After four intense weeks, the team's work on the Kyakuden finished on December 14th. It was a tough time for everyone involved, but the team can be so proud of themselves! As you can see in the pictures, their achievement is nothing short of incredible.

   For a visit of the French and Japanese TV on the last day, the house was all cleared up and equipped with the shojis. The images Andi took on the day will give you quite a good idea of how the Kyakuden will look when it's completely finished – and it will look even nicer when the grass has grown back as well!

   As mentioned before, over the next five or six months, the walls of the Kyakuden will be covered in an additional five layers of clay plastering, and the house should be ready to receive its first visitors towards the beginning of the Boisbuchet workshop season 2009. But right now, we'll all curl up for the winter and take a rest.

   I would like to extend another big Thank You to everyone who has been involved in this project, especially Nariai-san, Amenomori-san and the JKRS, as well as Alexander for making the whole thing really happen. Of course we must not forget the private sponsors who made the project possible with their generous donations!

My personal thanks go out especially to the small group of people who have been working with me on- and off-site: Yvonne Radecker from the Vitra Design Museum and Sabine Brandes from Charente Développement; Alfie, Alex and Antoine at the Domaine; and of course the team itself:

Domo arigato gozaimasu, and I hope to see you all again soon!

All photographs courtesy of and © by Andreas Raab.