Participatory renovation is a small and often unheard-of niche in theworld of design and construction. Rather than attempt to widen thisnarrow pipeline of potential clients, we choose to further specialize byIchikawa
Tokyo Station

prioritizing work in our city of Ichikawa, a Tokyo exurb of 490,000people, 20 km to the east of Tokyo’s center. The decision to focus ourprojects on this specific locality has had the unique effect of maximizing
the impact of our work in a single area, creating the opportunity for
unexpected interconnections between clients to occur. We believe thatevery participatory architectural project we undertake is a chance tostrengthen a growing network of small business-owners, entrepreneurs

Chibaand homeowners in Ichikawa, and that this process is integral to thebottom-up urban revitalization we want to see in our city. We madeour home in Ichikawa in 2010, and by centering the scope of our workon our adopted home town, we have been able to actively and joyfully
engage with our city in surprising and exciting ways.

By definition, our renovation clients are in a moment of transition, engaged in an aesthetic, financial and social transformation. We help our clients to connect
with our network of Tsumiki “alumni” and supporters during this pivotal time, and often participate in the curation of public events that celebrate the openingof their newly refurbished space. These events are essential to our mission of spreading the seed of the do-it-yourself / do-it-together process to others in ourcity. They result in new collaborations and opportunities that help lay the path for our future work.

The kickoff event for our client Kura Gallery - a bread & sake pairing party held in collaboration withthe restauranters of 47 Cafe, one of our previous clients.

Due to the aging population and the particulars of the Japanese real estatemarket, 14 percent of all houses are vacant in Japan. Given that our city
has operated as a bedroom community (or “bed town”) for Tokyo workers,
properties outside of a very small radius from a train station often fall into
disuse for long periods of time. In 2015, the owner of a vacant apartmentbuilding contacted our friends at Omusibi Real Estate, a unique companywith a similar mission to ours - to transform their city from a “bed town” toa “home town”. Omusibi got in touch with us, and we then called our friendand community organizer Seiya Minato, who runs a longstanding bicycle shopthat sells handmade goods made by local craftspeople. Together, we developed
a venture in which Tsumiki would transform the building into a commercial
space, and we would put the call out to sole-proprietor business who mightjump at the chance to participate in the design and build-out of their firstateliers.

We held a party in the raw, unimproved building and, through this, 10 new
tenants emerged, their imaginations running wild at what they might dowith their own spaces. As a vote of confidence in the success of the endeavor,
Tsumiki became an anchor tenant, renting a small space on the first floor
for ourselves. This project, called the 123 Building, is now home to a fabricatelier, a massage studio, a design office, an antiques shop, a bakery, a bicycle

1framebuilder, and a ceramicist. At that time, the 123 Building was the only“shared atelier” property in Ichikawa.

23
Our intention behind this project was to create local business opportunities for two hypothetical archetypes: the artist/craftsperson
who wants a space other than their house to conduct their work, and the Ichikawa-dwelling businessperson who reluctantly commutes
to Tokyo to do their business, under the belief that it is a necessity for their success. We set out to prove the concept that these kindof small business-owners can set up shop and thrive in their own city, and to propagate the mindset that Ichikawa is a place with anabundance of opportunity.

The kickoff party of the 123 Building.

Renovated studios.

In the 1990s, Ichikawa was a renowned spot on the map of the Japanesejazz scene, a place where young musicians could hone their skills and findtheir big break. However, 15 years ago, the owner of the last dedicatedlive jazz house passed away, putting an end to an era. We were contacted
by the former student of one of Japan’s most famous jazz musicians,
who wanted to establish a new club in the memory of his teacher. His
property is in the basement of a high rise apartment building, and we feltthat special care needed to be taken to assuage the concerns of the tenants
above that the new club wouldn’t pose as a nuisance to the building.

After completing the primary sound-insulation work together with our client, we held an “under construction” jazz concert while the club wasstill unpainted and unfinished. We invited the tenants of the apartment building to join us for this concert with the club in a humble state still a work in progress - to create good will in the hopes that they would root for the success of this new cultural institution underneath them.
We also used the event to prove the quality of the soundproofing work, which rendered the music inaudible to the units above.

