Build a teahouse out of locally sourced wood

Sourced tree logs from a local farmer who owns a forest plot of land. Designed a concept of a teahouse with a carpenter focused on traditional Japanese joinery techniques. Held workshops in conjunction with Akiya Collective members living on site. Reused materials and other objec…

Create educational art installation of artifacts

host an artist to create an interactive light installation of abandoned artifacts found in the home

Clean house and document artifacts

Run 3 months of build weeks to sort through rubbish of purchased property, document important things, reuse as much as possible, and make the space open and usable for future community events

Help facilitate purchase of first akiya nearby

Grow the surrounding neighborhood in the community, by connecting akiyas in the town to stewards in the community, allowing for a more robust neighborhood to grow

Incorporate company as a nonprofit

Convert unincorporated nonprofit association to an official / legal structure of a nonprofit to be able to acquire homes in rural japan as a collective

Find our community space

Explore + experiment in different areas across rural Japan hosting residencies, and building connection to local communities

Launch our space through a community event

We will formally open our community space in Komoro, Nagano to the public with a launch event, inviting neighbors, regional stakeholders, and global collaborators to engage with the site and its vision.

Host a spring residency on Speculative Worlds

A transdisciplinary residency exploring how speculative design, ecological futures, and cultural history can inform rural regeneration. Participants include a futures-trained art professor, an artist that experiments with biofabricated textiles and sustainable fashion, a research…

Finish basic bathroom renovations in makerspace

Finish basic bathroom renovations in makerspace: strip wall and floor tiles of existing bathroom, demolish existing old toilet, install and connect pipes to new septic tank, order and replace new toilet, construct washroom sink and vanity mirror

Build a teahouse out of local wood from a farmer

Community Launch Event

We will formally open our community space in Komoro, Nagano to the public with a launch event, inviting neighbors, regional stakeholders, and global collaborators to engage with the site and its vision.

Held 6+ months of build weeks, educating 75+ volunteers around the akiya problem in Japan, and workshopping environmental stewardship (tending to garden, cutting bamboo, helping with local farmer initiatives, waste management)

Education of members who were able to come onsite and be a part of the volunteer crew for our first community space. Some (around 5) of them ended up purchasing akiya; a few in our neighborhood, and others in different places across Japan.

Asia Round

​The Gitcoin Grants Asia Round was a funding initiative designed to empower and support Asian innovators, builders, and projects contributing to the public goods ecosystem -- the round focused on initiatives around Ethereum development, policy advocacy, public goods funding proto…