Nest We Grow by UC Berkeley Team + Kengo Kuma & Associates

Under the supervision of Kengo Kuma & Associates, UC Berkeley Architecture students win the 4th Annual LIXIL International design-build competition in Japan in 2014. Named “Nest we Grow”, their plan is an open and sustainable timber pavilion.

Architects: College of Environmental Design UC Berkeley, Kengo Kuma & Associates
Location: Taiki-cho, Hokkaido, Japan
Photographs: Shinkenchiku-sha

Its main intent is to bring people in the community together to store, prepare and enjoy local foods. The building takes advantage of the transparent plastic corrugated sheets on the façade and roof, allowing light in for the plants, and heating the space during colder months.

The wood frame structure mimics the vertical spatial experience of a Japanese larch forest from which food is hung to grow and dry. A sunken fireplace as tea platform in the middle of the nest creates a gathering space where the community can visually and physically enjoy food around a sunken fireplace. Local foods make up the elevation of the Nest as people see the food forest floating above the landform.