TOHOKU + KUMAMOTO, JAPAN Home-for-All

Home-for-All is a project that explores how architects can respond to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. After observing the tough life of the victims living in standard temporary housing, Home-for-All aims to provide the affected people with an alternative home where they can gather, take warmth, drink, eat, and talk.
In Tohoku, Toyo Ito and Kazuyo Sejima play the central role to create “Home-for-All” projects in collaboration with many architects and supported by generous donations from all over the world. Sixteen Home-for-All houses have been built to date. They have variations in character and include gathering places for displaced residents, spaces for fishermen, playhouses for children, etc.
The first Home-for-All in Sendai was built with the support of Kumamoto Prefecture. Building upon this experience, another two Home-for-All houses were built after the Kumamoto Wide Area Flooding Disaster in July 2012. During the Kumamoto Earthquakes in April 2016, the Governor of Kumamoto Prefecture took the initiative in using funds from both public and private sectors as capital to build 100 Home-for-All houses constructed with timber structure.
Through this exhibition panel, we will introduce Home-for-All projects that surpassed their intended support role for the afflicted areas, and became aspirational models for both tomorrow’s public architecture and for the society to come.