We’ve helped plan and promote the opening event for many of our clients,
and are consistently surprised at how exuberantly the Tsumiki network rallies
around the inauguration of a new business. The participatory renovation
process instills in the minds of our clients the amount of work and care that
goes into the launch of a new space, and they show their appreciation for thisthrough their enthusiastic patronage of the subsequent businesses we workwith. This culture of reciprocity has resulted in numerous small instances of“paying it forward” - acts of generosity that increase the intangible but palpable
quantity of trust between members of a community that we believe results inthe long-term resilience of a city.

Another technique of bottom-up city revitalization we’ve developed
over the course of our practice is the “Do-It-Together” (DIT)
public workshop. These workshops facilitate interaction between avariety of different participant types, each with their own stake inthe success of the course and set of desired outcomes. We’ve held
numerous workshops in and around Ichikawa, in which aspiring DoIt-Yourself ’ers participate in the renovation of a building, under theguidance of expert builders and craftspeople and alongside the ownerof the property. We serve as both the project architects as well as
the workshop facilitators, maintaining an educational, meaningful,and productive division of labor across a spectrum of skilled andunskilled workers while holding to a standard of excellent craftwork.Following the publication of our book “Making Together”,we’ve had the opportunity to facilitate DIT workshops
outside of Japan, working in a new cultural context
with craftspeople we’ve never collaborated with before.
Our most recent international workshop was held in
Gungsan, Korea, hosted by the Architecture & Urban
Research Institute. Through this workshop, we’ve refined
our framework for the sharing of knowledge between
workshop participants, expert craftspeople, designers andproperty owners, while keeping on track for the timely
completion of a project. To make this workshop successful,each stakeholder has to expand outside of their comfort
zone and open their process to participation from othersin new and potentially challenging ways.

As organizer and facilitator, we bring a quantity of technical, social andSUPER TEAM

embodied knowledge. Our role requires us to understand, among otherthings:Participants•

the different speeds of labor for skilled and unskilled workers

参加者•

the scope of the skill-set of a DIY’er vs. that of a professional

DIT MASTER•

common challenges that professional artisans vface when trying toshare their expertise for the first time•

how to manage a construction site so that the presence of unskilledworkers doesn’t slow progress to a crawl•5 participants

5 participants

5 人の参加メンバー

DESIGNER
設計者

OWNER

プロジェクトオーナー

5 participants

5 人の参加メンバー

担当

指導者・施工者

LUCKY TEAM
5 participants

5 人の参加メンバー

5 人の参加メンバー

担当

担当

担当

Orot company

Manchi design

Z-bangHer-e

ソウルの DIY 施工会社

グンサンの工務店

グンサンのエリアマネジメント会社

ソウルの DIY 技術スクール

Local stitch

Z-bang

ソウルの設計事務所

グンサンのエリアマネジメント会社

Super worker
ソウル・グンサンのメディア会社

Z-bangY-lab

グンサンのエリアマネジメント会社

グンサンの地域おこし会社

a set of ergonomic “best practices” that allow small-bodied newbuilders to use the same tools wielded by stronger, more skilledcarpenters they are working alongside•

how to communicate design and construction information
effectively and directly in a new cultural context, and across several
different roles (owners, designers, expert laborers, workshop

Auri

ソウルの国立建築研究所

主催・キュレーション

ORGANIZER
オーガナイザー

Tsumiki LLC.

つみき設計施工社

プログラムディレクション

Y-lab

グンサンの地域おこし会社

現地サポート・司会進行

participants)
Organaization of 1st DIT FESTA in Gusan,Korea

Within the model of our practice, international workshops are locatedon the advancing edge of a widening circle, at the center of which will
always be the enrichment of our hometown of Ichikawa. Consistent workwithin our city has borne many fruits for us: friendships, partnerships, aswell as a practical understanding of how, as architects, we can participate
in a feedback loop that results in the strengthening of bonds between
people in a city. Facilitating workshops outside of Japan give us theopportunity to share our particular skill-set with other cities, watchingwith joy as the revitalization processes we’ve become familiar with bear
fruit in new contexts.