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Background<\/b><\/p>\n
Currently, Japan is facing many social issues such as declining birth rate and aging population, increasing regional disparity, labor shortage, increasing vacant houses, shortage of inbound tourist accommodations and so on.<\/p>\n
In order to deal with these issues, governmental bodies like Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism<\/em> (MLIT), Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare<\/em> (MHLW) and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications<\/em> (MIC) have adopted various policies and measures.<\/p>\n TEKUTO has been striving to tackle these social issues through architecture. The projects utilizing “kominka” (traditional folk houses) such as Denpaku<\/a> and Ethiopia Millennium Pavilion<\/a>, organizing a study group on eldercare facilities, conducting a study on resort facilities are some examples of such efforts.<\/p>\n Moreover, TEKUTO’s founder and principal architect Yasuhiro Yamashita has been a visiting professor at Kyushu University<\/em> for five years, teaching a course of town planning for the elderly, people with disabilities and tourists that invigorates the local economy.<\/p>\n These commitments eventually culminated in the creation of Denpaku + Magun<\/em> that opened in July 2018.<\/p>\n The source of inspiration that instigated this pursuit was Yamashita’s encounter with a certain town in Germany.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Striking Encounter with an “Ordinary” Town<\/b><\/p>\n It all started when Yamashita visited Bethel<\/em>, located in western Germany in 2009. Bethel has a population of about 20,000 and around 40 percent of the residents have epilepsy or other disabilities. It is a place where anyone, healthy or ill, disabled or not, can equally lead a “normal” life with dignity.<\/p>\n When Yamashita met Pastor Ulrich Paul, chairman of the v. Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel<\/em>, he was asked, “Mr. Yamashita, do you think you are a ‘perfect’ human being? What is the difference between you and a person with disabilities? You might find your ideal town in Bethel. Please come and visit us.”<\/p>\n Six months later, Yamashita went to Bethel<\/em> and visited various facilities during his two-day stay. He was extremely impressed to see many people with disabilities and elderly at work eveywhere in the community, not being treated differently.<\/p>\n Yamashita did find his ideal town in Bethel<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Study Group and University Workshops<\/b><\/p>\n In 2014, TEKUTO formed a Study Group on elder care facilities. We invited Ms. Yukiko Inoue, professor at\u00a0Graduate School\u00a0of Social Service Management\u00a0Japan College of Social Work <\/em>as a lecturer and\u00a0\u00a0learned about elder care facilities inside and outside of Japan, their current state, their differences, and diligently visited facilities of significance.<\/p>\n After visiting about twenty-two facilities in three years, the most inspiring facilities were B’s<\/em> and Share Kanazawa <\/em>in Ishikawa Prefecture, run by a social welfare corporation, Bussien, and Shobu Gakuen<\/em> in Kagoshima Prefecture.<\/p>\n B’s<\/em>\u00a0aims to create a continuing care retirement community for the neighboring area in walking distance. Its welfare \/ medical department offers an adult day-care, disabled-care, nursery school and a medical clinic along with community features such as spa, restaurant, fitness club, heated swimming pool and flowershop. It is a place that welcomes all sorts of people to come together and interact. The job opportunities offered\u00a0 for people with disabilities throughout the facilities is another important feature.<\/p>\n Shobu Gakuen\u00a0<\/em>is a care facility for persons with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. Various facilities are laid out inside the spacious campus; Living Support Center that offers consultation services, short stay and day care suppport; Work Support Center for employment and vocational training services; home-visit care center; group homes. What makes Shobu Gakuen<\/em> unique is the integration of art into its activities. Persons with disabilies live in the campus and work at on-site facilities such as the woodwork studio, ceramics workshop, textile workshop,\u00a0 restaurant and soba noodle shop. The artworks created by the residents of Shobu Gakuen<\/em> are internationally renowned, some of which are even housed in museums.<\/p>\n Building upon the knowledge and inspiration acquired through these visits, Yamashita continued his research by teaching community planning courses for graduate students at Kyushu University.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Designing Elder Care Facilities<\/b><\/p>\n In 2016, Yamashita met Satoko Nakamukae, a caregiver and founder of elder care organization Iroha<\/em>, who runs several senior homes and adult daycare services. Her organization provides person-centered care, as opposed to facility-centered services widely seen in previous elder care facilities in Japan. For example, even if there is a resident who would wander off more than 30 times a day, a staff member will simply accompany that person every time, instead of locking him\/her in.<\/p>\n Yamashita found many shared values with her, and designed a shokibotakino*<\/em> facility named A House in Hirayama in her home town in Kagoshima.<\/p>\n *shokibotakino\u00a0\u5c0f\u898f\u6a21\u591a\u6a5f\u80fd is a type of Japanese elder care facility which is small-scaled and provides multiple services, namely, adult day care, home-visit care and short-term stay.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Architectural Project and Denpaku in Amami<\/b><\/p>\n Alongside his research on elder care facilities, Yamashita has visited many resorts and vacation accommodations around the world and accumulated architectural insights and experiences of lodging facilities. Eventually, he was commissioned to design a resort facility, Nest at Amami Beach Villas<\/a>, in his home island of Amami.