Jorge Almazán Architects . Keio University Studiolab . photos: © Montse Zamorano

For years, a group of old wooden houses and warehouses, formerly used to sell and store rice, remained abandoned in the industrial city of Ota, Gunma Prefecture. Like most vacant and derelict sites in provincial Japan, the most probable fate for these buildings was demolition followed by the construction of the generic prefabricated houses that have homogenized Japan’s regional landscape. The owner, a designer and advertising art director, wanted to give new life to the compound and contacted us to conceive a different future in which art and creativity would play a central role. We transformed the existing structures—two houses and three warehouses—into spaces to accommodate both exhibition and production of artwork. The project creates a new focus of activity in the neighborhood and demonstrates an alternative approach to urbanism. Continue reading Almazán . KUS