This project aims to build a multi-purpose community center (health post, classroom, emergency evacuation center) for the villagers who have lost their homes by the earthquake in 2015. The building will be using a temporary housing unit from Fukushima made from Logs built after their disaster in 2011 and waiting to become a waste. The aim is to provide safe community space and education for a new building type and material the village can grow/build on empowering their economic in the long term.
The earthquake in 2015 has killed over 8,700, leaving thousands of people without a home. Most cannot afford to rebuild their homes and yet lives in temporary shelters wrapped in a thin sheet of metal they have salvaged for years without much hope. Over 50,000 temporary housing units were constructed in Tohoku Japan and are now awaits dismantling to becoming waste. For the first time, about 600 units of them were made from Logs using mostly local lumber with reuse in mind but nowhere to go.
This project aims to provide much-needed health post and classroom to the village without teachers or doctors regularly due to their location. Through building this facility, it will teach and set an example to the people who seek other safe building methods they could implement in the poor regional areas. It will also set an example for a reused temporary home using logs, initiating discussions about constructing and reuse of temporary home in Japan, minimizing waste in the future.
Over 100 log units are still available if provided with large scale funding. This project provides an option for safe homes using logs, a material they could grow locally and start a business. Currently, the regional villagers have little income and thus the younger generation leaves for the City. Seen how it could be used for buildings, by planting trees and raising them for logs, they could sell the logs for building material. This helps the environment, prevent future landslides in the area
