As summer wedding season kicks into high gear, this chapel on the grounds of a seaside resort in Onomichi, Japan, will no doubt attract design-minded couples from far and wide. Tokyo-based architect Hiroshi Nakamura envisioned the building (completed in December 2013) as two spiraling pathways that structurally support each other, their intertwined timber-clad forms converging some 50 feet in the air.
In place of a traditional procession down an aisle, the betrothed can ascend the respective staircases simultaneously, taking in picturesque views at every twist and turn before uniting at the top. Beyond making for a poignant metaphor, the ribbonlike edifice is an impressive feat of engineering, realized in collaboration with the design firm Arup. Stabilizing the tower is a carefully calibrated network of steel columns that, like the building’s windows, were conceived to withstand earthquakes and strong winds. After all, in architecture as in marriage, it helps to be prepared for occasional turbulence.
