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GIVING A BIRD, RELEASING A FISHFALL 2024

Throughout two weeks on the island of Sagishima in Japan, the Red Dot School studio continued the deconstruction of an abandoned house. Rather than sledge-hammered down in days, the house has been disassembled over months by previous studios down to its structure.

Its long-term project is a social experiment, partnering with the City of Mihara to revitalize an aging dwindling population, like most of rural Japan. This process challenged us to rethink architecture design and history through a question of reuse, to consider buildings as repositories for not only materials, but of knowledge and past practices that may become part of new value systems.









CUT / DECONSTRUCTION

The deconstruction of half of the
house started from non-structural
elements like tatami to main structural
elements with the guidance of master
carpenters. The remaining half was
reinforced and prepared for the
Hikiya festival.


SALVAGE DATABASE

The dismantled pieces were labeled and were carried to the abandoned school gym next door. This space serves as storage, exhibit and workshop where material can be reused. A twin digital database categorizes the parts into several factors, including size, weight, type and origin.




HIKIYA

Hikiya (House Moving), has been a traditional act of displacing an entire house out of necessity. The tradition has died down but is present during festivals and parades during rites such as Omikoshi.

We organised a Hikiya festival with the islanders to carry half of the house to a new site. After hours of intense teamwork, the first attempt failed as it was too heavy.

After cutting the half in half and reinforcing it, the second Hikiya took place under pouring rain, but with careful route planning, the lift and move went surprisingly smoothly. Our calculations estimate the total weight of this part to be 657 kg.




THE LANTERN

During the 2nd Cut, we identified
a structurally unstable portion. The
corner structure and roof joists of the
old hearth were extracted and kept
intact. By building a support frame
elevating it upright, the fragment was
carried onto the beach and sat atop
the sea wall, becoming a guiding
lantern preceding the second Hikiya
festival.




The fragment seems to be
teetering on the edge of
the sea wall. It represents
this careful balance
between deconstructing
and preserving, identifying
parts which can survive as
individual entities.