Pillars from a wooden apartment, saved from demolition, still stand in the middle of a café
The wooden apartment building "Hagiso," built in 1955, was slated for demolition due to age-related damage after the 2011 earthquake. In February 2012, around 20 residents and art students held a farewell exhibition called "Hagiennale 2012" across every room, drawing about 1,500 visitors over three weeks — and the demolition plan was called off. In 2013 it reopened as "HAGISO, the smallest cultural complex," renovated to keep the apartment's old central corridor as a row of pillars. You can sip coffee in the ground-floor café while looking at the same pillars that once lined the hallway between the rooms.
