On 8 April, we held our annual cherry blossom viewing party!
We had a lovely time with the new members who joined us this year.
Over the coming year, I’m sure each of us will face both enjoyable and amusing moments, as well as difficulties and challenges, but I hope we can share these experiences, overcome them together, and make this a year we can look back on with no regrets.
It was a day that marked the start of such a wonderful life in the lab!
On 23 March 2026, the Hiroshima University Architecture Group held its degree conferment ceremony and graduation and completion celebration party to congratulate the graduates and those completing their programmes.
From our laboratory, six undergraduate students and twelve postgraduate students (ten Master’s students and two PhD students) successfully reached this milestone and will be moving on to new environments from April. Congratulations to you all.
The after-party was held at an izakaya near Hiroshima Station. This marked the final lab social gathering of the academic year. The first-year M.Sc. students organised the event to provide an opportunity for them to spend quality time interacting with the senior and junior students who had looked after them. We were also treated to a few words from our graduates. It certainly brings back a flood of memories.
After the after-party, we took the final group photo of the year.
It was a wonderful team. Let’s meet again soon. Until then, we’re breaking up temporarily.
On January 29th, the final session of the “Yanominami Project” was held! For this third and final session, the children completed the pieces they had been working on throughout the earlier classes! Specifically, they hammered in the components while adjusting the overall balance, decorated the plywood base, and attached the letters. The base used a material resembling grass, and the children were thrilled to work with this unusual material. It was impressive to see them decorating with such enjoyment.
For the lettering, they carved the project name “Time and Space’s Annual Rings,” which the children themselves came up with, onto the table leg components. They also attached the letters “YANOMINAMI”! The design turned out incredibly cute, featuring a brilliant idea from an elementary school student: turning the ‘O’ in “YANOMINAMI” into a clock!
The completed work will be installed in the school’s entranceway. We hope it will be cherished not only by the children involved in its creation but also by future students who will enroll here!
In the latter part of the class, we held a roundtable discussion-style lecture featuring professionals from various fields: university professors, furniture craftsmen, carpenters, designers, architects, filmmakers, and university students.
Through this project, we students also gained much inspiration from the children’s sensibilities and the skills of the professional artisans. This project is a continuous effort spanning three years. While this year’s activities have concluded for now, we look forward to continuing our collaboration with everyone at Yano Minami Elementary School next year and beyond, aiming to build on this success for even better activities.
