Installation of artwork “Compost House” at an elementary school in Kyoto, Japan

As part of the collaborative initiative with the Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education, we are providing environmental education under the theme of “Making Fertilizer from Food Waste,” in which discarded food waste (such as vegetable scraps and leftover food) from school lunches is reused as fertilizer for gardens and flowerbeds. As part of this initiative, we recently constructed the “Compost House” artwork at an elementary school in Kyoto prefecture and held an unveiling ceremony on 7 November.

The “Compost House” was first presented at “Dancing with All— The Ecology of Empathy” exhibition held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa from November 2024 to March 2025. It is a joint work between artist T. Yasura and the Organic Material Cycle Project (Principal Investigator: Shuichi Oyama), RIHN. Since 2023, members of this project, A. Shioya and U. Aoike, have been conducting compost-making classes for fifth-grade students at Ide elementary school. We hope that the installation of the “Compost House” at this school will spark children’s interest in science and art, make composting more familiar, and serve the children as a step to think about environmental issues.