24. Le Jardin des rizières

Hideyuki Mori has been practising as an architect since 1997, and took the “Paul Smither Plants course” in 2009. He has been fascinated by the gardens adorning Kyoto’s temples and shrines ever since his student days, and studies the tradition of the Japanese garden. He is currently active in a number of fields, including architecture, landscaped garden design and contemporary art installations. He won the Prize for Excellence at the 2012 Hokkaidô Garden Show, for “A Playful Garden for Goats – Garden in Bales of Straw” and the Encouragement Prize for “Forest Chapel – Swing in the middle of the woods”. He has also been awarded numerous prizes for his participation in architecture and garden design competitions.

Kazuki Hirai became one of landscape designer Paul Smither’s pupils in 2008. Since then, he has spent much of his time on layout and management of gardens located on the estate. As an administrative assistant for public and private sites, he is actively involved in projects led by Paul Smither and bearing on creation of gardens accommodating wild plants.

Hiroaki Mori took the “Paul Smither Plants course” in 2009. He puts his talents first and foremost at the service of private individuals, for whom he designs, creates and maintains natural gardens composed mainly of perennials and cultivated without the use of any phytosanitary products. He has a special fondness for leaf plants such as hostas and graminae. Alongside his garden activities, he also works as a television photographer. He won the Prize for Excellence at the 2012 Hokkaidô Garden Show, for “A Playful Garden for Goats – Garden in Bales of Straw”.

Hiroshi Fukawa has been working with a firm of landscape architects since 1997, devoting himself to layout of parks and design and creation of private gardens. His father was a professional gardener and he grew up watching him work, drawn to the world of plants ever since he can remember. When he creates a garden, he endeavours to coax each and every plant into showing itself off to best advantage. He won the Prize for Excellence at the 2012 Hokkaidô Garden Show, for “In the company of the forest’s inhabitants”.

Yûji Shimizu studied architecture at the University of Fine Arts. Following initial experience with an architectural firm, he began working as a carpenter in 1999. He devotes himself to the construction of buildings with traditional wooden architecture, such as temples and shrines, as well as to projects for dismantlement of old houses and their reconstruction on new sites.