In Japan, where lumber was once a highly precious construction resource, the reuse of reclaimed timbers was common throughout the country. However, as inexpensive timber became available in the 1960s, the necessity to laboriously disassemble and reuse reclaimed timbers was lost. This trend has continued to accelerate over the past 50 years, but now that signs of climate change have become apparent and there have been concrete demands for sustainable social systems, a renewed interest in the reuse and recycling of wood in the construction industry has been raised. However, there has been no significant change in the situation where the reuse of reclaimed timbers tends to be more expensive than the use of new wood, and the process of reuse requires time and special skills. That means, it will be difficult to promote reuse to the general public unless specific measures are taken to address these issues.
Kiuchi Lab has been working on a solution to this problem by using digital technology to generalize reuse, and this studio’s project can be positioned as an extension of such efforts.

Target

In this studio, as part of an attempt to present a solution for the generalization of reuse of reclaimed timbers, we will present a design proposal to partially apply burnt and reclaimed timbers in the reconstruction plan of IWAI MOKUZAI, which has a site in Murasakino Unrin-in-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto, and of which original building was severely damaged and lost by being affected by fire and new building will be constructed starting from around Spring 2025.