Exploring the Relationship Between Inside and Outside: Ikimono Architects
photographed by
Ikimono Architects
materials provided by
Ikimono Architects
SPACE November 2025 (No. 696)
Based in Takasaki, about 100 kilometers from Tokyo, Ikimono Architects (principal, Fujino Takashi) have been exploring the relationship between the natural and the artificial, the interior and the exterior, experimenting with the formal possibilities that emerge along their boundaries. A series of houses built within the vegetation, topography, and everyday landscape delicately refine the flow of space, forming open environments where the external world and the inhabitant’s sensibilities intersect.Editor
Flower and Roots (2024)
Interview Fujino Takashi principal, Ikimono Architects × Lee Sowoon
Lee Sowoon (Lee): Your office name, Ikimono (生き物), means ‘living being’. What does this name represent?
Fujino Takashi (Fujino): It reflects my intention not to separate nature from the artificial, but to treat both as elements that together compose the human environment. Whether it is a tree still alive or one already cut and processed into lumber, I wish to regard them equally, without distinction, with the same gaze.
Lee: You established your own practice in 2006, choosing Takasaki as your base. How has this environment, distinct from that of a major city, shaped your architectural approach?
Fujino: In Takasaki, there is less pressure to maximise the building coverage or floor area ratio, which allows for more generous spatial planning. Naturally, this presents opportunities to design not only the building itself but also the surrounding outdoor spaces, leading me to perceive the ‘inside and outside’ as part of one continuous flow. One reason I chose to open my current office here is that this place enabled a way of thinking that naturally crosses boundaries, looking outward from the interior garden to the external environment. Of course, this is also where I was born and raised, but more than that, it is a place where I can closely observe how things change over time, whi...
*You can see more information on the SPACE No. November (2025).
*Subscribers can browse through E-Magazine right now. >> Available Here
Fujino Takashi
Fujino Takashi was born in Gunma, Japan in 1975. He studied architecture at the Tohoku University and received a master’s degree. He worked for Shimizu Corporation and Haryu Wood Studio before establishing his own studio Ikimono Architects in 2006. He has been an associate professor at the Tohoku University from 2022. He received a doctoral degree in 2023 from the same university.
