Project by Jaewon Kim @ah_jae1
At Hirakubo, Ishigaki, this project for a Yaeyama Jōfu production and meditation retreat begins with wind. The site is a field of forces shaped by ocean currents, typhoons, and continuous airflows between sea and land. This project does not resist these conditions but works with them. Wind becomes a material.
A grid is introduced as a negotiator rather than an imposed order. It meets trees, ground undulations, and wind paths through adaptation. The grid bends, fragments, and recalibrates, establishing coexistence between architecture and landscape.
Form emerges through forces rather than fixed geometry. Warped membranes and creased surfaces register air pressure, guiding deformation and distributing tension. These surfaces extend from the logic of Yaeyama jōfu, not as a fixed material condition, but as a starting point that allows variation, layering, and treatment. Through processes such as coating, weaving modification, or composite assembly, the fabric can be tuned to perform across different environmental demands, including heat reflection, solar control, insulation, and moisture resistance.
As wind moves through these surfaces, sound reveals the invisible. Space becomes an instrument, and the body engages through listening and attunement.
This project rejects permanence and control. It embraces contingency, where architecture acts as an evolving fabric that is responsive and performative, shaped by wind and grounded in coexistence.
