An Ju

One by one small, weak, and gentle objects are gathered and linked together to become a strong space. Nowadays, those chunky buildings in the world always bring us a sense of heaviness, and they cannot be changed easily once they are built. People’s lifestyle changes day by day, but there is not any flexibility for the container that supports our way of life. What if the future buildings’ size and shape can be changed and be built by tenants themselves according to their living situation? The components of An Ju are small and soft materials as opposed to heavy and large, building architecture through the use of light materials to carefully protect people from the outside environment like a cloth gently wraps a baby. The concept of An Ju comes from the “soft cloth protection” idea of zukin, a type of Japanese headscarf used as earthquake protection. It is flexible unlike typical hard and invariable building materials such as brick. The headscarves are organized gracefully into multiple layers of variable shapes. By printing Mr. Katori Shingo’s paintings onto the headscarves, the interior becomes a space wrapped by the artist’s view of the world. An Ju is not merely a piece of architecture, but also a unique and innovative art work. As a country with frequent earthquakes, we hope to share with the world through An Ju our vision to consider the current situation and propose a solution through architecture about the future.