The relationship between man and nature, psyches and gardens, the wild and the curated, comes together in the ‘Garden of Rebirth’, capturing it through a laborious but healing process of drawing and flow state (a spiritual discipline in itself).

The site is Aokigahara, the suicide forest, known for its unusual geography and abandoned objects. A garden is constructed in this forest of death, to transform the forest into a growing garden of the everyday. It is a building that never ends and grows; to be stood for all of eternity.

As a hybrid between a garden, monastery and hotel, the building records the passing of time. Maintained by the gardener, the garden also acts as a refuge for visitors and lost souls that wander in the forest seeking an end – a place for the dead and the living to exchange moments.

The building is informed by the pine trees in the forest, with technical investigation into the study of shaping trees; pleaching and grafting to construct desired elements; harvesting furniture as a self-sustained structure; and exploring notions of the evanescence of life and the essence of Zen.