Japan 2011, a terrible earthquake + tsunami stroke entire cities and put people into caos. In front of emergency, loss and alienation, can architecture give any help?

In 2011 Japan was hit by a strong earthquake (the most powerful ever registered in the country) and the Government immediately started rebuilding plans. These rebuilding strategies are submitted to strict rules, on order to optimize time and saving money…and leave very little freedom to architects, too little for those that see high potential post-emergency rebuilding. The KYSIN group is set up exactly in this occasion. The KYSIN group, led by Toyo Ito, gathers some of the most important contemporary Japanese architects. Their concept is easy: considering designer and customer au-pair, in order to create projects that meet all human needs. First of all, avoiding loneliness. This is why they created Home-for-All, communitarian structures set in the temporary camps, within temporary accommodations. The Home-for-All buildings don’t need to be so big: they are just cornerstones in which people can meet to eat, to talk, to discuss…and to stay together at night, when the suffered trauma prevent them from sleeping.

Now, 7 Home-for-All were built in 6 of the stricken towns. Released from the standards that control the construction of temporary accommodations (for example dimension, shape, position, …) the “Home-for-All strategy” adapts itself to different places and traditions. In fact, the first step is to ask people what they need and which is their idea of reconstruction. This is the reason why each Home-for-All is different from the other, representing every time a different “genius loci“. Every Home for All also reinterpretate some elements of the Japanese traditional houses: so they aren’t only meeting points, but also a bond to their before-emergency lifes.