English

It’ s fun! Let’ s make what we use with our own hands!

We want to make shelving for temporary houses that have no storage, with the joy ofcreation. People who were evacuated to refugee centers because of the Tohoku Earthquake on March 11th 2011 have now moved into temporary housing. Their lives are totally different than before. Though the situation is temporary, people are hoping to transform their spaces to be more like they used to be, and are hoping to create a little more storage space. This is a project to offer group workshops on making shelving in various locations in Tohoku. It would be fun if we can share what we use with everybody.

■ What is tanaproject?
 It is a project to deliver ‘storage space’ to the people who are living in temporary housing as refugees of the Tohoku Earthquake and who are feeling a lack of storage space. We offer group workshops on making shelving from precut corrugated cardboard and applying finish to personalize it. We began our activities in September 2011. We will continue working with the idea of ‘having fun making what we use with everybody’.

 ■ Beginning
 It began as a project to provide shelving units that work as simple partitions to create privacy in the refugee centers for the disaster victims of the Tohoku Earthquake. The project was conceived in April 2011 when working as a volunteer I witnessed the lives of affected people in the refugee centers who had no privacy and no space to store their belongings. Since most of the people have moved from the refugee centers to temporary housing, the project has shifted its focus to offer group workshops on shelf-making for people who are living in temporary housing.

 ■ Feature
 The shelving material is all precut and ready to assemble, requiring only wood glue and no cutting tools. It can be assembled by children, the physically challenged or the elderly. Being compact, more shelving can be delivered to people than with conventional designs. It is designed to require more than one person to assemble a shelving unit so that people naturally work together. It can be personalized by painting or with coloured tape to create patterns.

Please help us to continue this project:

a donation of 1000 yen buys one shelf.

Bank transfer information for your donation:

Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank Yoga Branch (No. 762)

account number: Futsu 0037111

account Name: Yugen Sekininjigyokumiai tanaproject