Naoyuki Aoki's Award-Winning Design: The Bamboo Forest

A Unique Blend of Glamping, Animal Therapy, and Nature Hotels

Naoyuki Aoki's design, The Bamboo Forest, is a leisure facility that combines a zoo and glamping. The inspiration for this design came from Ms. Sakamoto, the director of Zounokuni at Ichihara. The aim was to create an urban oasis for those seeking respite from the stress of daily urban life. The Bamboo Forest is conveniently located and easily accessible by car from central Tokyo.

The unique feature of this design is the opportunity it provides for guests to interact with animals at any time. Guests can have breakfast with giraffes, feed capybaras, lemurs, and other animals. This interaction with animals provides a healing effect for adults and a learning experience for children. The design is a blend of steel tent, cotton tent, and wooden building, covering a total area of 2000 square meters.

The design was realized with the help of Sayuri Sakamoto, Sayuri World, Zounokuni of Ichihara, Chisato Maruyama COPLUS Co.,Ltd., Tetsushi Ishibashi, and Shuhei Shibayama, Republica. The project started in 2019 and was completed in 2020 at Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture.

The Bamboo Forest project was initiated with the aim of revitalizing zoos nationwide. The number of zoo visitors has been decreasing due to the declining birthrate. By making this project successful, it is hoped that it will lead to an increase in the number of zoo visitors. The design provides a place for "healing" and "learning," which are in high demand in today's stressful society.

The challenge in this design was to create a glamping facility that is located next to a zoo and allows guests to interact with animals. The six accommodation buildings have interiors inspired by the animals of "Sayuri World" and the sister garden "Ichihara Elephant Country". The design combines "Zoo" and "Bamboo Forest" to create a glamping facility that provides a healing effect.

The Bamboo Forest design has been well received for its calmness and distinctive furniture in animal-named tents. The design concept of this facility is to provide an elegant time in a quiet bamboo forest and to relieve daily stress. The design includes a dome-shaped tent with a subdued color, a cotton tent with a gel-like atmosphere, and a tree house with the image of a giraffe.