This month, Gallery A4 in Tokyo is running a comprehensive exhibition featuring the MIT Japan 3.11 Initiative’s work on Post-Disaster, Resilient Reconstruction in Minamisanriku over the last two years.
The exhibition opens this week on February 7th, and runs through February 28th. We hope to see you there!
Shun Kanda, MIT Japan 3/11 Initiative Director, delivered a talk at the Nikkei BP Smart City Week 21 Symposium in Yokohama, Japan on October 30th, 2012.
For more information:
http://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/scw/2012/conference/international/k1.shtml
Shun Kanda recently gave a lecture at MIT to a group of students from Tohoku entitled “Power of Place, of People, as One.” He showcased the recently completed Garden Pavilione in Baba-Nakayama and the community-driven initiatives that have developed in the wake of 3/11. Also featured were creative ideas and new typologies for the future of coastal towns in Tohoku as they move to higher ground.
The students are all survivors of the 3/11 disaster who have joined the non-profit organization, Beyond Tomorrow. They are visiting the US to obtain first-hand accounts from leaders in New Orleans, New York, and Washington D.C. Their Boston visit was sponsored by the Fish Family Foundation.
A similar lecture was also given at University of Tokyo on July 29th, at the start of the Japan 3/11 Design Workshop.
The Initiative’s efforts in creating disaster resiliency was the main feature in the latest edition of MIT School of Architecture + Planning‘s newsletter publication, PLAN 81. The story showcases our work from last summer’s workshop to the present in response to the “urgent need for community centers to facilitate social interaction and serve as a symbol for the town’s resurgence of hope.”
Read more here.
“How successful are you in actually getting the displaced to (discuss?) relocate(ing) their rebuilding efforts higher?” is the question posed to us by friend of the Initiative, Ken Diener. Another question in a similar vein is, “What types of warnings would it take to convince people to move to safer ground,” locations safe from the known historic hazards of tsunamis?
The excerpted article below — originally published in CBS news on April 6th, 2011 — showcases the 600-year old stone markers that have long warned of tsunamis:
In this March 31, 2011 photo, a tsunami survivor walks past a centuries-old tablet that warns of danger of tsunamis in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan. (AP)
MIYAKO, Japan – Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan’s destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.
“High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants,” the stone slab reads. “Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point.”
It was advice the dozen or so households of Aneyoshi heeded, and their homes emerged unscathed from a disaster that flattened low-lying communities elsewhere and killed thousands along Japan’s northeastern shore.
Hundreds of such markers dot the coastline, some more than 600 years old. Collectively they form a crude warning system for Japan, whose long coasts along major fault lines have made it a repeated target of earthquakes and tsunamis over the centuries.
The markers don’t all indicate where it’s safe to build. Some simply stand — or stood, washed away by the tsunami — as daily reminders of the risk. “If an earthquake comes, beware of tsunamis,” reads one. In the bustle of modern life, many forgot.
More than 12,000 have been confirmed dead and officials fear the death toll could rise to 25,000 from the March 11 disaster. More than 100,000 are still sheltering in schools and other buildings, almost a month later. A few lucky individuals may move into the first completed units of temporary housing this weekend.
完成後をイメージしながら、建物の位置を決め、基礎を並べる。
建設のための素材には、それぞれ物語りがある。この庭石もそのひとつ。
切り出した木材を仮組みしている様子
約1週間の建設期間に、様々な人に協力していただいた。この日は、多くの学生が集まってくれた。
庭木もいただいたもの。
落成式には素晴らしい詩を披露していただいた。
中の様子。瓦、飛石、竹、縄のれん・・・それぞれの素材が調和している。
地元の方の、力強いメッセージ。
落成式後、地元の方々と談笑を楽しむ様子
建設メンバーで、完成を祝う様子
とても素敵な笑顔をみせてくれた、地元の方々
縄のれん越しに見える、憩いの風景。
The video from Professor Shun Kanda’s presentation at the MIT Media Lab’s ‘Japan Under Reconstruction’ symposium on April 7th, 2012, is now available to view online. Kanda spoke at the Symposium, along with Joi Ito, Hirosih Ishii, and Kent Larson from the MIT Media Lab, along with Hirotaka Takeuchi from the Harvard Business School.
We now have the opportunity to view online Shun Kanda and Jim Wescoat’s November lecture on the Japan 3/11 Initiative and the “Beauty of Place” in the reconstruction process.
The professors had spoken as part of the Fall 2011 “Zones of Emergency” lecture series, hosted by the MIT Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) Program.
Take a virtual journey on the Kesennuma Line, the East Japan Railway (JR) local line that runs up the coast in Miyagi Prefecture. It was severely damaged or – in some cases – completely destroyed during the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. This video was filmed in 2009 with the last stop being Utatsu, where reconstruction is currently underway in conjunction with the community.