Fronting a tranquil patch of the Shiribetsu River, BōGa 望河 has a river view worthy of the name. The house is designed to take in the views of the river and Mt. Yotei into each and every room. From the lower floor, the house is totally private, encapsulated by the Hokkaido forest. From the upper floor, you feel like you can reach out and touch the treetops.
With a love of wood, the owner asked us to incorporate as much native wood as possible into the chalet. Visiting a local timber yard, Taiga individually selected each post and beam in the living room from large Hokkaido cedars. The solid larch planks on the walls of the lounge give a feeling of being surrounded by trees. Solid ash and oak counters appear throughout BōGa, but the statement furniture piece is the 4m long dining table, which is a single slab of Japanese camphor wood.
The living room feature wall is a collaboration between a master Hokkaido plasterer who uses all natural soils, and an ikebana (flower arrangement) specialist. Embedded into the plaster is an actual cherry branch, evocative of the surrounding forest. The same team brought a unique touch to the tokonoma in the tatami room, by embedding the flower arrangement right into the wall itself.