<aside> ❤️
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 75+ 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.*
</aside>
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.
<aside> 🌸
We hope you’ll make it out here to Komoro, but without giving too much away — here’s a sneak peak of the space :)
</aside>
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.
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
*Two large-scale art installations for Burning Man Japan:
.jpeg)
