Jindaiji Garden

The project site was previously used as a storage site for potted trees and bonsai. The ground was covered with black anti-weed sheet and there was little biodiversity observed on site, not to mention that it had no practical use of the green environment.

As the second SITES-certified landscape at Green Wise, the company-owned site was transformed into a semi-public residential site; the landscape designed primarily as edible garden and the ground left unfurnished allowing for wild herbs and native weeds to grow naturally as ground cover. There are two residential buildings, with full solar panel coverage on the roofs, and a restaurant building, with a backyard kitchen garden. The vegetables and herbs grown in the garden supply the restaurant with seasonal produce. The guests can freely wonder around the green garden, where the strong and tall Zelkova tree stands at the center of the site, as a symbol for sustainability of this site. Rainwater infiltrates directly into the bare ground where it replenishes the ground water wells allowing for natural irrigation. What falls on the building roof is collected in rainwater tanks and recycled for outdoor irrigation use during the summer and for flushing toilets within the residential buildings. The rainwater recycling can be visually observed at the raingarden installed, where the water flows in as a temporal reservoir and slowly allows it to saturate underground. 

The Jindaiji Garden was designed to become a semi-public garden where people can gather and experience the wilds of nature and appreciate the ecosystem services nature provides us. The garden aims to send a message that life surrounded by nature and other living things and the co-existing relationship with the ecosystem is actually possible even in urban settings.

"By having this project internationally acknowledged as SITES Platinum certified, we can achieve unbiased credibility on our approach to create a sustainable landscape. It was also highly useful as a communication tool when we had to obtain the understanding of the construction team to work collaboratively.” – Yuichi Tamaru, Representative Director of Green Wise Co., Ltd.