The Nasu Highlands on Honshu Island, where Art Biotop Nasu is located, is a scenic area with ski resorts and spa springs. The main income comes from tourism, a special variant of which the residence is also focused on. It includes a hotel with a café, glass and ceramics workshops open to all comers, and a grant program for resident artists who, among other things, are willing to work with the local population.
Now the Water Garden has been added to this list: the site for it was originally - like the entire area - covered with dense forest, then it was cleared for rice fields, and later it became a meadow. Junya Ishigami + Associates architects decided to recreate a rich ecosystem there: for this they transplanted trees there from a neighboring plot, which is planned to be occupied by a new hotel complex - that is, they saved them from being cut down.
The land was planted with moss and a system of small ponds was created, which are filled with water using the traditional irrigation system for rice fields. Before transplanting, each tree underwent an “inventory”, and then a “new nature” was compiled from the resulting “library”, emphasizing both its natural components, which cannot be created by humans, and man-made, artistic parts.
