No Constraints or Restrictions: Mini Mt. Fuji

If I had to do a chance to do any project, with no limitation it would be to create a topographic map installation. 3 years ago, I made a tiny cardboard model of Mt. Fuji, and I want to make a large scale version in stone, from the top down to 3,700ft.

The purpose of creating a fake Mt. Fuji, would be to bring an iconic landscape overseas, and could work with other landscapes. To make it as giant as it is, would so people can linger and sit and enjoy the space.

The installation will have 17 layers, each 6 inches tall, so the overall will be 102 inches or 8 1/2 feet in height. The bottom 12 layers would be made of Bardiglio Grigio, stone with a blue tint, while the top 5 layers will be Statuario Venato, a white stone, for the snow covered top.

The width of the installation is harder to figure out, with all the curves. At the longest widths it would approximate about 70 feet x 65 feet on the bottom layer, while the top layer would be about 12 feet x 15 feet.

Since it is too expensive to have the entirety of the project be stone, I would fill the centers with cement and mulch.

On top of the installation would be a cherry blossom, planted at an angle, so when it blooms it looks like pink smoke coming out and carried in the wind. Thus needing the dirt, only guessing how much dirt is needed for a tree, about 5 feet in depth and 7 feet wide, about 35 square feet.

The concrete would be also hard to estimate without an exact size. Following an equation for a volume of a pyramid, (LWH/3=V), 70x65x8/3=12,133.33 square feet. A max estimate as the topographic map of Mt. Fuji is not an exact pyramid and would require less concrete.

The most difficult part of this project is finding a supplier and estimating a price.