[Category Award] KI-no Series

Osawa Architecture Store Co., Ltd. (Matsumoto City)
Watanabe Fumiyasu, Director and Vice President and Second Class Architect

Osawa, the third generation of Osawa Architects, became a student of Nakamura Soji, a sukiya carpenter in Kyoto, and used the knowledge he learned to succeed the family business. We have used natural materials and have used our high level of technical skills, experience and ideas to create a space created by Sukiya, which makes use of wood. On the other hand, it is difficult to obtain suitable wood, so they sometimes work with the slugs to enter the forest and find the right material and cut it down. The establishment of the Ki-no project was also due to Osawa and Watanabe actually entering the mountains with Takariki.

"For the client, who wanted to use "root-bending cedar" that had been bent from the roots due to the weight of snow, to build a house, I went to the forests of Otani Village to look for materials. I learned that even though the trees are growing at the cutting period, the slopes are strong, so the trees are not costly to be taken out after cutting, and the trees are left unattended. I wondered if it's okay to continue like this."

"While I work in architecture, I can directly communicate the current situation of the forest to the client, but the number of people is limited to just a few in one year. In order to think together with more people, we must create a model case where we know the local mountains and trees, using locally produced wood, which is not imported from overseas, but using familiar domestic and local timbers, and use local timbers that are familiar to us, and create a model case in which we communicate and discuss the circumstances of the forest."

The theme for 2022, the brand's first season, was Nagano PINE WITHERED is particularly serious in the forests of the prefecture. With the hope that many Japanese people will be interested in the problem of pine trees collectively fading, we have created a low table that makes use of red pine trees that were cut down before they were damaged by pine trees. It is structured to be disassembled and carried compactly, making it suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

"We developed outdoor-related products because people who like outdoor activities often feel close to nature, so they are likely to think together with us. For example, surfers take the initiative to clean the beach and use natural waxes even though they are expensive. We wanted to create a brand that evokes the same trend in mountain forests. By having them get the KI-no product, we wanted to get people to feel the quality of local trees and think about the problem of people moving away from the mountains. In other words, it is a brand that considers the value of Japanese forests through domestic and prefectural wood."

In addition to outdoor products, we also have a table made of sported wood, with rain, bacteria, mold and other substances that have invaded damaged trees growing, resulting in a black mesh pattern. Watanabe says that products based on designs that they find cool would be an opportunity for many to think about the circumstances of forests.