Students follow a very flexible schedule that encourage them to choose independently the courses they wish to follow. This supports a multidisciplinary approach to the education of individuals, thus it's often impossible to categorize the learning path of a student using our academic common rules.

At SFC campus it's pretty common to find students with knowledge of both architecture and socio-economic science, human sciences or computer engineering. Almost all the courses are followed by applied classes of two to six students that want to deepen their knowledge on the subject.

In this rich and vibrant environment, students are often encouraged to propose their own research and to apply for financial support from the university, usually under the guidance of a professor. The professors, on the other hand, endorse the creation of teams that meet after the regular lessons time, to work on complex projects that focus on public, humanitarian or research objectives.

I was assigned to Professor Hiroto Kobayashi, that lead his own laboratory in a nice building of the campus, where students have their own desk and can work on group projects or on their personal exams in the spare time.

The laboratory of Prof. Kobayashi has the goal to develop and construct buildings in areas damaged by natural disasters, usually in developing countries. The main project that addresses this goal is the Veneer House.

The Veneer Houses are all born from almost the same structural frame, improved after each iteration. They consist of sheets of plywood cut by computer numerical control machines (CNC), joint together to make the structural frame, much like a puzzle or a card game. This structure is highly modular and can be adapted to the necessities.

The initial concept born to solve the need of emergency housing subsequent to the tsunami that hit the Tohoku prefecture in Japan in 2011, and it was then developed into a series of housing solutions. To this date, five projects has been built: two in Japan, one in Myanmar, one in the Philippines and the one I worked on in Nepal. Each of them has a different purpose, such as community centre, fishermen building, school, or private house, but it is possible to envision many further applications for the Veneer House model.

This thesis work presents various aspects of the Veneer House project and the experience I lived while working in the Kobayashi Laboratory building one of them in Nepal.

In fact, when I joined the project the Veneer Model was being adapted to be a house suitable for Nepal environment. Along with other students, I helped organize the construction field, the working schedule, the trip to the site, the accommodation, and to negotiate with nepalese contractors and with local sellers of building supplies.

It is important to note that Prof. Kobayashi worked as a supervisor for this project: the highly hierarchical structure of the Japanese university let the students organize the work of the master and bachelor students, giving them tasks and deadlines, while developing their own thesis work. Moreover, it is common for older students to have been involved in the design and construction of previous Veneer House projects, giving them the chance to learn more about the adopted systems.

I wish to remark that, as an Italian student, I was amazed by the capability of the Japanese students to deal with such responsibilities and obligations, being able to manage a budget of several thousand euros directly under their control.

In this kind of environment I confronted with an innovative project intended to help people to recover after dramatic events as a tsunami or an earthquake. My experience is described in the first chapter, along with every phase of the construction. The second chapter presents the prefabrication as a valuable approach for wood construction and notable examples, together with the description of the previous Veneer Houses. The third chapter examines the critical points of using timber and plywood in construction and its properties as a sustainable material within the frame of architecture for recovery.