An abandoned complex comprising two houses and three warehouses – where rice was once sold and stored – has been converted into an art center for the Japanese city of Ota, in Gunma Prefecture. Exhibition galleries, studios, and workshops are inserted into a garden.

The project involved demolishing some structures, such as the concrete block walls that enclosed the site. In their place now is a canopy-covered bench. Using traditional Japanese modular wooden construction techniques, it was decided that structural members, doors, and windows should be repurposed. Pallets from the warehouses were transformed into fences, while roof tiles, concrete blocks, and stones found new life as pavement materials.