The master plan for the station plaza at Tenri Station in Nara prefecture, located in the southwest region of Japan.The plan for the 6000-sq-m area includes bicycle rentals, a cafe and other shops, an information kiosk, a play area, outdoor stage, and a meeting area. The project goal was to encourage local community revitalisation by providing a space for events, tourist information dissemination and leisure facilities for local residents.

Tenri’s urban boundaries include a number of ancient Japanese tombs, known as cofun. The cofun are beautiful and unmistakeable, but blend into the spaces of everyday life in the city. The plaza’s landscape, richly punctuated by several of these cofun, is a representation of the area’s characteristic geography - the Nara Basin, surrounded on all sides by mountains. This variety creates an environment that encourages visitors to explore and spend time in different spaces within the plaza, rather than limiting their movement to one place. It’s an 'ambiguous' space that’s entirely a cafe, a playground and a massive piece of furniture, all at once.