Landscape architect Taichi Saito: ‘I hope to create gentle landscapes that allow people’s hearts to feel at ease’

A subterranean library curved deep into the soil, cocooned in soft slopes of grass. An elliptical shrine rooftop, from which trees rise into the sky. Vivid greenery bursting through the futuristic angles of a buzzy urban development. For Japanese landscape architect Taichi Saito, an underlying thread is woven through all his projects: whether it’s an escapist rural abstraction or an inner-city complex, the aim is to rekindle an innate sense of harmony between humans and nature.

Meet Japanese landscape architect Taichi Saito

‘I hope to create gentle landscapes that allow people’s hearts to feel at ease, even just for a moment,’ he says. ‘By creating more spaces where people can feel the subtle pauses and natural movement that only nature can give, I hope to reconnect people to something deeper and slowly rebuild a meaningful relationship between humans and the natural world.’ Saito – with his holistic nature-rooted philosophies – has emerged as a quietly rising Japanese landscape architect since founding his company Daishizen in 2011. In addition to his own progressive initiatives, he works with a raft of top-tier architects (from Sou Fujimoto to Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP) on projects across the country.

Daishizen’s main brand is Solso, which creates green environments for a wide range of residential, commercial and urban ventures, with every element managed in-house (from planting design and construction to maintenance). The company also runs Keepgreen, a nationwide platform that aims to connect people with plants, through expert-led plant installations, maintenance, product development, retail operations – and even a digial app that uses AI technology to help people integrate greenery into their lives and spaces.

For Taichi Saito, the seed for his green journey is rooted in a nature-steeped childhood in Iwate Prefecture, north Japan, with numerous early memories of helping out at his family’s gardening shop and foraging for wild orchids in forests. Increasingly drawn to architecture, a turning point came when, aged around 16, he stumbled across a book featuring Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater – and something shifted. The moment sparked a personal epiphany, as he woke up to the possibilities within the relationship between architecture and nature.

Training took place through a mix of self-study and working at a flower and plant shop in Tokyo, paving the way for his first horticultural business in 2003, which eight years later evolved into Daishizen. Today, projects are varied in scope and scale – yet tethered by the consistency of his vision. Among them is Library in the Earth, with sloping lines of greenery wrapping a meditative subterranean space designed by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP, at Kurkku Fields, an expansive rural project in Chiba, blending organic farming, art, design and culture.

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is a key collaborator, with the pair harmonising structures and nature on a range of projects – including Shiroiya Hotel, a progressive creative hub in Maebashi, Gunma; a contemporary hall at Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine in Fukuoka, with a tilted elliptical (and season-reflecting) roof packed with greenery; and the circular garden of Not a Hotel Earth, on Ishigaki island in subtropical Okinawa.

Saito also designed landscaping for Not A Hotel Minakami Toji, a new collection of five copper-plated lodges and a restaurant on a nature-steeped mountain in Gunma, by Suppose Design Office. Other projects include Forestgate Daikanyama, a progressive Kengo Kuma-designed urban development in Tokyo, aiming to bring the ‘forest’ to the city, with a stacked wooden box structure packed with plants and trees (it’s also home to a Solso Home shop and Daishizen’s head office; the practice has a number of regional bases elsewhere in Japan too).

‘I never want to impose my vision,’ says Taichi. ‘I believe a landscape designer’s true role is to be a good listener. The ideal is a collaborative process, working closely with architects and interior designers from the earliest planning stages to weave together a unified, resonant narrative that connects deeply with nature.’ For Saito, each project is rooted in its location. ‘I place great importance on using local materials – stone, soil, and trees native to each project’s environment. For large trees in open, sky-facing spaces, I use native species. Closer to human interaction, I incorporate herbs, flowering plants, and grasses – horticultural species chosen for their comfort and sustainability.

‘We aim to source plants locally whenever possible, but we also work with trusted growers across Japan, commissioning the cultivation of around 1,000 plant species, and we raise some ourselves at our own nursery. Each plant carries its own history – and I treat that as part of the landscape,’ he says. Saito mindfully creates the gentlest human imprint on the landscape: ‘I focus on creating what I call a “necessary sense of nature” – something drawn from careful analysis of environment, geography, history and local vegetation. Through subtle human intervention, I aim to awaken and enhance the natural beauty that already belongs in the landscape.’

Saito’s work is unwaveringly imprinted with a sense of Japan – a culture deeply harmonised with the natural world, as reflected in its seasonal sensitivity, traditional culture and nature-inspired concepts of beauty. ‘Since I was born and raised in Japan, everything I create naturally springs from Japanese sensibilities,’ he says. ‘Animism, the appreciation of ma (negative space), sensitivity to moisture and shifting light – these are all part of my design language. Whether it’s the placement of a stone, the shimmer of shade beneath a tree, or the quiet change of seasons, I believe these subtle elements strongly reflect Japanese aesthetics.’

And for Saito, his lifetime quest to harmonise humans and nature has perhaps never been more timely. As he explains: ‘In a world that increasingly values diversity and sustainability, I believe landscapes offer one of the most visible and powerful expressions of these values. A landscape is something vast – it holds and shelters us. When people experience the “space” and “time” inherent in ecological cycles or plant succession, it awakens a deep, almost instinctive sense of connection with nature. Through that connection, gratitude arises – and that gratitude is key to building a truly sustainable future.’