After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the “Home-for-All” project consisted of 16 homes built across towns in Sanriku. After the Kumamoto earthquake that occurred in 2016, a total of 93 “Home-for-All” were built within the region’s temporary housing site. 

The “Home-for-All” had initially intended to be a small gathering place for the victims of the disaster and their children, to provide a place of comfort where the disaster-stricken people who have lost their homes can talk, eat and live closely with one another.

As we continued to develop the “Home-for-All” project, however, we began to contemplate how it harboured a more profound and significant meaning. That is, it does not simply support people affected by the disaster, but also posts a question to architects themselves: what does sociality mean for architects? For whom is the architecture meant to be? Most architects would respond to this question with the answer, “for society.” How could we determine then, that this perception of “society” is not based on the self-righteousness or satisfaction of the architect? Aren’t architects simply looking upon society in an abstract way, detaching themselves from reality with a third-person’s point of view? I believe that it is necessary for architects to observe the actual society from within, make proposals that relate to the same perspective as the people who live there.

The “Home-for-All” is a project that is built upon the premise of “thinking together and creating together” with the community. It is an architectural manner that goes further than simply supporting the people affected by the disaster to question the most fundamental meaning of the future of public architecture. I would like students to present proposals that build from and go beyond the concept of “Home-for-All” from a perspective that takes into consideration of people living in our society today.