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In 2024, we purchased our first property in Komoro Town, Nagano Prefecture, with the dream of turning it into a community makerspace.
*This space was made possible by the ~100 volunteers who joined us during our 6 months of build weeks. We welcomed chefs, carpenters, musicians, and founders, who together: cleared out decades of clutter (125 futons, a garden overrun with brush, and thousands of kilos of rubbish), uncovered the kominka’s original architecture, and began its revival.
During this period, we also installed a septic tank, restored antique furniture, created art installations, participated in community events, and documented the hidden stories of forgotten artifacts, as seen below.
Read more about the first bits of renovation process here:* 3-Month Renovation Update (June 2024)
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Built in the 1940s, this 80-year old house has the inspiring historical structure of a folk Japanese house, known as kominka architecture. We’ve conducted renovations to make the place fully livable, and transformed it into a community makerspace: a semi-public area to host international artists, and a local resource for nearby community members.
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We hope you’ll make it out here to Komoro, but without giving too much away — here’s a sneak peak of the space :)
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When you first get to the property, you’ll be greeted by a Japanese garden
Upon entering you’ll start seeing various trinkets and tools; we made an effort to spatially juxtapose different worlds:
One of the first rooms you’ll see is a community dining room and lounge.
Continuing on, you’ll see a library full of surprises: including preserved WWII maps and photographs, as well as various cutouts of magazines from the 70s.
We also have a small room here, with a futon, where guests can stay over occasionally.
Going up the hallway and up the second floor, you’ll see the bones of the house for the first time: beautiful traditional folk architecture that opens up both space and possibility.
We’ve built a cozy corner for reading, reflection, and journaling. But also (since it’s a makerspace), we’ve included an open area with a large table for workshopping and creating.
Here, we’ve also created an AV room for presentations, group discussions, and movie nights!
A picture of a community presentation in the space…
Currently, we have a space that can support experiments in woodworking, bio-yarn, bamboo, microcontrollers, and other material projects (concrete, plaster). Some tools include drone, VR headset, projector, 3D printer, telescope, a piano, and more.
Stewardship at Komoro Makerspace
A tea house constructed using tree logs and traditional Japanese joinery methods
Various illuminated outdoor installations in our backyard, debuting at a yakitori social between locals and internationals
*Three large-scale art installations for Burning Man Japan:
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