BIRD’S NEST ATAMI TEAROOM

Architect Hiroshi Nakamura worked with treehouse builder Takashi Kobayashi for a tearoom located in an unusual site: 10 meters above the ground in a 300-year-old cinnamomum camphora tree growing precariously on the side of a mountain that overlooks the ocean in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

Hiroshi, inspired by the coat hangers as a starting point, designed the Bird’s Nest Atami Tearoom, using a variety of minimally invasive construction techniques meant to protect the integrity of the tree. He said “Hangers are not only durable but also highly elastic, and they offer more hooks to connect than branches and hence are easier to assemble…” From Nakamura’s notes on the project: “for the foundation, we carefully inserted pier type foundations between the roots in order to avoid the use of concrete and large-scale excavation. Using the structure itself as scaffolding, we assembled it by avoiding the branches as birds create their nest, adding or taking out components based on structural analysis…”

The tearoom is part of the KAI Atami resort, more views both inside and out on the Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP website.

 

All Rights Reserved to Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP and Takashi Kobayashi

Photos by Koji Fujii for Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

Back to Top