Last two weeks to visit the Biennale Architettura 2012. Two weeks still to the closure of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition Common Ground, curated by David Chipperfield and organized by la Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta. The last day to visit the 13th Exhibition, is Sunday, November 25th.

This time the Japan Pavilion (Commissioner: Toyo Ito; organizer: The Japan Foundation) was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.

Architects Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, Akihisa Hirata and Toyo Ito and the photographer Naoya Hatakeyama collaborated on the exhibition's design under the theme of a “Architecture possible here? Home-for-All”, developing ideas surrounding a community center for victims of the Tohoku earthquake in the devastated coastal town of Rikuzentakata.

They deserved the Golden Lion and certainly differed from egoism and individualism proposed by other pavilions.

PROJECT CREDITS

Organizer: The Japan Foundation
Venue: The Japan Pavilion at the Giardini (This pavilion was designed by Takamasa Yoshizaka, and was completed in 1956). Address: Padiglione Giapponese, Giardini della Biennale, Castello 1260, 30122 Venezia
Commissioner: Toyo Ito
Exhibitors:Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, Akihisa Hirata (Architects) and Naoya Hatakeyama (Photographer).
With special support from Ishibashi Foundation
In cooperation with Jun Sato Structural Engineers Co., Ltd.; Daiko Electric Co., Ltd.; EASTWEST Inc.; DNP Fotolusio Co., Ltd.

 

Kumiko Inui(architect), Toyo Ito (Commissioner), Akihisa Hirata(architect), Sou Fujimoto(architect), and Naoya Hatakeyama (Photographer).

 

Concept for the exhibit

One year on from the Great East Japan Earthquake, the devastated region is enveloped in the warm sunlight, calm seas and new growth of spring. Cherry trees bloom and birds sing as if nothing had happened. But while the mountains of rubble have been cleared away, across vast expanses of land the foundations of lost homes remain a vivid reminder of the towns that once existed here. Faced with such a landscape, in which all was consigned to the past in an instant, we humans cannot fail to be stupefied by the immeasurable power of nature.

But just as weeds have begun to sprout among the remaining foundations, there are strong individuals returning to these places determined to somehow begin again. Perhaps it is due to some animal-like homing instinct, but these are people who, despite the destruction of their communities by the irresistible force of nature, refuse to surrender, and are endeavoring to prove that they are still alive, and life goes on.

Such actions by local people, rooted in memories of the land, differ from the recovery plans advanced by national government or local authority. Top-down plans for recovery stress only "safety and security," ignoring the land's memories and relying instead on modernist methods. Dismantling the relationships between people and the natural world and the heart-to-heart interpersonal connections that constitute the region's historical legacy, they prefer to push plans heavily dependent on civil engineering technology. But those strong-willed individuals hoping to return to their original land and act as inheritors of the past are people who aspire to a future linked to the past, using those leftover foundations as their foothold. Are architects really able to assist them in their aims?

Immediately post-quake I proposed a project known as Home-for-All: an attempt to provide places where those who've lost their homes in the tsunami can enjoy a little breathing space – a place to meet, talk, eat and drink together.

Those living in the temporary housing erected in the disaster zone may at least have secured a minimum of privacy, but having lost their former communities, are compelled to live an isolated existence. Dwellings are small and thus unsociable. Even just to talk to the next-door neighbors requires standing outside on a bare gravel road. It struck me that we could supply small wooden buildings, places for people to gather, in a corner of these temporary housing sites, and I launched a campaign to do so. Soliciting funds from companies and organizations around the world, the idea is also to have manufacturers supply the materials free of charge.

The first Home-for-All, sponsored by Kumamoto Prefecture, appeared last autumn in a temporary housing estate in Miyagino Ward, Sendai. With the support of the Kumamoto governor, the prefecture undertook to assist with funding and supply timber as part of its Artopolis project (an initiative to select designers mainly for public facilities in the prefecture). One characteristic of Home-for-All is the way in which those "making" the facilities and those "living" in them join together to discuss the project during the design and building process. Listening to the wishes of people living in temporary housing, sympathetic students and designers, tradesmen involved in the construction work, and residents cooperate to make them reality. Admittedly small in scale, the greatest significance of the Home-for-All project lies in its realization through this meeting of minds and hearts.

Home-for-All may indeed be a small project, but this process by which the buildings come to fruition is actually hugely significant, because it questions the very meaning of the "individual" in the modern sense. Since the onset of the modern period, architecture has been rated highest for its individual originality. As a result the most primal themes – those of why a building is made, and for whom – have been forgotten. A disaster zone where everything is lost offers the perfect opportunity for us to take a fresh look, from the ground up, at what architecture really is. Home-for-All may consist of small buildings, but it posits the vital question of what form architecture ought to take in the modern era and beyond. With a view to posing this same question to people from around the world at the Venice Biennale, we are currently working to erect a Home-for-All in the city of Rikuzentakata. This latest project will be a collaborative effort with myself as commissioner, joined by the photographer Naoya Hatakeyama and three young architects: Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, and Akihisa Hirata. Hatakeyama, from Rikuzentakata, lost his mother and childhood home in the tsunami.

