The shelter was built by the London-based Studio Armitage among the rice fields and vegetable plots of the Amagatsuji district in Nara. The studio's founder, Freddie Armitage, used to cycle there and noticed that the gardeners had nowhere to sit down, even though in summer the sun beats down and rain arrives suddenly.
It is assembled from standard timber beams and battens, stands on concrete blocks and is easy to take apart. In the middle is a blue water tank: it works as ballast and also holds a shared supply for watering. The benches at the sides face different directions, one toward the morning sun, the other toward the evening sun. The ends of the beams are painted the same blue.
