“UNCOVERING THE TRANSPARENCY OF THE GROUND”
many layers of time are present in the everchanging natural landscape
but not on asphalt covered city streets
here we have the possibility to let man live
on land that BREATHES

Oshio is a former salt farming town in the Bay of Kobe, Japan.

The project proposes sustainable ways of extending the city fabric over the former salt-marshes by running tight (community) streets E-W over a variety of open fields. This is contextual to the growth pattern of the old town (E-W streets), to the Japanese cultural idea of linear public space along the street continuum (not the square, as in Europe), and it relates to the proportions of common agricultural green found in Japanese villages.

The proposal spans design at city scale up to architectural/residential building scale.

The project grows out of merging design ideas across three categories: environmental, social and aesthetic.

Environmentally:
The buildings are open/oriented along the N-S axis, the direction of the cooling summer winds. They touch the ground lightly with few columns, coexisting within the marsh. They are covered in green growth. Parking and the mini-mart are located at the end of the street, encouraging people to walk/ride bikes.

Socially:
The street is knit across as neighbors engage in collective experiences. On one side of the units is a shared entrance couryard, while on the other side is a service-structural wall which leads out to communal bath-houses floating in the open green.

Aesthetically:
The streets curve, heightening perspective interest. The “houses” disintegrate into the landscape, starting with hard and heavy materials at the urban face, becoming lighter and breaking down. Construction possibilities are open-ended/modular. Individual gardens act as mergers between building and large field.