HALF A SHADE FLYNN BARBARY
MUM, THE COMPASSIONATE AND INIMITABLE LYN BARBARY DE VRIES. FOR MY
‘HALF
A
SHADE’
STUDENT ID: DESIGN STUDIO 8:
BY
FLYNN BARBARY S3239000 AFTER LANDSCAPE
HALF A SHADE PART ONE: ILLUSORY LIGHT
PART TWO: SLEEPER AWAKE
COASTAL FORTIFICATION PHENOMENA
SLEEPER AWAKE
2037 BUFFER WALL TREATED POOL OYSTER HARVEST THE SHORELINE MEMORIES AND CEREMONIES EVACUATION 2051 TSUNAMI KINETICS SUBMERGED BARRIERS RENDEZVOUS 2054 REGENERATION MARKET STRIP NEW HOUSE ZONING
2012 SHIBITACHI SONS & DAUGHTERS BROTHERS & SISTERS KESENNUMA TOKYO FLÂNEUR HARAJUKU / OMOTESANDO MEIJI SHRINE NEZU MUSEUM ASAKUSA YOKOHAMA TOKYO UNIVERSITY
KARAKUWA
WATER EQUILIBRIUM BUFFERING SYSTEM FLOOD ALLEVIATION EVACUATION ZONING RECONNAISSANCE HAUNTED & UNSETTLED
ILLUSORY LIGHT
BIBLIOGRAPHY
KANPAI AEQUUS NOX
SOLSTICE UMBRA
HALF A SHADE Half a Shade is the reoccurring disbelief in one to understand that they still exist as a mortal being, simultaneously while the body is showing an existential relationship to its inuration to fate and eternity.
And presently I saw it melt away: Though still unconscious, I was back on earth. The tale I told provoked my doctor’s mirth. He doubted very much that in the state
He found me in “one could hallucinate It is inspired as an ‘epilogue’ of my previous Or dream in any sense. Later, perhaps, but not during the actual collapse. project, Pale Fire, as well as the physical and metaphorical relationship between the No, Mr. Shade!” “But, Doctor, I was dead! light and the dark, the sun and the shadows, He smiled. “Not quite: just half a shade,” he the death and the life, the yin and the yang, said. as the day the night follows. Vladimir Nobokov, ‘Pale Fire’ Japan unveiled a new dynamic to life altogether, I was an insomniac, I moved through Tokyo like a worm breaking through dirt, ventured within Miyagi with a sharp arrow in my heart, waded kneedeep in a sea of eternity. Stood in jubilation, illumination, confusion, drunkenness, stillness and embrace. And I’m still taking it all in. To me, ‘Half a Shade’ is the relentless sense of a designers disorientation as the boundries fade, while being taught to abdicate a confrontation of disaster and loss to prepare for a design research for the aftermath. There were moments I felt I would sink beneath the work that I was doing.
I
L L U S O R Y PART ONE
L
I G H T
COASTAL FORTIFICATION This was the design Steph and I presented at the final presentation. It was looking at how through researching the kinetic nature and the characteristics of a tsunami can design a buffering system, and how that buffering system can be recognised as a recreation and public space that is a benefit to the community. Our main concern was that the sea wall that was proposed by the government was rejected by the community because of its aesthetic and inability to prevent the force of the tide. Our previous designs that we presented were a flaw, and couldn’t resolve the issue of flooding. However what Steph and I could do was to try and reverse the way townspeople thought of the sea wall by designing a series of strategies which will make the sea wall a new ‘town square’. This meant not only designing a sea wall which is welcomed and useful, but to design programs along the shoreline that can rethink how people can live in Shibitachi, how they can consider becoming an import/exporting hub, and how the programs transition over a short and long timescale. The design itself questioned my curiosity on geometry versus tidal velocity, and I want to take this design further by reaching a design outcome that tests materials and geometry to fortify the shore of the town.
