A pub will be hosting a week of Japanese rural culture.

From April 17 The Farmer’s Arms at Lowick Green will be hosting a week of exchange centred around the building of a food store, designed as an off grid, low-cost replacement of the existing system using local materials, principally larch from Graythwaite estate.

The building will revive the use of the wattle and daube technique seen in many food related buildings throughout the area.

The project is led by Anglo-Japanese architect Takeshi Hayatsu and Kiyoshi Fukuda, a traditional Shikkui plasterer.

The lime plaster uses seaweed and chopped hemp with the wood preserving treatment being based on iron oxide.

The building reflects local materials but with unexpected twists with local traditions being represented by swill basket maker Owen Jones MBE and master craftsmen Tom Philipson and Simon Athersmith.

The Mail: Figure 2. The Farmer's Arms Arts and Community Pub, Lowick Green.Figure 2. The Farmer's Arms Arts and Community Pub, Lowick Green. (Image: Submitted)

The project will also revive the folk tradition of pargetting, decorative plaster relief work found on several historic buildings across the Lake District.

During the week Japanese chefs Motoko Fujita and Mrs Fukudasan will be cooking traditional Japanese meals which will be available to the public in the pub on April 21 and 22.

On Wednesday April 19, influential Anglo Japanese architect Takeshi Hayatsu will discuss his work in the UK and Japan, his interest in building with and for communities and the current project underway at The Farmer’s Arms.

Funded by the Sasakawa and Diawa Foundations with further support from Japan House, the project represents a new future for The Farmer’s Arms. It will bring traditions together, find alternative ways to manage food storage and preservation, and put learning at the centre of this dynamic community enterprise.

Adam Sutherland, director of Grizedale Arts and The Farmer’s Arms, said: “The Farmer’s Arms is a remarkable historic building, for hundreds of years the gateway to the valley and a vital hub for the local community.

"It is also a hot house meeting point where ideas and politics would have been exchanged, a melting pot of culture, class, ambition and enterprise – Inns were once very much more than drinking dens. The Farmer’s needs to claim back that dynamic role.”

Tickets to Takeshi’s talk are available to purchase here: https://lakedistrictfarmersarms.com/whats-on/soup-talks-architect-takeshi-hayatsu-construction-conservation-and-community/