Tomita farm is located in Furano-cho in Hokkaido and is famous for its lavender fields. My brief was to create a gate and signage, to mark the entrance of "farm Tomita" as well as rationalise the use of the farm buildings.
Setting
Tomita Farm is set in the Biei/Furano sightseeing area. The site is very large and includes a number of lavender fields. Since there is no public transport, most visitors arrive by car or coach. The boundaries of the farm are not clear, however, and this has caused visitors some confusion. My aim therefore was to use the farm buildings and a gate as markers, so that the farm could be clearly recognised. There are three routes into the farm. The first, the main one, is in use as an entrance and exit. The second runs from the nearby car park and the third from a neighbouring farm. Since the routes into and across the farm were unclear, there was a strong need to rationalise these as well.
Approach
I began from looking at how an individual uses perception to recognise something. We are linked to the world through our senses and these are interrelated, but my aim was to make use of a single sense – and naturally I choose sight. My first move was to look at using a sign: there are countless examples of high visibility colours being used on these to communicate. A combination of colours is often effective, and of course the larger an area of colour is, the more visible it is. However, in this case, the use of high visibility colours would have been out of place. My next thought was to alter the gates. With theme parks, the gates are often so large and brightly coloured that they are inappropriate for the setting. In contrast, the gates to old city areas are usually not visible enough, as they are usually in a worse state of repair than the areas surrounding them. My solution was to make the gate as visible as possible while reflecting as much of the character of the site as I could.
Context
The pre-existing farm buildings shared a set of characteristics. This was particularly true of the barns. I attempted to abstract the form of the barn roofs and understand what it is that made the barns seems so similar. I wanted to increase the buildings' visibility without using bright colours. My idea was to raise visibility by manipulating the shadows thrown by the buildings. Our eyes are often drawn to shadows and this helps to reveal the form of a building. This approach brought its own problems, however, in particular the need to avoid introducing too many buildings and cluttering the site. In the end, I arranged the buildings according to size: the shadows cast by the larger buildings are, of course, larger and this draws attention towards the gate.
Building Design
The types of roofs in use on the site are connected to the house designs used in the buildings below. In my previous work, I chose specific designs for specific projects (for example, for the Toyota-shi Aizuma Interchange, and my design at Kokueikan). Although building designs are distinct and well classified, I believe that we must always interpret these in an individual way. Climate and building materials affect which design is chosen, but there is a strong similarity in types in use around the world, as a web search will show. I cannot always explain precisely why I use particular building design, but in this case I wanted to create a nostalgic effect using simple materials and designs. Nostalgia to me is simply the positive - and instinctive - response we may have when looking at something old. We are drawn to old things as we are to stories, since the materials themselves contain stories. Nostalgia creates an increased sense of reassurance and I felt that this was a natural approach to the project. Jun Igarashi
