Local cedar forms snow-cooled rice warehouse in Niigata Prefecture

Japanese studio Kei Kaihoh Architects has completed a timber-framed storage facility in Joetsu City that offers rice farmers a way to refrigerate their harvest without relying on gas or electricity.
Instead, the Yukinohako facility is naturally cooled using snow – an abundant local material in this mountainous part of Niigata Prefecture, surrounded by ski resorts and terraced rice paddies.
With the aim of creating a model that could be cheaply and easily replicated across the prefecture, K