Studio Armitage has designed and constructed a small timber fi eld shelter at the edge of a working garden in Nara, Japan. The project developed through close observation of the everyday structures found across Nara and the surrounding landscape. Agricultural shelters, potting sheds, raised timber platforms, screens and deep protective roofs informed a structure that provides shade from the summer sun, protection from rain and a place to pause within the garden.

The shelter explores the relationship between architecture and landscape through the Japanese idea of kyokai, or boundary. Rather than establishing a clear division between inside and outside, a raised timber raft, open frame, slatted screens and two overlapping roofs create di  erent degrees of shelter and enclosure. Views pass through the structure and the garden remains present from every position.

The arrangement also draws on ideas associated with engawa and shakkei, or borrowed landscape. Two places to sit face in opposite directions: one east towards the morning sun and the other west towards sunset. The surrounding garden, trees, water and distant landscape therefore become part of the experience of occupying the shelter, changing with the light and time of day. At the centre, a 200-litre water butt provides ballast to the lightweight structure and marks the point between the opposing benches and roof forms.