In 2002, Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen won an international architecture competition judged by Tadao Ando and Jean Nouvel, and sponsored by the City of Aomori. In the years following the competition, the project evolved from its original program of family apartment housing and community facilities into a unique cultural building inspired by the art, craft and the profound living spirit of Aomori’s Nebuta festival.

Aomori Lantern Houses and Community Center

All spaces accessible to the community are at ground level. Restaurants, shops and other services are accessed by covered arcades. Within the garden, like a cave protected by a low sloping hill, is a large space for community events. The complexity and diversity is filtered by a shifting veil of translucent and adjustable glass louvers which transmit tranquil light into the private domestic environment. They also serve to control the elements, view and privacy, and serve as an excellent acoustic buffer. The glass louvers can be rotated, to let in pure light or view, transforming the apartments into spacious airy terraces. The three ethereal house volumes float like lanterns above the more complex and active topography of the public spaces. In the slippage between these rigorous and simple volumes, is man made nature, an ordered abstraction of the natural landscape contained by a porous boundary of the active community / commercial spaces which allow the city and natural light to filter in. The gardens consists of four main elements: Pond, hill, cave, forest.

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In 2002, Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen won an international architecture competition judged by Tadao Ando and Jean Nouvel, and sponsored by the City of Aomori. In the years following the competition, the project evolved from its original program of family apartment housing and community facilities into a unique cultural building inspired by the art, craft and the profound living spirit of Aomori’s Nebuta festival.

Aomori Lantern Houses and Community Center

All spaces accessible to the community are at ground level. Restaurants, shops and other services are accessed by covered arcades. Within the garden, like a cave protected by a low sloping hill, is a large space for community events. The complexity and diversity is filtered by a shifting veil of translucent and adjustable glass louvers which transmit tranquil light into the private domestic environment. They also serve to control the elements, view and privacy, and serve as an excellent acoustic buffer. The glass louvers can be rotated, to let in pure light or view, transforming the apartments into spacious airy terraces. The three ethereal house volumes float like lanterns above the more complex and active topography of the public spaces. In the slippage between these rigorous and simple volumes, is man made nature, an ordered abstraction of the natural landscape contained by a porous boundary of the active community / commercial spaces which allow the city and natural light to filter in. The gardens consists of four main elements: Pond, hill, cave, forest.

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In 2002, Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen won an international architecture competition judged by Tadao Ando and Jean Nouvel, and sponsored by the City of Aomori. In the years following the competition, the project evolved from its original program of family apartment housing and community facilities into a unique cultural building inspired by the art, craft and the profound living spirit of Aomori’s Nebuta festival.

Aomori Lantern Houses and Community Center

All spaces accessible to the community are at ground level. Restaurants, shops and other services are accessed by covered arcades. Within the garden, like a cave protected by a low sloping hill, is a large space for community events. The complexity and diversity is filtered by a shifting veil of translucent and adjustable glass louvers which transmit tranquil light into the private domestic environment. They also serve to control the elements, view and privacy, and serve as an excellent acoustic buffer. The glass louvers can be rotated, to let in pure light or view, transforming the apartments into spacious airy terraces. The three ethereal house volumes float like lanterns above the more complex and active topography of the public spaces. In the slippage between these rigorous and simple volumes, is man made nature, an ordered abstraction of the natural landscape contained by a porous boundary of the active community / commercial spaces which allow the city and natural light to filter in. The gardens consists of four main elements: Pond, hill, cave, forest.

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