Located in Gifu Prefecture, this competition proposal by Tuckey Design Studio with Daisuke Kamiryo reimagines the final years of an abandoned primary school awaiting demolition. Closed for over a decade following school consolidations driven by Japan’s declining birth rate, the building would be temporarily reactivated as a public venue where demolition itself becomes the architectural project.

Rather than occupying the school until its eventual removal, the proposal embraces a process of gradual dismantling, allowing the building to remain in use while progressively revealing its own disappearance. Through this evolving condition, the project proposes an alternative approach to architectural endings, one in which demolition becomes a shared cultural experience rather than an invisible act of erasure.

Successive phases remove sections of roof, ceilings and floors, admitting light, wind and rain into once-enclosed classrooms. As the ground beneath is exposed and hidden structural elements are uncovered, the school slowly transitions from building to landscape. The changing atmosphere invites visitors to witness the effects of weather, time and material decay, transforming the site into a living exhibition of architectural impermanence.

The proposal acknowledges the emotional complexity of exposing the decline of a place deeply embedded in collective memory. For former pupils and local residents, the gradual dismantling may be both unsettling and poignant. Yet by making the building’s final chapter visible, the project creates a space for reflection on memory, loss and renewal. Performances and public events staged within each newly opened space encourage visitors to recall their own experiences of school, while inviting broader conversations about the lifecycle of buildings and the communities they serve.

Following each phase of demolition, participants sow flower seeds into the newly exposed ground, allowing the site to regenerate as the architecture recedes. The process culminates in a collective farewell ritual, held when only the entrance porch and a flowering garden remain, marking the school’s transition from civic building to shared landscape.

The first intervention focuses on classrooms at the end of the building, where broken windows and temporary plywood repairs already signify abandonment. Excavation reveals the foundations beneath, while weathered timber trusses emerge as roof tiles are removed, allowing rain and moonlight to enter the space. Constructed from reclaimed timber salvaged during demolition, a slender observation tower rises through the classroom, framing the building itself as an object. As architecture gradually relinquishes its functional role, the project invites visitors to witness not simply the end of a building, but the possibility of a more meaningful way of saying goodbye.