Noma Bar

Birds Eye View

A team of 20 Japanese carpenters constructed the viewing house, with the structure itself forming the shape of a bird, playfully working in three dimensions as Bar’s conceptually driven illustrations do on paper. For the illustrator, it was important to retain the visual storytelling of his work, an architectural form translated into the environment in which the visitor interacts with the structure, both visually and as a functioning viewing house.

«Birds Eye View» is located in a high point, with visitors at first encountering giant leaf shapes made from wood whose profile form the shape of a bird. Bar’s source of inspiration for the work came from the chance finding of 2 leafs on the floor, their position reminding him of the shape of a bird in profile.

A moment of visual chance, the work takes this concept into architecture, revealing the bird shape only from one point of view, adding depth to the visual playfulness, allowing the reveal only as the public explores the location. From another approach you only see the leaf shapes gradually transform into stairs entering an interior space. Once inside the platform itself you discover a beautiful «Birds Eye View» of Mount Asama, an active volcano in central Japan seen across the landscape.

Standing 9 meters in height, the bird structure is discovered amongst the trees, harmoniously using a single tree trunk as support for the view house, reminding you of how Bar usually constructs illustration with simple geometric shapes, using an economy of form to allow the audience a sense of discovery and storytelling. As illustration expands into a wider field of practice, the project allowed Bar to explore ideas on a larger scale, to create an immersive object that the public can interact with physically and to gain play from.