Master Plan
1:2500
PHENOMENA
EVACUATION ROUTES FINALISED
Regardless of being hypothetical, our predictions are based on the evidence that these large scaled problems have a cyclical relationship. The happening and the phenomena may be predictable, but the scale of damage and the aftermath.
2012
« « «
So the only way we can test the hypothesis correctly is if we were to wait for the phenomenon to happen again, assess the usefulness of our project, and refine, and try again.
1933 TSUNAMI
What we wanted to do with the project was to research and speculate ways in which structures and building techniques can break and buffer the kinetic energy and pressure of a tsunami, but how Shibitachi can live vicariously around it.
1960 CHILEAN TSUNAMI
This is how we generate a design hypothesis.
FURTHER SHELTERS DEVELOPED RENDEZVOUS ROAD ESTABLISHED
For our work, one of the most important concepts to structure the design around is the time line. The time line implies the stages that our design is evolving and adjusting too according to our predictions of what is going to happen in the future.
2112
2087
2062
2037
REGENERATION
THE NEXT TSUNAMI (HYPOTHESIS)
REGENERATION
THE NEXT TSUNAMI (HYPOTHESIS)
RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN
RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN
BUFFERING WALL CONSTRUCTED PLANTING DESIGN & PROGRAMS OBSCURE BUFFERING WALL.
BEYOND
« «
« «
« «
2
0
3
7
TRUTH IS INSEPARABLE FROM THE ILLUSORY BELIEF THAT FROM THE FIGURES OF THE UNREAL ONE DAY, IN SPITE OF ALL, REAL DELIVERANCE WILL COME.
Floating Garden System Native Long Grasses Lighting
BUFFER WALL The main catalyst and feature for our design was exploring the alternatives to a sea wall, which to us, after finding existent and reading proposed sea walls, was an illogical and evasive intervention that would taint the view and accessibility of the sea. We determined the shape and orientation by looking at the history of the direction of tsunami, ultimately determining the location of the buffer wall. The buffer wall has been specifically designed to a convex shape to alleviate and reflect the pressure of high tide’s or Tsunami’s back out to sea. It is multifunctional, acting as a docking area for local fisherman and is also an avenue for public space becoming a look out destination to sea. What was important to us was that the sea wall would become more than just a concrete eye-sore. That it was wanting to be a combination between a public space as well as a fenced off area which captures, cleans water and makes it available for recreation use. The planting design that sits on the sea wall also implies that the nutrients from the small trees and plants can nourish the sea water, having a positive affect on the oyster farming industry.
Detailed Buffer Wall
Seating Public Swimming Area
Marketing Space
1:500
Boat Ramp
Docking Area
Sea Wall Base: 13,500mm
Photomontage
Swimming Area
Submerged Barriers Earth Barrier The Vertical Wall attempts to break the force of the rising tides once they have breaches past the sea buffering system and the shore. Public Swim Area Grasses can be planted and furniture can be retrofitted to make the Earth Walls into a public space / observation platform
Less Evasive Sea Wall
Still Acts as a Docking Area
Earth Barrier
Reiterated Sea Wall
Earth Barriers Reenforce the land in case of Floods
A
A
Reserved water for wetland plant species and public swimming space. Reiterated Buffer Wall that still acts as a docking area for boats.
Buffer Wall
Docking Area
Swim Area
Section AA
TREATED POOL The treatment pool is a solution to the substitution of the docks that wont be able to be used because of the buffering wall being in the way. It’s a containment of water that sits in-between the wall and the shoreline and is filled by the sea and kept clean through two different systems. The floating gardens system is a flotation device that sits on top of the water and is attached to the boardwalk and wall of the pool. Planted on the device are a series of saline-tolerant wetland plants and long grasses native to northern Japan which clean the flowing water using the root system that grow through and hang underneath the flotation device. The second system is the gabion system which is a fence of rocks located underneath the boardwalk that clean the sea water as it passes through. The gabions also double as how the water access the pool. However we didn’t want to put the gabion system underneath the buffer wall because it would be a big sacrifice in structural integrity.