This has involved an ongoing quest to design the most suitable building, in association with local resident Mikiko Sugawara, who has been putting in a magnificent effort on the ground. Already we have engaged in exhaustive discussion of the project, in the process making well over a hundred models. Cedar logs have been obtained locally to use as pillars, from cedars swamped as a result of the tsunami. We expect the Home-for-All in Rikuzentakata to be completed by the opening of the Biennale. By displaying details of all the discussion surrounding the project, we will invite visitors to join us in contemplating the best way forward for architecture.

5 May 2012. Toyo Ito

 

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Naoya Hatakeyama. Born in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture in 1958. Studied with Kiyoji Otsuji in the School of Art and Design at the University of Tsukuba. Completed a master's course at the same university in 1984. Since that time, Hatakeyama has been based in Tokyo, producing series of works that are concerned with people's involvement with nature, the city, and photography. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Japan and abroad. In 2001, he showed his work in the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale along with Masato Nakamura and Yukio Fujimoto (commissioner: Eriko Osaka). An exhibition called Natural Stories, which includes scenes of his hometown of Rikuzentakata following its destruction in the tsunami earlier this year, is currently on view at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (until Dec. 4).

Photo: Marc Feustel

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Akihisa Hirata. Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1971. Graduated from the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Engineering at Kyoto University in 1994. Completed a master's course at the same university in 1997. After working at Toyo Ito & Associates, he established the Akihisa Hirata Architecture Office in 2005. At present, he is a specially-appointed associate professor at Tohoku University, and a part-time lecturer at Kyoto University, the University of Tokyo, and UCLA. Among the many honors he has received are SD Review's Asakura Award (2004), and the 19th JIA Newcomer's Award (2008). His important works include masuya (2005) and alp (2008). His published works include Contemporary Architect's Concept Series 8: Tangling (INAX, 2011).

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Sou Fujimoto was born in Hokkaido, Japan on August 4, 1971. In 1994 he graduated in architecture at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo. He established his own architecture studio, the agency Sou Fujimoto Architects, in Tokyo in 2000, and since 2007 a ​​professor at Kyoto University.

He was first noticed in 2005 when he won the prestigious AR – international Architectural Review Awards in the Young architect’s category, a prize that he garnered for three consecutive years, and the Top Prize in 2006.

In 2008, he was invited to jury these very AR Awards. The same year he won the JIA (Japan Institute of Architects) prize and the highest recognition from the World Architecture Festival, in the Private House section. In 2009, the magazine Wallpaper* accorded him their Design Award.
 Sou Fujimoto published “Primitive Future” in 2008, the year’s best-selling architectural text. His architectural design, consistently searching for new forms and spaces between nature and artifice.

Sou Fujimoto became the youngest architect to design the annual summer pavilion for London’s Serpentine Gallery in 2013, and has won several awards, notably a Golden Lion for the Japan Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale and The Wall Street Journal Architecture Innovator Award in 2014.

Photographer: David Vintiner

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Kumiko Inui. Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1969. Graduated from the Architecture and Planning Course in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1992. Completed a master's course at the School of Architecture, Yale University in 1996. Worked at Jun Aoki and Associates from 1996 to 2000. Established the Office of Inui Kumiko in 2000. Currently serving as an associate professor at Tokyo University of the Arts. Her important works include the Kataokadai Kindergarten Renovation (2001), Jurgen Lehl Marunouchi (2003), Dior Ginza (2004), Apartment I (2007; recipient of Shin-Kenchiku Prize), Small House H (2009; recipient of Tokyo Society of Architects & Building Engineers Prize), Flower Shop H (2009; recipient of Japan Federation of Architects & Building Engineers Association Prize, and the Good Design Gold Award), and Tasaki Ginza (2010). Her published works include Episodes (INAX, 2008) and Home of Asakusa (Heibonsha, 2011).

Photo by Takashi Kato.

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Toyo Ito was born in 1941. After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1965, he worked in the office of Kiyonori Kikutake until 1969. In 1971, he founded his own office Urban Robot (URBOT), which was renamed Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. Along with architecture projects all around the world, including Japan, Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A., Ito is engaged in a wide range of activities.

His recent works include the Tama Art University Library (Hachioji Campus), the Za-Koenji Public Theatre, and Torres Porta Fira in Spain. Among the many awards he has received are the AIJ Prize for Design, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale, the '06 Royal Institute of British Architecture Gold Medal, the Asahi Award, and the Prince Takamatsu World Culture Award.

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Published on: November 12, 2012
Cite: "Architecture possible here? Home-for-All. JAPAN" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/architecture-possible-here-home-all-japan> ISSN 1139-6415
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