A year between Japan and Nepal:

a diary by an Italian student

My journey to Japan started in September 2015. I enrolled as a student-researcher at Keio University, a private university in Tokyo. I attended the graduate school for Media and Governance at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus.
 
As the name forewarns, it is not strictly an architecture school. Keio SFC, as it is called, is indeed a research-oriented campus, an institution in which is possible to experience a kind of University different from the one we are accustomed to. 
Students follow a very flexible schedule that encourage them to choose independently the courses they wish to follow. This supports a multidisciplinary approach to the education of individuals, thus it’s often impossible to categorise the learning path of a student using our academic common rules.
At SFC campus it’s pretty common to find students with knowledge of both architecture and socio-economic science, human sciences or computer engineering. Almost all the courses are followed by applied classes of two to six students that want to deepen their knowledge on the subject.
 
In this rich and vibrant environment, students are often encouraged to propose their own research and to apply for financial support from the university, usually under the guidance of a professor. The professors, on the other hand, endorse the creation of teams that meet after the regular lessons time, to work on complex projects that focus on public, humanitarian or research objectives. It’s not always easy to work that much, but the experience is priceless.

I was assigned to Professor Hiroto Kobayashi, that lead his own laboratory in a nice building of the campus, where students have their own desk and can work on group projects or on their personal exams in the spare time.
The laboratory of Prof. Kobayashi has the goal to develop and construct buildings in areas damaged by natural disasters, usually in developing countries. The main project that addresses this goal is the Veneer House.

The Veneer Houses are all born from almost the same structural frame, improved after each iteration. They consist of sheets of plywood cut by computer numerical control machines (CNC), joint together to make the structural frame, much like a puzzle or a card game. This structure is highly modular and can be adapted to the necessities.
The initial concept born to solve the need of emergency housing subsequent to the tsunami that hit the Tohoku prefecture in Japan in 2011, and it was then developed into a series of housing solutions. To this date, five projects has been built: two in Japan, one in Myanmar, one in the Philippines and the one I worked on in Nepal. Each of them has a different purpose, such as community centre, fishermen building, school, or private house, but it is possible to envision many further applications for the Veneer House model.
 

When I joined the project the Veneer Model was being adapted to be a house suitable for Nepal environment. Along with other students, I helped organise the construction field, the working schedule, the trip to the site, the accommodation, and to negotiate with nepalese contractors and with local sellers of building supplies.

It is important to note that Prof. Kobayashi worked as a supervisor for this project: the highly hierarchical structure of the Japanese university let the students organise the work of the master and bachelor students, giving them tasks and deadlines, while developing their own thesis work. Moreover, it is common for older students to have been involved in the design and construction of previous Veneer House projects, giving them the chance to learn more about the adopted systems.

I wish to remark that, as an Italian student, I was amazed by the capability of the Japanese students to deal with such responsibilities and obligations, being able to manage a budget of several thousand euros directly under their control.

The main purpose of the Kobayashi Laboratory (Veneer House group) is to build post-emergency facilities in countries affected by natural disasters, especially in the third world. I joined the group in September 2015 and worked with them until February 2016, I still in contact with the new project manager, master student Annabell Stubbs, in charge of the realization of a new project in Kathmandu.

I left Japan during the last days of October 2015 with a group of three students. Although we totalled around 20, we travelled separately according to our own schedules and availability. The schedule was planned to have 10 students always on the construction field, intermittently supported by the work of 3 local carpenters.

The trip to Nepal

We landed in Kathmandu, where we had to transfer to Jeeps in order to cover the 139 km (6 hours) that still divided us from Charikot. A peculiar detail is that changing money outside Nepal is illegal, which we had to take into account, since we were carrying a large portion of the budget in cash, with which we planned to pay the carpenters, the construction materials and our journey.

Mayuko-san, the student responsible for the budget, was traveling with me and together we faced reality: the exchange rate that she could arrange with the local banks impacted and made a difference on the improvements and quality we were able to achieve in our final product. As a matter of fact, finding the best exchange rate engaged us for half a day.

We also had to arrange our trip via Jeep on the spot. The main problem with transportation in Nepal is represented by the embargo India applied on all the source of energy they sell to the country, which includes fuel. To plan a six-hours journey we had to ask someone to schedule the trip and obtain enough fuel in advance. Mayuko-san took weeks to arrange the trip with a local guide for each group, and it was actually one of the most difficult tasks of all.

Charikot, also known as Bhimeshwar, is an urban gathering in north-eastern Nepal. Before the earthquake it had a population of 7349 people and 1541 individual households. The area is enclosed by two main rivers and has an incredible biodiversity that I had the chance to admire during our long journey.

The earthquake that occurred on the 25th April 2015 left the town devastated. I was shocked by the situation we found after 6 months, when we arrived. The most damaged area was a large commercial road that lead to a small resort, the one where we sojourned. We arrived during the night, with no lights on the streets, as there is no electricity anymore, so the image of the road with the seven floor buildings crushed and crumbled on the two sides impressed me greatly.

The street leading to the construction field is damaged and most of the houses that are still on their feet are clearly cracked on the façade. 
The construction field was situated on the other side of the city, at a different height from the street level. We had to climb every day with all the tools but, most of all, we had to carry from the street to the site all the wood on our backs, since there were no streets nor easy paths. That operation alone took days of work.

One of the greatest challenges we had to face while working in Nepal was represented by the lack of electricity. The supply is unstable and it comes a few hours a day and drops unexpectedly. The house’s original project accounted for nails to be used instead of screws due to this problem, but we needed the circular saw to work quickly, considering that the building’s envelope is in wood and had to be cut on the site. We underestimated the presence of an important festival during the working days, the Bhai Tika. The event caught us completely unaware and unprepared. The whole city stopped for an entire week and our carpenters didn’t want to come to work. During this week, the façade’s realisation had to be continued so we had to cut everything with hand saws, which made meeting the deadline a real fight against the clock.

We had to face a great number of communication problems, too. Despite the fact that I was the only person who didn’t speak Japanese in the group, the instructions were given in English. Only the master carpenter, Dhruba Kumar was actually able to speak a little English and also some of the Japanese students had problems to understand it. To buy the necessary equipment and materials we needed an interpreter, who wasn’t always available, which meant that we had to rely on gestures and signs more often than not.
We used to start working from the first lights of the day, until it was nightfall, saving the flashlights’ battery for the way back. We didn’t take any day off, but the house was completely built and ready to be inhabited in less than a month; if we consider the delays and problems we, it is a good result.

To be continued…