Orandajima House
Orandajima House
Orandajima House is schoolhouse and community centre built in the wake of the devastating tsunami that hit the Japanese town of Yamada-machi in 2012. As a result of the town’s historical connection with Holland, the project was sponsored by a group of international volunteers that included several Dutch companies and the Dutch Embassy to Japan.
The design brief envisaged a space of approximately 200 square metres with capacity for some 60 children at a time, with the intention of providing a safe space allowing them to play, study, and recover from the trauma of an event that saw much of the town destroyed and many friends and relatives killed.
The project was completed in a short time and to a negligible budget, and is still actively used by the community 12 years after the tsunami. In the mornings, it serves as a place for mothers and pre-school infants to gather. After 3 o’clock it is reserved for school-aged children, while at weekends it functions as a community centre. The municipal government is also exploring ways to adapt the facility to support use by seniors and deepen its value to the community for years to come
Constructed on a difficult site located on elevated land protected from future tsunamis, the wooden building is a simple, silent structure. Following advice from a child psychiatrist at Tohoku University, the architect designed the structure from the inside out, aiming to create an immersive experience for young users. He used a restrained colour palette in an effort to draw out the imagination of the children, and has successfully levered the use of light in a number of interior spaces.
In the words of one juror, the structure “uses contrasts in scale, a variety in textural materials, and other subtle detailing to establish a depth that goes beyond the visual and allows the children to experience the space emotionally.”
The facility may not be especially sophisticated in terms of its functional purposes, but the jury commended it in light of the constraints under which it was built – in particular lack of budget, the required speed of construction, its outsized impact on the local community in a time of need, and its ongoing success in providing important services long after it had fulfilled its original purpose.
As another juror commented: “The building is a vessel for bringing people together, because no matter the age group it’s open to mothers, kids, and families. And this was an exceptional way to do that because at the end of the day we’re not looking at how sophisticated it is, or the spatial quality, or the construction. It’s more about how people see it and the impact on the local area and community. Sometimes I see great projects because of their design excellence, but I see a different quality in this project that deserves to be promoted”.