Cedar Garden Bench

摘要

When I was asked to design a bench for a garden at the Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, N.Y., my goal was to build something beautiful that would age gracefully outdoors. My first step was to pick a wood that could withstand years in the weather-even without a finish. My thoughts traveled to the magnificent wooden buildings I had visited in Kamakura, Japan-a historic city brimming with meticulously crafted wooden temples that are hundreds of years old. In Japan, a common wood used for temple and bathhouse construction is hinoki, an indigenous, fragrant variety of cypress that is particularly resistant to decay. It was used to build the Horyu-ji temple outside of Nara, Japan, which is just over 1,300 years old and still in daily use.