wandering Shikoku #2

wandering Shikoku #1

ground in the air

 This beautiful housing complex is located in Sakaide, Kagawa. Strictly speaking however, it is not "housing complex", instead, it is called "坂出人工土地", literally means "the artificial land", the land which was created by humans with concrete above the actual land. This incredible series of architecture was originally planned by an architect Masato Otaka, one of the members of renowned Japanese architectural movement, Metabolism. The concept of this place is also based on its spirits. Free from the concept of actual ground as a limited area, the alteration and expansion of the space is possible on this artificial land constructed ABOVE the ground. 

As a fact, it cannot be really said this concept works very well, a lot of rooms are empty and just abandoned, most of the people living there appear to be getting pretty old. The impression of the place is not very much of "Metabolic" by far, but rather tranquil and still. It is even enforced as the fact that it is detached from the ground. This "afloat" housing almost gives an illusion of a vessel sailing alone on the ocean when one is on the top floor climbing the stairs. Or I was reminded of the row of white houses in the Santorini, Greece, I only have seen in the books somewhere. 

 From the top floor, the clear skies up into space, the pale blue of the walls consisting houses, the Inland Sea, mild and peaceful as always, is seen in the distance with the cranes of the plants.., Here, different kinds of "blue" is gently in harmony with each other. 

Dunes number 2