The nature in Hokkaido reminds Nordic nature. There are birch forests, one can hear cuckoo in distance and smell the same fragrance of misty grass and wet forest after a chilly summer night.

We wanted the visitors in this forest to notice the small forest creek, how the daylight plays on it and how it’s happy sound fills the space we constructed. If one is still for awhile, one can even see small trout hunting insects. This atmosphere is a childhood memory from another forest far away in another continent, some thirty years ago.

Amanogawa is Milky Way in Japanese, literally the River of the sky. Some indigenous hunting and gathering people have the belief that time passes by in different speed in different places. I hope we have created a small place where water and time will flow in a peaceful way.

The construction team: Sami Rintala Tommaso Nova John Roger Holte Tomohiko Ogawa