Nishi Izu is located in the center of the west shore of the Izu Peninsula famous for its Rias coast. The coast area and a part of the Amagi Mountains were designated to be Fuji Hakone Izu National Park, and the town is surrounded by abundant nature with the ocean and the mountains and by beautiful scenery. Nishi Izu is surely progressing with the improvement for daily life environment step by step based on the policy of town development for the residents, as it preserves nature yet does not weigh too much on tourism.
Ocean-side towns surprisingly tend to disregard the ocean. Environmental design in Nishi Izu attempts to bring out its inherent characteristics or to utilize them in design rather than adding new characteristics to the town. At the very moment that the extracted “Shapes” and “Colors” of the original scene of the ocean of Nishi Izu intersect with the image we have in our unconscious, we feel the ocean as an image scene; that is a sort of design we seek for.
“Shape” is an indication of a fact that the shape of a man-made ship does not directly contradict the natural ocean. “Color” indicates white on the beach which enhances the blue of the ocean and the green of nature. Cobble stones casually lying on the beach. The hint of a truss, punched metal and a mast. We try to develop natural designs by combining the above freely and aim at recognizing the characteristics of the town and creating a comprehensive image through networking.
“Gallery of Scenery in Daily life” where a new life develops and a natural and new scenery is created in natural designs. That is the environmental design Nishi Izu is pursuing.
Text by Hiroshi Innami 1997/8