Bise, in Motobu Town in northern Okinawa, is lined with Fukugi trees that wrap around the village. Protecting daily life from strong sunlight and sea winds, these trees have created a distinctive landscape over many years. A Villa in Bise stands within this landscape—not as a new building imposed on the land, but as a retreat carefully planned to create a quiet place within what already exists.

A Plan That Began by Preserving the Fukugi Trees
The starting point was an existing Fukugi tree line running straight through the center of the site. The initial proposal considered dividing the building into smaller volumes and placing them between the trees. However, in response to the owner’s wishes and the desire to preserve as much as possible of the Fukugi landscape cultivated over decades and centuries, the plan was reconsidered. The building was positioned carefully to minimize the number of trees removed. Rather than making the new architecture the main subject, the design places the existing trees at its center, choosing to carry forward the landscape unique to this place.

Becoming Part of the Landscape, Rather Than Architecture
The building rests quietly among the Fukugi trees. Greenery fills the view beyond the windows, and with the slightest shift of the gaze, sunlight filtering through the leaves and foliage moving in the breeze come into view. Even indoors, the boundary between architecture and nature feels indistinct.
This is a villa, but it may be better understood not as a building for looking at nature, but as a vessel for spending time within it.

An Okinawan Garden Shaped by a Hinpun and Ryukyu Limestone
The garden also uses materials that connect it to the memory of the land. Plants suited to Okinawa’s climate were selected, and the gardener created a hinpun by stacking Ryukyu limestone. Found in traditional Okinawan homes, this stone wall gently screens views while creating a gradual connection between outside and inside.
Here, it is incorporated less as a functional boundary than as an element that shapes the garden landscape.
Ryukyu limestone was also used on the exterior walls, and the paint color was matched to the character of the stone. The bright whiteness and strong contrast typical of new construction were deliberately restrained, creating colors that blend with the surrounding greenery, tree trunks, and stone walls.
The moment of completion is not the peak. Plants grow, stones weather, and the building gradually settles into the landscape. Its presence feels as though even this passage of time was part of the design.