Migration, Integration, and Unification: Hiroko’s Story

By Josie Lott

“This balance is so important to me. It makes our lives exciting…I feel just super happy.”

A family of four smiling broadly while gathered around a small, dome-shaped outdoor oven in a desert setting. Two children play inside it, conveying joy.

Hiroko Yamamoto is an assistant professor in the architecture department at the University of Utah. Hiroko moved from Nagoya, Japan to Bluff, Utah when her friend (and later, husband) Atsushi told her about the DesignBuildUtah program, which constructs homes in Bluff in collaboration with the Navajo Nation. They now live there with their two kids.  

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