Renowned Japanese architects have gone back to their drawing boards to help quake survivors enjoy some comfort and privacy in evacuation centers and find a sense of community in their temporary housing units.
Renowned Japanese architects have gone back to their drawing boards to help quake survivors enjoy some comfort and privacy in evacuation centers and find a sense of community in their temporary housing units.
Through their efforts, the architects have sought innovative solutions as they question the traditional role and responsibilities expected of their profession.
"I have seen disaster zones around the world, but none compare in the scale of damage to the latest disaster," said architect Shigeru Ban, after visiting Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, and other areas devastated in the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Along with his work in designing the Centre Pompidou-Metz museum in France, Ban has gained a reputation by visiting disaster sites and war-torn areas in the world to help provide housing for the deprived.
A common trait in his work in disaster-relief projects is the use of cardboard tubes, a material used to rebuild a Catholic church and community gathering space in Kobe's Nagata Ward following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, and a school in Chengdu, Sichuan province, after a massive quake leveled parts of the western province.
While Ban has used the tubes in the past to build whole structures, this time, the tubes are used to create large partitions that will provide privacy for survivors forced to live in cramped evacuation centers.
Tubes measuring 10 centimeters in diameter and two meters long are erected as pillars, while narrower tubes are placed horizontally as beams.
With safety pins, Ban has strung up curtains that can be closed at night to create privacy, and opened in the day to allow in light and encourage interaction with neighbors.
The cardboard pipes can be cut easily into desired sizes, and a 4-meter-by-4-meter space to house one family can be erected in just 10 minutes. Total set-up costs are roughly 20,000 yen ($236), all of which will be covered by donations.
"Until evacuees move into temporary housing, providing a good environment in the evacuation shelter is a crucial matter," said Ban, who added that by having the partitions, people can change clothes in complete privacy.
Ban's team has already visited shelters in Utsunomiya, Yamagata and Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture.
With the help of volunteers, Ban was able to put up partitions for more than 100 families at an evacuation shelters in Otsuchi and three other locations. Ban is hoping to visit the coastal areas soon.
Another group, formed by the architects Toyo Ito, Riken Yamamoto, Hiroshi Naito, Kengo Kuma, and Kazuyo Sejima, is looking into ways to present various proposals for the reconstruction process.
One project already under way is being led by Yamamoto, who has worked on large collective housing projects. Along with a team of graduate students from Yokohama National University, Yamamoto is looking into layouts for housing complexes.
By doing away with the typical design of lining up the temporary housing units in rows, Yamamoto suggests that the prefabricated buildings be situated in an uneven manner so as to create public spaces such as small alleys and courtyards where people can mingle.
"We share the blame for creating the 20th-century Japanese society model, which has been torn apart in this latest disaster," Yamamoto said, explaining that infrastructure has been left up to the public sector, while housing has been the choice of the individual and influenced largely by market principles.
"There should be more of a public aspect to housing," Yamamoto stressed.
Ban echoed a similar view.
"Architects often tend to devote their skills to governments or corporations, or other such entities that bear great power. While in some cases the outcome could be a good building, I thought that architects should more directly contribute to society."
Kuma, who called on the architects to engage in discussions, said he sees an important role for his profession now.
"Our role is to serve as a bridge between design and the harsh reality. Unless we fulfill that role, the 'culture of space' could end up becoming obsolete," Kuma added.