Zero Yen House is an exhibition by Japanese architect and artist Kyohei Sakaguchi, inspired by the constructions of Japanese homeless people.
Sakaguchi, a graduate of the Department of Architecture at Waseda University, became interested in "vernacular architecture" whilst a student, and since then has documented the temporary structures created by the homeless in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.[1] [2] In 2004, he published a book, Zero Yen Houses, which contained photographs of many of these constructions.[1] [3]
The exhibition includes video footage, sketches, large ink-jet prints, a detailed architectural drawing of a zero-yen house, and a full-scale replica of one such structure entitled An Evolving House (the original, in Tokyo, was built by an unnamed camera engineer).[1] [2]
Sakaguchi sees the zero yen house as uniquely Japanese phenomenon, rooted in the austerity of traditional Japanese Buddhism.[4]