major challenges, such as insufficient shear walls and vulnerability to uplift during typhoons.

In this project, after conducting structural analysis, we adopted a hybrid structural system that combines traditional timber joinery with partially introduced steel braces and beams as reinforcement. This choice was made not to trace tradition merely in form, but to inherit its philosophy and renew it as structure.

The floor plan follows the traditional Okinawan relationship between the “front room” and “back room.” Wet areas requiring moisture control are enclosed within reinforced-concrete boxes and placed between these two spaces, so as not to disturb the breathing of the wooden architecture.

In preparation for flood damage, the foundation was not constructed in the traditional stone-base method, but formed in reinforced concrete up to the raised floor level.

The original plan to reuse cement roof tiles and charred cedar board formwork was unavoidably altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic that coincided with the design period. The retirement of the last cement-tile craftsman in Okinawa, and difficulties in storing exterior wall materials— these events once again confronted us with the weight of time and the fragility of disappearing craftsmanship.

The water basin filled from an old well serves as a biotope that restores circulation to this land once more. Together with the towering Fukugi trees, deep eaves, and expansive openings, it quietly shapes the landscape of this new wooden folk house.

While reflecting on the flow of eternal history, we aim to create an architecture that becomes a place where people gather, converse, and cultures quietly intersect—protecting the original landscape while opening gently toward the future.