In the year 2004, the Shizuoka International Garden and Horticulture Exhibition was celebrated in Hamamatsu, right in front of Lake Hamana. Under the motto ‘Flowers, Greenery, Water: Creating a New Style of Living,’ the exhibition also known as ‘Pacific Flora 2004’ offered the public a repertoire of more than 6,000 varieties of flowers and plants from around the world.

The gate of access to the event is conceived as a vague boundary between the interior and the exterior of the exhibition. The result is a pavilion of 2,445 square meters that exudes elegance and simplicity, traditional patterns of Japanese architecture, and uses natural materials instead of industrial ones. Because of its temporary character, the exhibition design wishes to minimize its physical presence. To be more precise, 2.328 pieces of bamboo produce a subtly veiled effect and recall the atmosphere of a bamboo forest. The periphery of this apparently dense bamboo forest is softly wrapped with highly transparent, yet very inexpensive agricultural mesh. The light and immaterial image of the pavilion is emphasized even further when lit at nighttime.