As one of Japan’s most significant festivals celebrating life and the coming of spring, the Hanami (flower viewing) festival sees friends and family gather under cherry trees to enjoy this fleeting occasion. This project aims to memorialise and preserve the ephemeral nature of cherry blossoms.

The building programme is a public memory archive that fosters communities’ memories of Hanami. In hopes of triggering this collective memory of the festival, elements such as, smell, colour, and craft (weaving) are investigated. These elements engage the five senses and help strengthen memory.

While exploring memory, this project also seeks to expand the demographic of its visitors to include those with memory loss, such as dementia patients. Research into memory loss and people with dementia helps drive the building proposal and planning.