Preservation and Regeneration of International House of Japan

Prize: The Prize of AIJ 2007 – Specific Contributions Division  

Prize: 17th BELCA Award Best Reform Prize

This building was originally designed by Kunio Maekawa, Junzo Sakakura, and Junzo Yoshimura in 1954 with the funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and various donations from Japan. It was nearly demolished due to challenges in management and the pressure from surrounding redevelopment projects in 2004. Together with AIJ (Architectural Institute of Japan) members, we proposed an alternative plan to restore and reuse it, ultimately succeeding in the preservation of the main building. This is a rare case in that we were able to preserve a DOCOMOMO registered modern building in Japan.