Architectural Blueprint to Miniature Japanese Inn Scene

The architectural floor plan of a traditional Japanese ryokan is spread out on a drafting table, and the space is sublimated into a habitable miniature. In the tatami-matted guest room, a futon and a low table are laid out, and a traveler in a yukata gazes at a karesansui (dry landscape garden) under construction. In the hot-spring bathhouse, there's a cypress-wood tub and a bamboo water spout, and steam rises as an elderly guest quietly soaks in the water. In the kaiseki dining room, a lacquered tray sits atop a cushion, and the warm light of a lantern filters in through the shoji screen. The walls exist both as lines and as actual partitions. The sightlines drawn on the floor plan become the actual views between the spaces. The paths people walk appear like faint traces. The architectural-scale figures become tiny inhabitants living tiny lives, and the cross-section reveals the vertical relationships. Around it are placed an architect's tools, such as a scale ruler and a pencil.