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Architects: Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects
- Area: 15 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Julien Lanoo
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Manufacturers: VitrA
Text description provided by the architects. It was almost three years ago that Rolf Fehlbaum, Chairman Emeritus of Vitra, took architect Tsuyoshi Tane for a drive around Weil am Rhein, talking about his childhood and his memories of the fields on which the Vitra Campus can be found today. It was at this moment that the idea for a new structure was born: adhering to Tane’s concept of ‘Archaeology of the Future’, which believes that architecture begins from the memory of the place where it stands, the Tane Garden House will be completed in June 2023 and inaugurated during the week of Art Basel.
‘Like archaeologists, we begin a long process of exploration and digging up the memory of a place. It is a process of surprise and discovery, a quest to encounter things we did not know, what we had forgotten, and what has been lost through modernization and globalization. I believe that a place will always have memories deeply embedded in the ground and in history. And that this memory does not belong to the past, but is the driving force that creates architecture. Through this process of thinking about the future from the memory of a place, archaeology gradually becomes architecture,’ explains Tsuyoshi Tane.
Tane describes his architecture throughout his manifesto “Archaeology of the Future”. This design process is implemented in all the Atelier’s projects: the Estonian National Museum (as DGT.), Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, The Al Thani Collection Museum space at Paris Hôtel de la Marine, or most lately, the design commission for the Imperial Hotel Tokyo new building (to be completed in 2036).
Following this ideology, the Tane Garden House has been built upon the concept of “Overground”.
By burning underground resources, traditional architecture plays a part in climate change. Tane Garden House, by using above-ground materials such as stone, wood, thatch, and rope is in essence, standing by nature’s side. On top of the materials selection, the construction itself is managed by local craftsmen using local supplies. The stone and wood used in the house were, for example, procured locally and only transported a short distance: 28 km for the granite stone (from the quarry to the stonemason and finally to the Vitra Campus) and 50 km for the wood (from the black forest to the factory and ultimately to the campus). Tane did not only limit the implementation of his concept to the construction phase of the Garden House but integrated it as well into the maintenance to protect its sustainability. Tane is convinced that only the local neighborhood can support and protect the longevity of architecture.
Measuring 15 m², Tane’s Garden House is very compact and can accommodate around 8 people. Equipped with a small coffee corner, it offers sufficient space for workshops but is primarily designed to store the gardening tools utilized by the crew in the Oudolf Garden. It is also for use by the Vitra employees who tend to the campus bees and for those who participate in the vegetable garden currently being created next to the Garden House. Outside seating and a small fountain for watering or cleaning boots and utensils are also part of the construction. In addition, the building located in the middle of the Campus, will have a viewing platform from which visitors can enjoy 360-degree unobstructed perspectives of the Oudolf Garten, the Umbrella House, and the rest of the Vitra Campus.
Tsuyoshi Tane’s addition to the campus is the fourth by an architect of Japanese descent, after the Umbrella House by Kazuo Shinohara, the Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando, and the Factory Building by SANAA.
In autumn 2023, a special exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery will present insights into Tsuyoshi Tane’s work and his Garden House project.
