Although this towering concrete treehouse isn't really green, (unless tree imitation counts as 'green'), we couldn’t help but be awestruck by its sheer craziness. The Naha Harbor Diner in Okinawa, Japan is a life-size rendition of a banyan tree, also known as gajumaru. The aptly-named Banyan Town shopping center near the entrance of Onoyama Park features a twenty foot tall tree with a pan-Asian restaurant nestled amid its branches. Accessible by a spiral staircase around back and an in-trunk elevator, the restaurant specializes in locally grown and organic harvested foods fresh from the farm.
Wow! If I’d seen this on another website I’d be thinking Photoshop; it’s a very wacky piece of architecture.
concrete! this is not ‘green’ AT ALL! concrete is hugely ‘carbon-intensive’ to create – not to mention the environmental damage done to actually get the commodities to make/transport concrete!
With so many energy saving/environmentally ‘friendly’ building and manufacturing technologies emerging, it’s ridiculous to feature a concrete structure simply ‘cause it ‘looks like’ a tree! C’mon now…
I\’d like to see those construction documents!!!!! Apply fake bark here—->
I’d like to see those construction documents.
I would say that is has the bibliophile going for it. biophillia with steven kellert
My fantasy is that someday there will be enough “old growth” trees that places like this would spot the restaurant rows in many great cities!
This place is a bit of an oxymoron, heh?
Unfortunately, speaking as someone who lives in Okinawa and has eaten there before, the food is overpriced and not that great. This doesn’t hurt business, though, because it’s right by the airport and does look pretty freaking cool.
i would not like one of those branches to fall off and hit me, and people are parking their cars under that!?
This island is mostly either jungle or city- ALL the buildings here are concrete- you’d be an idiot not to have concrete with the typhoons that roar through here…. The branches will not fall off and hit your car. parking under a metal light pole in the WalMart parking lot is far more dangerous.
I have gone to about 30 websites on Naha Harbor Diner (for this is the name of this restaurant) and I have gotten very mixed reviews on the food and service, so I think we’ll pass. I just had to point out that in spite of the environmental ramifications, nothing on this island would be standing if it weren’t made of thick concrete.
Great nature restaurant!
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com