Isuzu Plaza

Fujisawa, Japan

Photo © STGK Inc.

Photo © Kawasumi - Kobayashi Kenji Photograph Office

Photo © STGK Inc.

Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architects: STGK Inc. | studio gen kumagai

Location: 252-0881 Fujisawa, Japan
Year: 2017
Client: いすゞ自動車
Architect: Sasakura Associates
Exhibition plan: Tanseisha
Planting design: TREEFORTE
Biotope supervision: Keiiki Corporation

As the oldest auto-mobile manufacturer in Japan, Isuzu has been providing the "work horse" for Japan's economic growth. We have undertaken landscape design for Isuzu's corporate museum "ISUZU PLAZA" and its accommodation facility "PLAZA annex." The main building, with its voluminous white mass supported by v-shaped pillars, was created with conceptual keywords taken from Isuzu's corporate philosophy, such as "transportation" and "connection." We have also followed through with the same keywords in providing the landscape design. Placed around the central plaza garden are white plate-like structures which embody "transportation" in the shapes of truck beds in their simplest form. These "plates" act as tools to hold, carry, and display the "Isuzu" experience through the "connection" of human interaction and discovery. They are used as a stage for displaying a vehicle, tables and benches for enjoying the open air and cherry blossoms during season, or even as a pond and habitat for its surrounding ecosystem. With water features that symbolize the Isuzu river that the company's name was taken from, together with an ancient Yoshino cherry tree with a crown over twenty meters wide (said to be a part of a row of cherry trees that extends into the neighboring Isuzu main factory), this "museum landscape" manifests the Isuzu experience and spirit as a whole.