Iwan Baan
  • Photography
  • Books
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • About
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
Yashima Mountaintop Park – SUO

Yashima Mountaintop Park – SUO

2024

Designed by SUO, this project sits atop Mount Yashima, a natural landmark within Setonaikai National Park, and reimagines a fading tourist destination as a continuous architectural landscape. In response to strict environmental protections that limit new construction, the design adopts a lightweight, serpentine structure that follows the terrain’s natural contours, seamlessly blending into a site gradually reclaimed by nature.

Rather than imposing a traditional building, the architecture unfolds as a three-dimensional path—touching the earth at select points before lifting into the air. This creates a fluid sequence of spaces: a viewing platform, a floating café, areas for events, and exhibition zones. Visitors don’t so much enter the building as move through and beneath it, engaging with the structure as an extension of the mountain itself.

Shaped by voids, topography, and movement rather than solid mass, the project transforms architecture into a framework for encounter—celebrating openness, immersion, and reverence for the surrounding environment.

Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite
Favorite

Tags:

  • Japan,
  • national park,
  • Park,
  • SUO,
  • and Takamatsu

Other projects tagged with Japan, national park, Park, SUO and Takamatsu

Sonei-ji Cemetery Pavilion – Sejima

Sonei-ji Cemetery Pavilion – Sejima

21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Japan – SANAA

21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Japan – SANAA

Chaoyang Park Plaza – MAD

Chaoyang Park Plaza – MAD

Yaoko Kawagoe Museum, Japan – Toyo Ito

Yaoko Kawagoe Museum, Japan – Toyo Ito

Benesse House Museum, Naoshima – Tadao Ando

Benesse House Museum, Naoshima – Tadao Ando

Izumo Shrine – Kiyonori Kikutake

Izumo Shrine – Kiyonori Kikutake

Xylem Tippet Rise – Francis Kéré

Xylem Tippet Rise – Francis Kéré

Shibaura Office,Tokyo – Kazuyo Sejima, SANAA

Shibaura Office,Tokyo – Kazuyo Sejima, SANAA

Osaka Expo 2025 – Better Co-being SANAA

Osaka Expo 2025 – Better Co-being SANAA

Towada Arts Center, Towada, Japan – Nishizawa

Towada Arts Center, Towada, Japan – Nishizawa

Four Freedoms Park, New York City – Louis Kahn

Four Freedoms Park, New York City – Louis Kahn

House N, Oita Japan – Sou Fujimoto

House N, Oita Japan – Sou Fujimoto

  • Home
  • Portfolio
  • Yashima Mountaintop Park – SUO

Iwan Baan Photography, Rozenstraat 145, 1016 NP Amsterdam, The Netherlands, e-mail: studio@iwan.com — all images © Iwan Baan 1996 - 2025