Spotlight 13: Flin Judd & Claudia Wilson

This spotlight looks at Claudia Wilson and Flin Judd through their proposal for a community hub on Sashima Island, Japan. This project formed part of the University of Melbourne’s Travelling Studio Japan in January of 2024. The studio explored the distinct social and cultural conditions of island life in Japan at the intersection of land and sea, as well as the architectural implications of steadily declining and ageing populations. The Studio spent a week travelling through Japan meeting with renowned academics and design studios before arriving in the islands of Kamijima in the Seto Inland Sea. Students spent another week in Kamijima consulting with members of the local community and developing architectural proposals that celebrated the rich and unique qualities of island life while encouraging people to visit or return to Kamijima.

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Lucas Osborn (LO): Your project Sashima Communal Kitchen centres around this idea of community. Is this something you felt while travelling through Japan?

Flin Judd (FJ): Definitely. We were fortunate enough to visit several highly community-driven projects around Japan that each served to celebrate the local culture and context they belonged. This was particularly evident around Kamijima as the different islands’ inhabitants have established a network of communal spaces, services and businesses. The locals clearly care dearly about their community and keeping people together despite shrinking populations.

LO: Can we actually go back to the context of the community? The proposal sits on Sashima Island. What were some differences you noticed between their community and your own community?

Claudia Wilson (CW): Sashima is one of the least populated of the Kamijima islands, with a population of approximately 450 people, so there are certainly some big differences. Due to the small population, the people were all familiar with each other and often gathered around the Shima no hiroba building. This close-knit community was a noticeable difference and was something we admired and wanted to enhance. Also, the ageing and decreasing population in Japan, evident in Kamijima, influenced our design to include a space where elderly people could gather and combat loneliness.

FJ: Growing up in a rural area I felt like I could partially relate to the close community people in Kamijima shared with one another, although I could sense that the steadily declining population meant that the people living on the islands felt an increasing sense of urgency to share things with one another and celebrate the Kamijima they knew and loved before the community potentially changed.

LO: Let's briefly talk about photography. Flin, can you maybe expand upon why photography is important to an architectural project for you?

FJ: I think photography, along with rendering/digital visualisation is incredibly important in any architectural project as it can speak to the atmospheric, material and experiential qualities of the project in a way that isn’t possible with drawings alone. For this particular project, we felt it essential to photograph the existing Shima no Hiroba building in a way that captured its unique architectural qualities and provided a sensitive understanding of its context at the Sashima Port.

LO: The greenhouse typology that excites me. It has the potential to be a vessel for multiple uses. Did you think about how the project could change in program of use, due to the lack of internal partitions and other constraints?

CW: Absolutely! Our proposal is designed to adapt to seasonal changes and evolving community needs. We envisioned the greenhouse typology and scaffolding serving various purposes, such as a clothesline, food preparation area, or outdoor cinema, with adjustable sail heights for flexibility. One of our goals was for the project to be a central community space for events, workshops, and markets while maintaining the honour shop and accommodating a diverse range of programs.

LO: And how does the kitchen speak to the greenhouse?

FJ: The kitchen and greenhouse work together to suggest a circular narrative of food harvest and preparation. Members of the local community can grow food in the shared greenhouse before harvesting and preparing the produce for use as ingredients in the communal kitchen, where friends and neighbours can cook for one another. Any organic waste produced from these meals can then be composted and used to fertilise the soil in the greenhouse for future food growth.

LO: While travelling to Japan how did the project develop? Was there anything along the way which changed your outlook on the project?

CW: Our perspective constantly evolved as we travelled from Tokyo to Kamijima, stopping in cities like Kobe and Onomichi. There, we observed the revitalisation of abandoned buildings and gained insight into the impacts of an ageing population. Exploring Kamijima by bike and discovering local materials such as greenhouses, scaffolding, bamboo, and timber houses significantly influenced our outlook. It became important for us to incorporate and reuse these local materials to reduce the emissions of our project.

LO: I’m really interested in your thoughts about this format for a studio. You’ve produced an incredible amount of work for two weeks worth. How did the project develop over your time in Japan?

CW: Before the trip, it was hard to envision what our project would look like. Many of us had never been to Japan, let alone Kamijima, making it difficult to move beyond preliminary research and site analysis. Seeing the sites firsthand prompted almost everyone to revise their original concepts. However, having our mid-semester presentation during the trip was a significant advantage, as we received valuable feedback from the local community that we could build upon. The intensity of a travelling studio was always going to be challenging, but the experience we gained was invaluable.

LO: I gained a sense that scale is really important for this project and in Japan more generally. Is this something you had to consciously decide on and develop?

FJ: I think we both got the sense that a lot of Japanese design is informed heavily by an attention to scale and a consideration of the relationships between different scales. For our project, we wanted to highlight and celebrate the existing human-scale qualities of the Shima no Hiroba building instead of completely overhauling the current building and creating a huge or overwhelming design that would feel alien in the otherwise humble local context.

LO: What’s next for the both of you?

FJ: I’ve just finished my masters! Looking forward to having a bit of a break before continuing with full-time work. It's sad to be done with study (for now) but I'm excited to get out into the professional world.

CW: I’m about to start an exchange semester at TU Delft, which I’m really excited about. Once I return, I'll only have one semester left before graduating master's mid-next year!

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Interview Credits:

Interviewed by Lucas Osborn

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Project credits:

University: Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne

Year: 2024

Project images provided by Claudia Wilson (@dutz_design) and Flin Judd (@flin.judd)