Utsunomiya

'coal house' by Terunobu Fujimori

"house before house' by Sou Fujimoto

the 'sumika pavilion' by toyo ito

house by Taira Nishizawa

This morning we left very early on our one week trip through Central Japan. On our way up to Sendai, we stopped in Utsunomiya. I was super exhausted and not looking forward to the stop, but it ended up being on of the coolest experiences I've had so far in Japan. There we visited the Tokyo Gas Sumika projects. "Tokyo Gas Co. is Japan's largest supplier of natural gas for both residential and business consumption. For their 'Sumika Project', they teamed up with Japanese architects Toyo Ito, Sou Fujimoto, Terunobu Fujimori and Taira Nishizawa. Each of the architects are responsible for designing a built structure on the project site. The concept behind Sumika is to provide new residential units, buildings and a main pavilion that will use gas as their main source of energy."(DesignBoom). The houses were small, but very detail orineted. I could not tell you which one I liked the most, because they were each so unique and special. It was a very inspirational experience.