DESIGN ASSOCIATION
One Earth – House of the Heart
Designer
Toyo Ito,Sou Fujimoto,Kazuyo Sejima, Manabu Chiba,Astrid Klein,Maki Onishi,Yuki Hyakuda
The international educational project presented by DESIGN ASSOCIATION at Superstudio Design brings together 100 children from Japan and four European countries, and 100 teaching assistants from five universities: the Politecnico di Milano (Italy), ESAD, Arte&Design (Portugal), Umeå School of Architecture (Sweden), Aalto University (Finland) and the University of Tokyo (Japan). Each participant is invited to create a model of their own ‘House of the Heart’.
The theme, conceived by Toyo Ito, stems from a fundamental question: what does ‘home’ mean today? In an age of standardised housing and fragmented family life, the home — once the emotional centre of existence — risks losing its profound meaning.
Children aged between 10 and 12, unburdened by architectural conventions, offer surprising perspectives on space, family and community. At the same time, internationally renowned architects — including Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima, Sou Fujimoto, Manabu Chiba, Astrid Klein and o+h — present their own studio models developed around the same theme. By juxtaposing the children’s visions with those of great architects, the exhibition fosters a dialogue between generations. Presented during Milan Design Week, it invites the international design community to reflect anew on a fundamental question: what is architecture, and how can it restore emotional meaning to the idea of home?