A chance encounter at a forest campsite led to architect Takeshi Ikeuchi’s unusual commission for a moving wooden showroom for timber specialist Takeda Forestry. The initial brief from the company, based in Ehime on Shikoku island, Japan, was to both show off some of its milled sugi (cedar) and hinoki (cypress) planks; and design a showroom on wheels that could be used flexibly – for example as a small shop or for workshops.
‘Takeda’s factory sits in a rural place called Oda, famous for the quality of both types of timber,’ Ikeuchi explains. ‘This is Kei truck country, and we thought, what would be better than using a tiny truck as the base for their moving showroom?’
