How the Ancient Concept of "Shakkei" Can Enhance the Beauty of Your Home
The traditional East Asian design principle involves incorporating elements of a distant landscape, or "borrowed scenery," into a garden setting.
The traditional East Asian design principle involves incorporating elements of a distant landscape, or "borrowed scenery," into a garden setting.
What do you see when you look out your window? Is there a mountain range in the distance or a glimpse of of the ocean? Perhaps there’s a city skyline or a particularly impressive tree. The ancient East Asian concept of shakkei, which translates to "borrowed landscape" or "borrowed scenery," can help facilitate a greater connection between your home and the surrounding views.
The Tairyu-Sanso garden in Kyoto, Japan, was designed in by pioneering Japanese garden architect Ogawa Jihei VII, who also laid out the idyllic Heian-jingū and Murin-an gardens. "Here, Ogawa incorporates the distant view of Mount Higashiyama," says garden designer Sophie Walker, author of The Japanese Garden (Phaidon, 2017). "With the carefully composed natural scenes framed by windows and sloping roofs, you would never know that this private property is surrounded by the modern city of Kyoto."
Sophie Walker
"Shakkei is the ancient technique of incorporating a distant landscape into a garden setting so as to appear seamlessly connected to the design," says Sophie Walker, author of The Japanese Garden (Phaidon, 2017). While the technique was practiced in Japanese gardens as early as the Heian period (794–1185 AD), the Chinese coined the Mandarin term for the concept in the 17th century. Shakkei played a key role in Japanese garden design during the Edo period (1603–1868). The design principle later became popular among modernist architects in the 1960s.
Japanese practice Kengo Kuma and Associates teamed up with Suteki America to build the Suteki House for the 2017 NW Natural Street of Dreams residential construction showcase in Oregon. The home "envisions a new mode of suburban living by combining Japanese spatial principles and a nature-based, American way of life," according to the architects.
Courtesy of Suteki
The common spaces in the Suteki House deliberately frame exterior views. "The beautiful oak trees on the opposite side of the creek are still ‘belonging’ to this house by the use of shakkei, which expands limits visually," explain the architects.
Courtesy of Suteki
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