Home-for-All
Kesennuma, 2013
Zhaoyang Architects
Home-for-All is built as a gathering space for the Kesennuma fishing community that severely suffered from the 2011 Tsunami. Located in Miyagi Prefecture, at Kesennuma's Oya fishing harbour that serves as a centre for the local fishing activities and community life. It's a shelter where fishermen can take a rest, a place where their wives can wait for their husbands to return and sometimes also function as a marketplace.

The elemental geometry of the roof creates a dome-like space underneath. Together with the materiality of the Japanese cypress plywood, it generates a warm and protective atmosphere. At the same time, the transparency of the supporting structure creates an open and welcoming character. At night, the building glows warmly from within, like a lighthouse, waiting for fishermen to come back from sea.