Australia House

2011

Satoyama explores landscape as Art Fields - the 'Site as Gallery'.

It is the architecture of landform – the rice paddy fields, which are identified as the cultural building blocks of the region. The productive fields which are the interface with nature, the artifice which contain the identity of place – Satoyama.

Subtle remodelling of the designated site utilising traditional terracing methods reveals opportunities for occupation, art creation and exhibition culminating in the terraced plan. The approach is structured and navigates along the meridian line, the surviving topographic line from the original landform, which marks the moment between cut and fill, between nature and the contrived landscape.

Sponsored by the Australian Government, the competition formed part of Japan's national rebuilding following the tsunami and an integral piece of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial.

Watercolours: Keith Burt