"Surely, post 3/11, post Global Financial Crisis, we need to make buildings and spaces that are simple and allow us to remember essential things," says Andrew Burns, the architect behind the new Australia House in Urada, Tokamachi City.
Burns' design — a triangular structure incorporating a large open studio space/gallery and a loft for artists in residence — replaces the original Australia House, a renovated 100-year-old traditional Japanese building that was destroyed during a series of severe aftershocks after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Within weeks of its destruction, the Tokamachi City Government, International Culture Appreciation and Interchange Society, Inc., the Australia-Japan Foundation and the Australian Embassy,Tokyo, called for architects to design a new Australia House — something that would not only continue to foster a cultural exchange between Australia and Japan, but also symbolize a recovery from March 11.