House and Restaurant Cave

“Artificial nature” is the theme of another of Junya Ishigami’s projects that will open in 2019. It is the House and Restaurant at Yamaguchi, in Japan: a restaurant with an adjoining residence for the owner, the whole thing located underground. An architecture carved “in negative” out of nature. Holes dug in the ground have been lined with mesh and filled with concrete. Once the material had set, excavations were made around the pourings of concrete to create a series of “grottos”: some will contain the rooms of the house, others the restaurant, while still others will act as “courtyards” to let light into the subterranean space. Thus Ishigami has created a topographical architecture, one that belongs to the terrain precisely because it originates from it. Its natural appearance is emphasized by the texture of the walls, characterized by the earth that has remained attached to the concrete and making all the spaces feel like they are located inside a natural cavern.