Subaru Romance resort

Hyogo, Japan

Photo © 1moku co.

Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architects: 1moku co.

Location: Hyogo, Japan
Year: 2009

Façade wall project for Subaru Roman Resort hot spring leisure facility. The idea was inspired by seeing the redness of the local earth when first inspecting the site. The color fits well with the existing building (black), and when seen from below the slope that is topped by a pounded-earth wall, it has an apparent height of about 7 meters. Making the wall required 170 cubic meters of earth. Compacting earth at a rate of about 25 cm per day, it took about two weeks of work to complete the construction. The finished wall retains the appearance of being layered.
When considering the structural calculations for this wall, we were unable to find precedents for so large a structure. Consequently, we spent some time discussing an appropriate safety factor, and the issue of who takes responsibility if something goes wrong. In the end, we reached our conclusion by instinct, settling on specifications that we thought ought to be good enough