Mount Senkoji is a holy mountain above Onomichi, an old harbor city on Japanese Inland Sea. Looking down from its peaks, the narrow stone paths are winding through the cluster of traditional roof-tops. Walking through a brightly colored forest to the top of the mountain, one could really enjoy remarkable scenic views to Seto islands and Pacific Ocean. The mountain is a place of many famous temples and shrines, a place well known through Japan for the numerous writers, poets and film-makers who visited it inspired by city’s beautiful scenery and quiet atmosphere.
Students were asked to make their projects as specific architectural sceneries on the slopes of Mount Senkoji. Since architecture is usually defined as discrete autonomous structures and landscape as something vast, without clear borders, the question was how to make one architectural and spatial entity of both? How an architectural object could be a scenery (or surroundings), and how a scenery (or surroundings) could be regarded as an architectural object?
All the parameters of the project, such as site, program and scale, were chosen individually by each student through developing his or her own interpretation of the theme, which was both purposeful and free.
Teachers
Neven Mikac Fuchs
Junya Ishigami
Wataru Shinji
Young Eun Choi
Bosheng Gan
Chris Engh
Students
Kosha Joian Ahmadi
Søren Olav S Bessesen
Dario Di Turi
Magnus Garvoll
Karlis Jaunromans
Eirini Kalampoka
Anja Petkovic Karlsen
Guro Langemyhr
Ivana Mijic
Malen Sønvisen Moe
Lara Katharina Nixdorf
Torgeir Nordbø
Aleksandra Ognjanov
Bo Peng
Laura Purlyte
Jan Henrik Remme
Cecilia Sundt
Viola Ulrika Kristin Svens
Robert Sømod
Jonathan Storheil Værnes
Yang Zhang
Ragnhild Marie C Østern
Xianwen Zheng
Silvia Mihaela Diaconu
Jingyi Zhang