1996 - 2006 Koshirakura Landscape
Shin Egashira

Each summer for the past ten years the AA's Shin Egashira has organised a workshop in the remote village of Koshirakura, in a mountainous region north of Tokyo...

During the period of the workshop, the 81 mainly elderly inhabitants of the village are joined by a youthful horde of outsiders who become part of their lives for three weeks, occupying the empty schoolhouse, visiting their homes, contributing to annual rituals such as the Grass-Cutting Day and Maple Tree Festival, and building a structure intended to improve in some way the lives of the inhabitants. The past ten years have seen a gradual accumulation of extraordinary and strangely beautiful structures. Their names hint at their singularity: Watermelon Platform, Bus Shelter, Roof for 200, Festival Vehicles, Azumaya, Stargazing Platform... Some structures were destroyed by the 2004 Mid-Niigata earthquake, but all are preserved here through photographs, drawings and words that document their making. Texts by Shin Egashira are paired with diary extracts - some poetic, some humorous - written by the students and villagers.

Shin Egashira is an architect, artist and Unit Master of the AA's Diploma Unit 11.