Seemingly floating above its surrounding forest, Shigeru Ban's cantilevered timber Seto Inland Sea, both co-exists with nature and enhances it. The contemporary wellness retreat spans two primary levels, each around 100m long and offering 360-degree views of undisturbed verdant scenery. Its name, Zenbo Seinei, refers to 'a place to calm the mind through experiences of zen whilst reflecting on one's self. This is heightened by the site's sweeping mountain views and peaceful, meditative atmosphere.
The story of Zenbo Seinei started seven years ago, when Yasuyuki Nambu, founder, and CEO of recruitment company Pasona Group, enlisted Ban to create an 'aerial zazen dojo' (zen retreat in the sky), inspired by traditional Japanese temple lodgings as well as modern wellness practices. Nambu, who had I spent much of his youth in a Japanese Buddhist temple, commissioned the building as part of a portfolio of properties that would revitalise the depopulating island. Following two years of planning and 18 months of construction, the retreat opened in late April 2022. The design brings together tradition and modernity. 'I aimed to create a simple structure limited in timber, and reduced any decoration to give it a kind of strict atmosphere, in addition to creating an inside-outside feeling,' says Ban.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2022-Ausgabe von Wallpaper.
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Role Models - Elmgreen & Dragset's subversive take on the classical form at Paris' Musée d'Orsay explores contemporary masculinities in a heteronormative world
As Elmgreen & Dragset, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset bring a smart subversion to their large-scale installations. Over the last three decades, they have taken a sideways look at social and political systems by recontextualising mainstream motifs: works have included a full-scale replica of a Prada boutique in the Texan desert and a vast, vertical swimming pool, now installed in Hong Kong.
Flask Force - A limited-edition perfume collaboration between two Spanish craft masters says it with flowers
Loewe and Lladró are two brands with a lot in common. They're both Spanish, they're both born out of an obsessive desire to master a particular material (Loewe with leather and Lladró with porcelain), and they're both exemplars of luxury design. So it seems fitting, then, that the two maisons have finally come together for an exceptional collaboration, launching this autumn: a limited-edition run of porcelain flask toppers for three of Loewe Perfumes' classic scents.
Bloom Service - A flower-shaped brutalist beauty in Geneva gets a refresh
Tucked between the extensive campus of Geneva's University Hospital and a huddle of associated medical institutions, laboratories and surgeries, the Avenue de la Roseraie is trod by few casual visitors to the Swiss city. And yet here - out of sight in a small car park is an extraordinary structure that, situated elsewhere, would surely draw the attention of architectural students like bees to a nectar-rich flower. Horticulturalists, too, perhaps, for whom a building nicknamed La Tulipe might well incite curiosity.
Second Nature -A remodelled museum in Lisbon, by Kengo Kuma & Associates, meshes Japanese and Portuguese influences to create a space that sits in harmony with its surroundings
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's complex in Lisbon has been one of the city's best-loved landmarks since it opened in the 1960s. The foundation aims to improve quality of life through art, charity, science and education, and its Lisbon campus encompasses a main office, library, scientific research centre and contemporary art museum, Centro de Arte Moderna (CAM), which reopens this month following an extensive four-year renovation by Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates. Designed in collaboration with landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic, the update cleverly reconfigures the space and extends the foundation's gardens to craft a more cohesive relationship between the existing structures.
Cane and Able- Fusing traditional craftsmanship with contemporary vision, design studio Ibuku demonstrates the versatility of bamboo at a serene Bali villa
Over the last decade, Bali-based studio Ibuku, headed up by designer Elora Hardy, has become a leading expert in bamboo architecture, its output encompassing everything from a traditional Sumbanese house and a yoga and meditation space to playful treehouses and a riverside café at an eco-friendly jungle retreat in Ubud. In 2021, the studio completed The Arc sports hall at the Green School in Bali (founded by Elora's father, designer John Hardy). Made from a series of arches spanning an impressive 19m, it was a pioneering feat of bamboo engineering.
Guest Editor Marcio Kogan - Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 (it was renamed Studio MK27 at the turn of the century).
Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 (it was renamed Studio MK27 at the turn of the century). The 72-year-old architect has since become synonymous with contemporary Brazilian chic, offering a sumptuous blend of raw, textured materials; clean geometric forms; effortless functionality; vernacular design features; and a deep knowledge and appreciation of the rich, tropical modernist architecture legacy of his home country.
DREAM TEAM
A rewatching of a seminal film laid the foundation for JW Anderson's latest collection, a fantastical collaboration with artist Christiane Kubrick
Commercial artists
We conjure up public spaces that look and feel good, taking our design cues from the domestic landscape
LINES OF BEAUTY
Massimo Giorgetti's new rug collection for CC-Tapis takes Milan's 1960s metro system as a departure point
Cloud pleaser
Blue-sky thinking elevates a purpose-built gallery for the Froehlich Foundation's art collection near Stuttgar
