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In the high country of Karuizawa, Japan with pine trees and snow, under the eyes of a neighboring volcano, the sloping stone base of this wedding chapel unites the ascending concrete arches that project up and out of the natural terrain. For insulation from the cold, the self-supporting concrete arches are separated by double glass. The chapel turns in plan towards the south, affording a more uniform distribution of solar radiation from the sun that rolls westerly across the sky. The chapel is radiant heated by tubes of water in the floor. The thermal mass of rock, concrete, and marble floors make it energy effective. The doors, pulpit and pews were designed and hand-crafted from fine cherry wood on the site in a design-build process. As in Nature, the engineering of this chapel represents an integral expression of form. The number-one wedding chapel in the world, this wedding chapel provides more than 4000 weddings a year.
The chapel website declares that five elements of nature -- stone, light, green, water and tree -- are used for the building. The chapel is covered with light and silence, where the stone expresses a healthy and strong man, while glass expresses a delicate and brilliant woman, both of which form an arc and support each other. This represents the life of a couple, going forward to their happiness.
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