Post‐Disaster Public Housing in Nakamachi 2, Yabuki Town, Fukushima, Japan Houses as an Environmental Exchange Device

ABSTRACT

In Japan, people who lose their homes due to natural disasters can move into post‐disaster public housing provided and constructed by the government. The challenges in constructing such housing are to foster a community of new residents and to ensure sufficient environmental performance within a limited construction cost and period. This project is a post‐disaster public housing in Yabukimachi, Fukushima Prefecture, which was damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. We proposed a prototypical house that uses familiar and universal technologies and serves as a backdrop for daily life, integrating an open space that encourages interaction among residents and environmental technologies for a comfortable life in cold regions. We call this concept “housing as an environmental exchange device,” and believe that it has the potential to become a model for future living spaces.