The Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami devastated the coastal communities of northern Japan on March 11, 2011. Architecture for Humanity has been working closely with local architects and community leaders to respond to the immediate needs on the ground and to develop long-term sustainable construction projects.

Current projects range from transitional housing to a full rebuild of a village. A few projects will be provided construction funding and management. As always all projects will be listed under Creative Commons and shared openly with other NPO's and entities.

Within the context of the rebuilding we are working more as a social enterprise than as a traditional NPO - it is our aim to source locally, design locally and support contextual reconstruction. A number of projects we are working on are sensitive to communities and therefore we are only listing programs that the community is happy for us to discuss.

Working in a post-disaster setting is a fluid and dynamic process. Projects and communities are subject to change based on a myriad of issues. We may find ourselves working on a small school but then extending our work to other community structures. Land title or lack of financing may be a factor. Additionally if the government decides that certain communities cannot rebuild we will work with them to relocate and build new.

We will update this main page weekly and add links to specific projects as they move into development

If your community is in need of architectural or construction support do not hesitate to email us at staff (at) architectureforhumanity.org

Completed Projects

		Hikado Marketplace and Mobile Noodle Shop Location: Motoyoshi, Kesennuma-shi, Miyagi Prefecture
		'Road Home' funds Location: Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture
		Ohya Green Sports Park Location: Motoyoshi, Kesennuma-shi, Miyagi Prefecture
		Shizugawa Judo Juku Location: Shizugawa, Minami-sanriku-cho, Miyagi Prefecture
		Paper Crane Sculpture Location: Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture

Current Projects

Shizugawa Fishermen's Workspace "Banya"
Location: Shizugawa, Minami-sanriku-cho, Miyagi Prefecture

Deck at Kashiwagi Daycare Center
Location: Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture

Oshika House - Women's Cooperative
Location: Ayukawa-hama, Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture

Akahama Covered Alley
Location: Otsuchi-cho, Kamihei-gun, Iwate Prefecture

Potential Projects

Osaka Community Photo Studio
Location: Rikuzen-takata, Iwate Prefecture

Tokura Community and Youth Center
Location: Tokura, Minami-sanriku-cho, Miyagi Prefecture

Kitakami "We Are One" Collaborative
Location: Kitakami, Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture

Kazuma Youth Center
Location: Kazuma, Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture

Quotes from Community Meeting:
"how can we think about a house or anything else when we can't work?"
"We can live in tents if we have to, but we need to work before we can do anything."

Program Staff
Hiromi Tabei, Yuji Taira, Takaharu Saito

Advisory Group
Hitoshi Abe, Mark Dytham, Astrid Klein, Yutaka Takiura, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Ryo Yamazaki and Cameron Sinclair

Urban Acupuncture
A number of economic avenues were devastated by the tsunami. These financial lifelines are the engine that allows communities to become self reliant. We are looking to help a number of local shops and businesses recover and open, creating jobs and a financial future for affected communities. Additional requests from local community includes a park/day care center, storage lockers for personal possessions and repair of apartments. Both communities have strong ties to surf community and there is the potential to tap into the youth in these communities to become anchors in the rebuilding process.

Monitoring & Evaluation
Architecture For Humanity will partner with local Monitoring & Evaluation specialists to conduct an evaluation our projects in Japan. The key aim of the Monitoring and Evaluation is to assess the extent to which we are successful in meeting these goals.

Scale of work
In terms of fund raising we have raised close to $1.5M, with a majority earmarked for three projects. Our largest funding support came from an initiative led by children to fold origami paper cranes. 38 countries participated, including Japan, and more than two million cranes were created. With the projects we've been approached to support we do not have the resources to build all of them, however at a minimum we are providing professionals design services. Nike Japan and a number of family foundations and corporate partners also made contributions to the effort.

While we do not have the financial resources of the Red Cross or other NPO's we do have an incredible pool of local talented design and building professionals. As has been our track record over the past 12 years but coupling these together we can make a tangible impact in the rebuilding process.

Interested? Send questions to Get Involved.
We appreciate help making the Open Architecture Network clear and navigable. If you experience problems navigating to or learning about a project, feel free to send a note to staff@architectureforhumanity.org so we can improve it!

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