Dear friends,
Spring is no longer a promise. At Belloch, the poplars and sweetgums have, once again, almost surprisingly, burst into full leaf in just a matter of days.
As the design world turns its gaze back to Milan, at our headquarters we’ve been looking toward Asia as a way of thinking about space and time through a different rhythm. As we were talking about it, your message came right through, Javier. We pictured you in Brussels, sketching a Japanese garden.
Shiro, our latest outdoor light, comes from that same attentive gesture. It sits within the landscape with a quiet, almost imperceptible presence. Its reference lies in traditional Japanese architecture and in the open relationship between inside and outside. Shiro recalls the yukimi-shōji, panels designed for contemplating snow or cherry blossom, filtering light and shaping spaces that exist in between.
This way of inhabiting space also appears in the machiya, the traditional townhouse of Kyoto. In a project by Keiji Ashizawa Design, a machiya has been restored and brought into the present while preserving its essential structure. The sequence of rooms, the timber frame, the latticework, the shoji panels and the inner garden continue to organize the experience with a natural sense of harmony and beauty. | 
