Kumamoto - Requests for rapidly constructed "instant houses" are growing across areas of Kumamoto Prefecture devastated by the recent earthquake, providing air-conditioned temporary shelter for residents who have been sleeping in tents and vehicles beside their damaged homes.
Keisuke Kitagawa, a professor at Nagoya Institute of Technology specializing in architectural design and disaster prevention engineering, flew from Chubu Centrair International Airport to Kumamoto on July 31 with materials for the shelters he developed.
"They said, 'You're the instant-house person, aren't you? Please build them immediately,' so I am taking all the materials there now," Kitagawa said before departing.
Kitagawa has delivered the temporary structures to disaster zones in Japan and overseas. His latest deployment took him to Hikawa, where the earthquake registered the maximum intensity of 7 on Japan's seismic scale.
Homes around the installation site were severely tilted, with roof tiles and building materials scattered across the neighborhood. About half of the roughly 40 houses in the district were completely or partially destroyed.
"This is worse than 10 years ago," residents said, comparing the latest damage with the previous Kumamoto earthquakes.
Some residents were sheltering under tents, while others continued to sleep in their cars. Air pumped into the instant house allowed its basic shape to take form within minutes, after which Kitagawa and local residents determined its position and orientation.
Noriko Kimizu, 45, had lived at her family home with her 64-year-old mother, Akiko. She said their house had suffered relatively little damage during the first two earthquakes a decade earlier, but the latest disaster was far more destructive.
"By the third earthquake, various things were falling over," Kimizu said. "It happened so quickly that I was shocked. The damage is worse than before."
Kimizu said she was sleeping in her car because the air conditioner in her home could not be used. During the daytime, she sometimes remained inside the vehicle for more than an hour to escape the heat.
Kitagawa said he decided to install the houses in the area after seeing residents staying close to their damaged properties because they were worried about what would happen to them.
"They were resting under tents in the heat in front of their homes and sleeping there at night," Kitagawa said. "As someone who specializes in architecture, I found that extremely frustrating."
Kitagawa surveyed the disaster area the day after the earthquake and later received permission to install the shelters on a vacant lot.
"The thing I am looking forward to most is being able to lie down on a futon," Kimizu said.
Kitagawa began developing the instant house following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. During a visit to an evacuation center at Ishinomaki Junior High School in Iwate Prefecture, comments from two local elementary school boys changed the direction of his life.
"When I visited the shelter, boys in the third and fourth grades asked why it took three to six months to build temporary housing," Kitagawa said. "They told me, 'If you're a university professor, build it next week.' That was the moment my life changed by 180 degrees."
He began researching the concept immediately after the disaster. About 250 instant houses were installed following the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake.
Construction begins by inflating the structure with air. Insulation is then sprayed onto the interior, allowing one unit to be completed in about three hours.
Residents seeing the shelters for the first time welcomed the prospect of a secure and comfortable place to rest.
"It makes you feel safe when you have something like this," one resident said.
Another said, "When I heard an instant house was going to be built, I wondered whether it could really be done. But if the air conditioning works and we can stretch our legs and rest, it will be a tremendous help."
Each structure has an interior measuring about 5 meters in diameter and 4 meters in height. Insulation about 4 centimeters thick helps maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the year when air conditioning is used.
"It's spacious," Kimizu said. "It seems like we could speak loudly without worrying about the neighbors. I am glad it was completed so quickly. Sleeping in a car costs money because gasoline prices are rising. I want to stretch out my legs, lie down and rest properly."
Kitagawa installed five units on the vacant lot over two days and another five on the grounds of nearby homes.
Requests have also been received from Yatsushiro and Uki, and about 150 instant houses are expected to be installed across earthquake-affected areas of Kumamoto Prefecture.
Each unit costs about 450,000 yen, with expenses covered by a support fund established by Nagoya Institute of Technology to collect donations for installation work.
"We put a great deal of feeling into making them, and they are built using donations, so the feelings of the donors are also contained in them," Kitagawa said.
The project continues to fulfill the challenge given to Kitagawa by the children he met in Ishinomaki in 2011, who asked a university professor to build temporary housing more quickly. He is continuing installation work in Hikawa.
"There is still a very long way to go," Kitagawa said. "If there were 10 steps, I would say I have barely placed my foot on the first one. I want to devote my life to doing everything I can for people."
Source: CBC
