森山ビレッジ

The L-shaped plan with deep eaves reinterprets chumon-zukuri, the traditional Akita farmhouse style, and each of the five clients designed their own layout and interior. The interior is a large column-free space that can be altered as ways of living change.

Cedar from satoyama within a 30 km radius was used, with felling, sawing, machining, and assembly done locally and machining distributed across three nearby CNC machines. Seismically resistant structural members were made into units, and local children took part in construction.

Members were cut on ShopBot at the fabrication base, then assembled with residents into units—wall panels, beam panels, A-frames, and truss frames—before being trucked to the site. Each wall panel weighs about 70 kg, and each beam panel and frame about 40 kg.

On site, the wall panels were raised on the foundation and sill, followed by the gable walls, beam panels, truss frames, and A-frames, and the roof was then completed with rafters and sheathing boards.

In the early stages of design, a series of workshops was held with the clients, who wrote down on sticky notes and shared their ways of living and visions for the future of the village.