The young Japanese architect Hironaka Ogawa has designed the Garden Tree House, in the prefecture of Kagawa. It is an extension to a 35 year-old house on whose site there were two trees, a zelkova and a camphor, the same age as the house, that needed to be removed.
“When I received the offer for the project, I thought of various designs before I visited the site... However, all my thoughts were blown away as soon as I saw the site in person.” The two trees stood there quite strongly. I listen to the stories in detail; the daughter has memories of climbing these trees when she was little.” said Hironaka Ogawa. “These trees looked over the family for thirty-five years. They coloured the garden and grew up with the family. Therefore, utilizing these trees and creating a new place for the client became the main theme for the design.”
The two trees were cut, leaving the branches intact, were dried in a special oven and put back in their original position using them, however, as the main structural columns in the middle of the living room, the dining room and the kitchen.
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