<\/p>\n Around the same time, Yamashita started to receive requests from local administrations and communities to deal with the vacant house problem in the island. In order to meet the requests, he founded a brand of tourist accommodation named \u201cDenpaku,\u201d that renovates and makes use of vacant traditional and\/or legendary houses. (Den<\/em>\u4f1d is a word associated with \u201ctradition\u201d and \u201clegend\u201d,\u00a0paku<\/em>\u6cca means \u201cstay over\u201d.) It started with 2 inns in Amami City and expanded to 15 in two yours, not only in Amami Oshima island, but also in other islands of the Amami Archipelago, such as Tokunoshima.<\/p>\n While frequently flying to Amami for these projects, the opportunity to speak with various people increased. Yamashita became more and more aware of the reality of elder care and medication in Amami, and started to wish to put his university research into practice in Amami.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conducting a Survey of Elder Care Facilities in Amami<\/b><\/p>\n Yamashita conducted a survey of existing elder care facilities in Amami, and found out the following problems:<\/p>\n \u30fbThere are not enough elder care facilities and some senior citizens have to wait in order to receive care.<\/p>\n \u30fbThe elderly who came from Amami and whish to return have difficulty finding a place to live.<\/p>\n \u30fbThe environment of Amami is full of nature that even senior citizens who have spent most of their lives in urban settings would desire to spend the rest of their lives. However, there are not enough options of high quality elder care facilities.<\/p>\n In view of this result, Yamashita set some goals for the future.<\/p>\n \u30fbCreate an example of a high quality elder care facility that also accepts senior citizens that returned to Amami or came to Amami afresh from urban areas.<\/p>\n \u30fbExpand from the example and build affordable elder care facilities and communities for Amamians.<\/p>\n \u30fbEstablish a system that provides care-givers necessary salary increases and encourage young people to return and join the workforce in Amami.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Repurposing a Former Supermarket<\/b><\/p>\n In Kasaricho, Amami, where Yamashita was born and bred, there used to be a popular supermarket.<\/p>\n It was built on a piece of land that belonged to a noble family, at the heart of a small town called Akakina, in the northern part of Amami Oshima.<\/p>\n The supermarket provided selected fresh produce of the region, and it was not only a place to shop but also a hub for the locals to gather and interact.<\/p>\n Sadly, the store went out of business and the vacant building was left standing for several years.<\/p>\n The sight of the decaying ex-supermarket instigated a new idea in Yamashita’s mind. “What if I repurpose this building, ‘legendary’ for the locals, and convert it into a new community space with an elder care facility?”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Community Planning around the Repurposed Supermarket<\/b><\/p>\n The town of Akakina is a ten minute drive from Amami airport.<\/p>\n “This ex-supermarket is located in such a convenient place, that if we convert it into a complex of elder care home, adult daycare center, eatery, food mart and hotel, we could create a hub for Food Culture Promotion<\/em> and Community-based Integrated Care, employ local people and invigorate the local economy,” Yamashita thought.<\/em><\/p>\n At this point, several Denpaku inns had already started operating nearby, but there still are vacant houses left in the area. They could be utilized as houses for employees, shared houses and special types of\u00a0 Denpaku such as ones that come with a craft studio or equipment.<\/p>\n The facility also aspires to team up with local disability organizations and help provide disabled people with job opportunities and art activities.<\/p>\n Specialists of various fields, sharing the same vision and goals, brought in their insights to realize the project. Prof. Yukiko Inoue from Graduate School of Social Service Management Japan College of Social Work<\/em>; Ms. Satoko Nakamukae, founder of elder care organization Iroha<\/em>; Mr. Shinichiro Katsu, business consultant and new industry creation producer of Amami City; Dr. Hidehiro Tokuda, founder of Family Clinic Neriya<\/em> that provides home health care and house-call services in Amami.<\/p>\n The facility was named Denpaku + Magun<\/em>. \u201cMagun (pronounced \u2018mah-goon\u2019)\u201d is a dialect spoken in Amami which means \u201cblend together\u201d.<\/p>\n The renovation work began so as to create a place like Bethel, where the elderly, people with disabilities, the locals and tourists can come together and interact as equal individuals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Renovation<\/b><\/p>\n The renovation started in December, 2017.<\/p>\n Not only it being a fairly old building, the complex roof shape made the waterproofing quite difficult. Also, the hotel rooms on the second floor required extra care to soundproof as much as possible.<\/p>\n In order to cut construction costs, some of the construction work was performed by the whole staff.<\/p>\n Construction ended in early July 2018 and the facility was physically ready to be open to the public.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n First Floor<\/b><\/p>\n The first floor houses the following: Eldercare facility Akakina House<\/em>, an elderly home that also provides adult daycare service; MAGUN Plaza<\/em>, an event space that offers unique Amamian culture experience and more; a food mart and eatery that provides food and dishes using organic fruits and vegetables and fresh seafood sent directly from the local fishermen; and the reception and the back office of Denpaku Hotel<\/em>.<\/p>\n Within the elderly care section, there are guest rooms where elderly travelers and tourists with disabilities could stay receiving appropriate care. Inside MAGUN Plaza, there is a medical counseling room where consulting and massage services are provided. The cafe and restaurant space also offers after-school activities and child-care services for local children.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Second Floor<\/b><\/p>\n\u00a0
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