Department Course Planner 2024-25 S
Course Number: 7404
Course Title: Public Home
Subtitle: A Youth Community Center in Gifu, Japan
Teacher: Su Chang
Collaboration: Tamotsu Ito (associate professor, Nagoya Zokei University)
Joint Supports: HKU Architecture / Nagoya Zokei University / Hitonone
Duration: 2025.6.16 - 7.11
Enrolment / Quota: 10-15
Project Site & Working Models - Gifu, Japan
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I. Course Description
Introduction
As a part of the Human Intelligence program of HKU Architecture, this summer elective
invites students to participate in the design and construction of a youth community center in
Gifu, Japan. The project collaborates with Hitonone (https://hitonone.com/), a local NGO that
provides accessible after-school care services for children. Students from the University of Hong
Kong will join the design research team of Nagoya Zokei University to develop material and
construction strategies for repairing, reusing, and renovating an unoccupied and unattended
house, transforming it into a Public Home for children and other community members.
Agenda & Scope
Construction as a Caretaking Act
We continue our exploration of innovating traditional crafts by hybridizing steel crafts with
local, biomass materials such as timber. In the process, we rethink the nature of construction
not as intrusive or disruptive actions on earth, but as a form of caretaking of people and
environment. This perspective emphasizes the importance of considering the impact of
construction activities on communities, society, and the natural world. Framing construction as
a caretaking act highlights the responsibility and mindfulness that should be integrated into the
building process to ensure its positive contribution to the well-being of individuals and their
surroundings.
New Comfort
How create a space that is “comfortable” for different members of the community to gather?
Re-establishing the understanding of comfort in our construction activities involves a thorough
examination of building details to articulate building elements like insulation placement, natural
light ingress, and strategic positioning of building structures to create different levels of intimacy
in space.
Prioritizing the concept of "care" and "comfort" in our design process may not always result in
visually striking solutions. It is essential to demonstrate the profound impact of our intervention
on creating a meaningful space for the Public Home. A series of seminar discussions with
experts from Japan and Hong Kong will reflect on the social situations in Japan and Hong Kong
that would require a redefinition of care provision, as well as its relationship to space, labor
economies, performing bodies, and new forms of construction techniques.
Hybrid Materials, Elements & Techniques
During the workshop, students will create a set of structural elements that can double their
function as “furniture” that allows for different social behaviors within the space - how can
architectural elements provide “support” for both the building and the activities it affords? In
Gifu, students will also work in collaboration with local workers in Japan to understand the
complexity of overlapping trades at the construction site. The discussion will expand from
crafts and hand tools into the processes of industrial production and how we can imagine a new
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form of architectural production by harnessing the hybrid techniques from both handcrafts and
industrial production.
II. Learning Outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes Program Learning Outcomes
1. Students will develop and present a PLO 2, 4, 5
critical understanding of the relationship
between architecture and nature through
various scales, from tectonic to territory.
2. Students will demonstrate a comparative PLO 2, 3, 4,
understanding of architectural knowledge
between the canonical and the everyday,
the monumental and the domestic, through
discourse and artifacts.
3. Students will develop innovative PLO 1, 2, 5
architectural design methods through the
perspective of environmental science and
humanities.
III. Schedule of Teaching and Learning Activities
Week 1 Preparation / June 16-20, Hong Kong
6.16 6.17 - 20
Introduction Off-Site Construction Prep
Week 2-3 Construction / June 23 - July 4, Gifu, Japan
6.23 6.24 - 27
Site Preparation Construction Work on Site
6.30 - 7.2 7.3 7.4
Construction Work on Site Final Touch Up Final Discussion
& Celebration
* 6.29 Yutani architects office visit + Ise Shrine visit
(discussion on circular construction of timber in traditional and contemporary practices)
* 7.5 Nagoya Zokei University studio visit
Week 4 Documentation & Exhibition / July 7-11, Hong Kong
7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 7.11
/ Pin Up I Desk Crit Pin Up II Submission
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IV. Reference Projects - Repair and Reuse for Communities
Casaco by Tomito Architecture (Repair and Reuse for Communities)
Holes-in-the-House by Fuminori Nousaku (Repair and Reuse)
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Co-ownership of Action: Trajectories of Elements
Japan Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2021 (Reuse Architectural Elements)
House in Gifu-Kagashima, Tamotsu Ito (Timber/Hybrid Construction)
House in Ita-Bashi by Nishizawa Taira Architectural Design Office (New layering of Timber
construction)
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VI. Assessment Standards and Tasks:
Students should refer to the Department Curriculum Guide for University, Faculty, Program
and Track level Standards of Assessment, including grade descriptors and Marking rubrics.
Assessment Tasks Weighting
Collaborative Construction Work 60%
Participation 10%
Final Submission 30%
VII. Proportion of Teaching, Learning and Examination Activities
Activities Number of
hours
Lectures 5
Tutorials 35
Seminars 4
Fieldwork / Visits 70
Assessment: Essay / report writing 6
Total: 120
VIII. Guests (TBC)
Tamotsu Ito, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto & Momoyo Kaijima (Atelier Bow-Wow), Kozo Kadowaki
(Meiji University), Takashi Fujino (Tohoku University), Kosuke Yutani (Yutani Architects),
Fuminori Nousaku (Science Tokyo)
IX. Statement of Academic Conduct
All written work in this course will be submitted for plagiarism review via Turnitin, at
http://turnitin.com. Clarification of the University of Hong Kong’s policies on plagiarism, as
well as detailed descriptions of how to properly cite and source material in your written work
and examinations is available at http://www.hku.hk/plagiarism. Plagiarism includes handing in
the work of another as your own, and failure to appropriately cite your sources. Plagiarism is
an academic misdemeanor, and may be considered grounds for failure from this course as well
as further disciplinary action from the University.
