Sustainable Housing | The Gondar Japanese Pavilion by Atelier Tekuto
Japanese architects Atelier Tekuto have updated their website with images of The Japanese Pavilion, a project to disassemble a vacant traditional home in rural Japan and transport it to Gondar, Ethiopia where it is reassembled into a working home. The joint project between several parties, which included the City of Gondal and the Society for Research on Traditional Japanese Homes was announced in August 1, 2008 and came to a close exactly 1 year later.
Before the relocation
After the relocation
According to the Society for Research on Traditional Japanese Homes – a non-profit organization who advocates the reusing of abandoned traditional Japanese homes – there are 30,000 “high-quality” homes in Shimane Prefecture alone that have been vacant for over 5 years. They also continue to argue that, on average, these homes, if destroyed, would create 30 tons of rubble. If you were to incinerate them it would release 15 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. And according to Atelier Tekuto’s estimates, the entire process – from disassembling, shipping and reassembling – could save the environment in excess of 8.4 tons of C02.
Due to some of the infrastructure constraints in Gondar, Atelier Tekuto installed a water purification system that would convert rainwater to drinking water, as well as solar roof panels that would provide the necessary energy to power the pumps and lighting.
The space is currently being utilized for vocational training.
Sustainable Housing | The Gondar Japanese Pavilion by Atelier Tekuto
Japanese architects Atelier Tekuto have updated their website with images of The Japanese Pavilion, a project to disassemble a vacant traditional home in rural Japan and transport it to Gondar, Ethiopia where it is reassembled into a working home. The joint project between several parties, which included the City of Gondal and the Society for Research on Traditional Japanese Homes was announced in August 1, 2008 and came to a close exactly 1 year later.
According to the Society for Research on Traditional Japanese Homes – a non-profit organization who advocates the reusing of abandoned traditional Japanese homes – there are 30,000 “high-quality” homes in Shimane Prefecture alone that have been vacant for over 5 years. They also continue to argue that, on average, these homes, if destroyed, would create 30 tons of rubble. If you were to incinerate them it would release 15 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. And according to Atelier Tekuto’s estimates, the entire process – from disassembling, shipping and reassembling – could save the environment in excess of 8.4 tons of C02.
Due to some of the infrastructure constraints in Gondar, Atelier Tekuto installed a water purification system that would convert rainwater to drinking water, as well as solar roof panels that would provide the necessary energy to power the pumps and lighting.
The space is currently being utilized for vocational training.
December 14, 2009 View Comments
TNA Architects | Direction House
TNA Architects, known for their daring endeavors to construct homes in harsh environments, such as in the middle of forests and on rocky mountain ledges, have recently updated their website with Direction House, or maybe Directional House? – I’m not sure what the appropriate translation for 方の家 would be.
As you can see, their choice for sites remains constant and I love how the pillars extend through the rooms creating partitions. TNA was one of my top picks and included in the Contemporary Japanese Architects piece I did back around the beginning of 2008.
Related:
December 14, 2009 View Comments
