OPEN HOUSE!

1st semester - Didactic Studio - Fall 2018-19

-A new learning place for Shirakawa-Cho, Gifu Prefecture, Japan

-Professors: prof. Luca Maria Francesco Fabris, Prof. Rajendra Singh Adhikari

-Group Members:  Mario Fondeur, Alexander Guzman, Enzo Nercolini

The request is to provide an education facility in the heart of Shirakawa-Cho, a village that has struggled in the past years with fleeing youth that seeks a future in the nearby big cities while conceiving a potential future of positive change for the community.  

Conditions: A significant amount of the village’s houses is currently abandoned and in a state of decay. Housing demand is not enough to solve the growing blight. Students attending the future school will need accommodation.

Our proposal was defined as strengthening existing relationships between the houses and the network of streets, pathways, and roads. The river's presence also plays a major role in the site choice, as we believe that the village could benefit from a more close connection to the waterscape.

We propose the connection of both sides of the village through a bridge and the banks' landscaping to allow for leisure activities to develop on the edges. Our imagination points us towards Kyoto’s Kamo River and its buzzing urban life.

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