All information presented below (text, banners, video) can be used freely, without Buildner written permission, by any media, but only for purposes relating to the Tokyo Urban Meditation Cabins competition.

For potential media partners who are interested in covering competition winners, please contact us at: [email protected] 

Buildner is excited to announce the results of its Tokyo Urban Meditation Cabins Competition, in which participants submitted designs for a meditation cabin prototype that could be replicated and placed in various locations around Tokyo. The cabins should serve as a small public sanctuary where people can take a break from the noise of urban life.

Debora Di Francesco and Doni Hallko from the University of Camerino in Italy won first prize for their Shinrin-Yoku project. It proposed a narrow, semi-circular reflective form that is accessed along its long axis through a small side opening. Its namesake uses a Japanese term for ‘baths in the forest’ and the project is designed as a protective shell containing an immersive natural interior space where one can spend a few moments to escape the city. Koh Noguchi, Javier Arés and Juan Pablo Lopez Isabella from the UK won second prize for their Tranquilizing the Void project, which makes use of the urban voids that are ubiquitous in Tokyo, a byproduct of the city’s constant flux of demolition and reconstruction.

Third prize was awarded to Leo Liu from China, who proposed a flexible structure of vertical elements resembling a bamboo forest for their Riot of Calmness project.

Visit architecturecompetitions.com/tokyocabins/ to see the full jury comments as well as high resolution images of all our winning design projects, including the Buildner Sustainability Award winners Vincent Gillot, Gregoire Vizzari and Leonor Mayoux from France.

[Download high resolution images and diagrams]


1st prize and Buildner Sustainability Award

2nd prize

3rd prize

Buildner Sustainability Award