Nogeyama Zoo — Nakayoshi Plaza

Three structures—a contact area, a rest building and a restroom—are set among the trees on the slopes of Nogeyama.

Koizumi Atelier uses timber HP-shell roofs, whose curving surfaces are formed from straight members, as a shared architectural language. Their heights and angles vary with each building’s use and its relationship to the surroundings.

Light and air pass through the overlapping roofs and their openings, while the architecture settles into the site’s undulating terrain and existing trees.

The photographic direction was to see the three roofs not as isolated architectural objects, but as elements of a single wooded landscape.

From above, the overlapping square roof shingles were viewed in relation to the patterns of the tree canopy. Grey tones touched by green echo the varied colours of the forest. The altitude and framing were chosen so neither the roofs nor the trees overpowered the other.

At ground level, the buildings were kept connected to the forest. Branches frame the upper edge of the image, while the roof silhouettes were aligned with the treetops against the sky. The viewpoint preserves the experience of discovering the architecture between the trees.

Where several roofs overlap, camera height and position were adjusted to clarify the relationship between their edges. Competing lines were reduced, and the entrance canopy was photographed edge-on when that helped the timber roof structure remain the focus.

The HP-shell surfaces change character from elevated, eye-level and low viewpoints. Inside, their curvature was also revealed through light. Artificial lights were turned off during daytime photographs, allowing daylight, dappled light and low afternoon sun to describe the surfaces in changing gradients.

At blue hour, interior lighting was switched on to reveal a soft glow escaping through the roof gaps. The outline of the foreground roof was balanced against the distant Minato Mirai skyline and the scattered lights within the trees.

The sequences move between forest and roof, form and light, nature and city, day and night. Photographs made from different heights, distances and moments describe how all three buildings belong to the same landscape.