In March 2011, Northeastern Japan was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Although international attention has largely moved on, many challenges remain for residents of the affected area. To do something about this, dosomething.org and Students Rebuild launched a very unique fundraiser. The idea: students from around the world would create paper cranes and mail them. For every crane mailed, $2 donation was given to Architecture for Humanity’s projects in Japan. The challenge was an overwhelming success: the goal was to make 100,000 cranes, but 2 million cranes were produced. And a total of $500,000 was raised for rebuilding! [Video Link: Check out the journey of these 2 million paper cranes!]

Determining how to make the best use of these funds fell on the shoulders of Architecture for Humanity. $500,000 may sound like a lot, but in a very developed country it doesn’t go nearly as far as you would think. They decided that a large amount would be best spent on a market and community center in the most devastated part of Japan. The purpose of the center, called Kitakami ‘We Are One’, is to provide close, fresh food to the residents of Kitakami and also to create a place for the many students to hang out after school. Before the earthquake there were three schools in Sendai. Afterwards there was just one, so the market is also meant to create a safe place for the students. Thanks to help from Paper Cranes for Japan participants, Architecture for Humanity will be building the market and community center this summer!


(Here's an architect's sketch of what the Kitakami 'We Are One' market will look like when it's finished)


(Architects in Japan worked to finalize the design of the market this month.)


(Members of 'We Are One', standing on the site where the market will be built this summer!)

My job at Architecture for Humanity is to create a physical model out of bass wood. The model making interns gave me a few preliminary drawings, in Japanese, and from them I created a rough Sketchup model. I’m pretty good with computers, but I’ve never built with wood in my life. To get up to speed I took a quick crash course in how to make wood models. The idea is to create an almost perfect 1:100 scale model of the building. It’s quite a job so I’ll be working on it over the course of most of this summer. I’ll provide regular updates, blog posts, and images of both the model and what its like to be here at Architecture for Humanity. So until the next post, be excellent to each other!


(Putting the final touches on a 3D model of the Kitakami market)


(Here's a screenshot of Google SketchUp, the program used to build a 3D model of the Kitakami market)


(Ma Jie, one of Architecture for Humanity's model makers, helps to import the SketchUp model into AutoCAD. From here, they'll scale and print the drawings to use as a mini-blueprint for the model!)

Editor's note: Last week, we introduced Orson, Paper Cranes for Japan Extraordinaire and Students Rebuild's official Summer 2012 Model Maker. Each week, he'll offer an update on his time at the office and share his progress as he builds a 1:100 scale bass wood model of Kitakami 'We Are One', a community and youth center being built in Japan with funds raised by paper crane folders across the world!