Kei Kaihoh Architects has built Yukinohako in Joetsu City, Japan.

This project is a wooden snow storage house built in a small town called Yasuzuka in Joetsu City.

The snow storage is a natural refrigerator that utilises the cold heat of the snow, and during this time, rice harvested in the neighbourhood will be stored here.

"Circulation, with various scales and characteristics such as snow, people, rice, trees, wind, heat overlap," said Kei Kaihoh Architects.

As a result, the overlapping landscape is shaped into a building called snow storage by complementing some of these circulations or finding better points of contact with these circulations.

This project has been shortlisted in the sustainable building category of Dezeen Awards 2023.

Studio: Kei Kaihoh Architects
Project: Yukinohako
Credits: HSC Mechanical, Kankyo Engineering, Sanae Inoue, Yukidaruma Zaidan Foundation, Sato Sangyo, Soichiro Suizu and Yoshiomi Ito