Yasuhiro Yamashita

• Name — Yasuhiro Yamashita • Born — 1960 • Birthplace — Amami, Kagoshima, Japan • Education — Shibaura Institute of Technology • Awards — AR Emerging Architecture Awards 2004 LEAF Award 2013 International Architecture Awards 2014 Japan Institute of Architects Awards 2013 ARCASIA Awards for Architecture 2015 Japan Concrete Institute Awards 2016 The ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards 2017 fib Awards for Outstanding Concrete Structures 2018 Asia Pacific Property Awards 2019 • Practice — Atelier TEKUTO • Significant Buildings — Cell Bricks Crystal Bricks Lucky Drops Magritte's Reflection of Mineral Earth Bricks Boundary House Monoclinic R-torso-C Nest at Amami Beach Villas • Website — http: www.tekuto.com/en/

Yamashita was born on 26 April 1960 in Amami Oshima, a subtropical island in the southern part of Japan. After obtaining a master's degree in architecture from Shibaura Institute of Technology, he worked at several architectural practices before founding his own firm Atelier TEKUTO in 1991.

In 2004, Yamashita received the AR Emerging Architecture Award for Cell Bricks, an urban micro-house in Tokyo. The same year, he won an international competition to design Busan Eco-Center (Nakdong Estuary Eco-Center), a museum dedicated to the conservation of the local waterbirds and environment, in Busan, Korea. Ever since the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, Yamashita has been actively engaged in disaster relief activities. In the wake of the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011, he designed a community home named "Home-for-All for Fishermen in Kamaishi" together with Toyo Ito & Associates. In 2013, he won the design competition for a post-disaster public housing in Kamaishi, Iwate, under the name of TeMaLi Architects. The housing project was awarded the LEAF Awards 2013, along with two other projects of Yamashita (Boundary House and Emergency Supply Warehouse). He founded Regional Material Utilization Network in 2013, an institute that serves as a platform to utilize materials and construction methods of various regions in order to help boost the local economy and vitalize the community. SHIRASU concrete, a concrete that contains the deposit of pyroclastic flow of volcanic ash SHIRASU, amassed in Kagoshima Japan, as fine aggregate is one such material. R-torso-C, a private residence built with SHIRASU concrete gained both domestic and international acclaim, winning Japan Concrete Institute Awards, The ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards, fib Awards for Outstanding Concrete Structure Awards. Since 2014, Yamashita has been conducting a research on elderly facilities as a visiting professor at Kyushu University. In 2016, he started to renovate vacant houses in Amami in order to converted them into lodging facilities called Denpaku, which aims to pass on "traditional and legendary architecture, community and culture" to the future generation. In July 2018, Yamashita renovated a former supermarket and opened a community center "Denpaku + Magun" which consists of tourist accommodations, elderly facility, eatery and food mart in Amami. In this project, he is not only the architect but also the owner and head of the management of the facility.