A Kumamoto Castle pose with Kumamoto mascot Kumamon!
On Saturday 1st April we held a Sakura Festival at the Mashikimachi Techno HOME-FOR-ALL in Kumamoto Prefecture.
In 2016, in order to bring some colour and a sense of hope to the residents, Carl Zeiss Company donated seventy cherry blossom trees to the temporary housing complex. The festival was a celebration of this donation for all of the residents and for representatives from Carl Zeiss Company.
Attendees (L-R): Uesumi-san (Kumamoto Prefecture Civil Engineering Department Building Housing Department Architectural Section); Michiko Okano (Okano Building Design); Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture); Astrid Klein (Klein Dytham architecture); Benjamin Dubuisu (Carl Zeiss Co.); Stefan Sacre (Carl Zeiss Co.)
Another special guest was Kumamon, the famous Kumamoto Prefecture mascot! He encouraged everybody at the party to dance...
From the very small...
To the slightly bigger!
Mark Dytham having a hug with Kumamon
Although the cherry blossom trees were not quite in full bloom, there was still some blossom and the residents enjoyed a traditional hanami picnic.
Photographers from PHOTOHOKU, an NPO set up to help replace family photos that have been damaged or lost in tsunamis and earthquakes, wandered around the picnic taking pictures of the temporary housing residents, while everybody enjoyed drinks and cherry blossom cakes.
Professional photographer Brian Scott Peterson, co-founder of PHOTOHOKU, taking the picture of two residents. The elderly residents were more interested in his old-fashioned, large-format cameras, whilst the younger residents wanted to see the newer models.
After the cherry blossom picnic a special PechaKucha Night event was held at the Kumamoto Artpolis HOME-FOR-ALL. PechaKucha is a presentation format with only 20 slides and the presenter speaks for 20 seconds on each of them. The slides move on automatically so every presenter has exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds to talk.
The PechaKucha Night format was devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003 and is shared and supported by Klein Dytham architecture. There are now PechaKucha Nights in over 980 cities worldwide.
One of the main forces behind PechaKucha is the idea that creativity is not just for architects, designers and artists – it is for everyone. Everyone is full of creativity in their everyday lives and this creativity should be celebrated and shared throughout communities, with everybody having a voice.
At this event the presenters came from diverse backgrounds, from renowned architects to residents of the temporary housing who wanted to speak about how they have personalised their home.
Banzai!
From all of the HOME-FOR-ALL team, a huge thank you to Carl Zeiss Company for their generous donation and another huge thank you to the residents of Mashikimachi Techno HOME-FOR-ALL in Kumamoto Prefecture for being so welcoming and giving us such a great day!
