Students from Otemae University replaced the paper sliding doors of an old house in Owase City with the aim of maintaining the environment.

In Professor Kawakubo's seminar at Otemae University 's Faculty of Architecture & Arts, they conduct field research to investigate the current state of vacant houses in regional cities and rural areas, and propose ways to renovate them or use them as housing for new residents to prevent them from becoming dangerous due to being abandoned.
The seminar has been working with the NPO "Owase Living Support Center" in Owase City, Mie Prefecture to tackle the problem of vacant houses, and as part of that, students replaced the papering on the sliding doors of an old house in Kuki Town called "Kaneto." "Kaneto" was once a dried fish shop, and on a site of about 1,000 square meters, it is a distinctive building that recalls the past, with a rounded "mukuri" roof at the entrance and family crests on the gutters.
The four seminar students who participated this time took on the challenge of replacing about 40 damaged shoji screens. It was a painstaking task of carefully peeling off the old shoji paper and carefully pasting new paper, but they gradually got the hang of it, and when they finally put the replaced shoji screens back in place, it felt like they had a glimpse of the atmosphere of the luxurious mansion of the past.
In the future, we plan to work on replacing the floorboards and other parts, with the aim of using the building as a student accommodation facility, etc.

(Source: School Public Relations)