Section AA exempt
Section BB exempt
1:300
1:250
Surface Gardens
Sea Water
Floating Gardens Filtration
Gabion Filtration System
Filtered Water
Filtration Diagrams gabions floating gardens
Exposed roots clean the water Soil on flotation Device Wetland plants Pockets of Air Within the Rocks
Gabion Systems
OYSTER HARVEST Shibitachi is well know to have a very available source of oysters, mostly harvested and eaten by the community. It’s a crucial aspect of what keeps Shibitachi sustainable and the food secure. In a social perspective, a tremor that can cause a tsunami can happen at any moment. However geologically the tectonic plates are starting to generate a relationship to a time scale, as identified in the study of volcanos in South Iceland.
1
Oyster Farms Pre-Tsunami
2
Crumpling of Oyster Farms during Tsunami
3
Oyster Farm Regeneration after Tsunami
Throughout moments in time tremors both local and global have completely destructed the oyster farms in North Japan. Including the travelling fissure that originated from the earthquake in Chili as explained to us in a talk by Professor Morris. This became an important catalyst in our design, how we can incorporate a design which will look into researching how the regeneration of oyster farms can become quicker in a post-natural disaster scenario. This would mean that not only can the plants that are planted on the buffering system and the strategised plants along the shore can feed the sea and farms with the appropriate nutrients that can help regenerate the oyster farms. But the oyster farms will create a crumpling effect absorbing the effects of the tsunami or high pressure’s which assists in committing a fast regeneration of the oyster farming in more vulnerable areas.
Export Scenario
Oyster Farming Scenario
1
2
3 Oyster Regeneration Diagram
1:250
1:250
THE SHORELINE With the design and the position of the buffer wall. What we had to do was to speculate what would happen to the psychogeography of the townspeople as well as their differed relationship of the sea. One program we wanted to encourage was the idea that if the oyster farming regeneration went well and there was a confident amount of produce in the area, the shore of Shibitachi could be considered as a massive export hub. This would require a large allotment of land, parking space and facilities to fulfil the program. Then we needed to begin organising the programs for when the space isn’t being used as an export hub, this is when we started considering seasonal markets and stalls which encourage the program to be a congregation tool.
Section AA Exempt
Further along the shore we decided on a permanent shop and eating area which frames the swimming area, public spaces and parks, seating areas which frame the docking area and male and female onsens that are guised in plants for privacy.
Section DD
Parking Space / Market Space
Seafood Hub / Utility Building
1:250
1:250
Export Hub / Utility Storage
Submerged Barriers
Sea Wall
New Docking Area
Jetty and Car Park
Memorial Park
Female Onsen
Male Onsen
Cafe / Kiosk
Export Hub
MEMORIES & CEREMONIES During our visit in Shibitachi, after a meal at a ramen place on top of a steep and long hill out of town. Our group detoured to the local cemetery, which also stood was a memorial pillar that looked over the town. There were 16 fatalities in Shibitachi during the March Tsunami and it was unknown to us whether or not the memorial pillar was used as a ceremonial location to commemorate the memory of those lost. For our shoreline what we wanted to start thinking about was a memorial park that’s a closer proximity to town, that can be used as a festival and memorial space. The memorial park consists of 16 cherry blossom trees which acknowledges the 16 lives which were taken by the tsunami. A water sculptural feature is situated between the trees and is used for those who have lost loved ones as well as a place for floating lanterns during the lantern festivals and other relevant rituals.
Memorial Park Plan 1:1000
Memorial Park Section
EVACUATION
INEFFECTIVE ESCAPE ROUTE
One of the main things that Suzuki-San the fisherman said to us when we interviewed him at his boat was that the evacuation routes and the roads that lead to the higher land are unclear, indistinguishable and steep. Part of our research on site was walking through most of the evacuation routes to find which ones are sufficient to design on and which ones we classify as ineffective ways of escape. This was mostly decided after by looking at the contours. The sections on the next spread show the length and elevation of each of the roads. The routes highlighted on the plan in red are the roads that we wanted to further design. The design will simply be an alternate paving along with the asphalt that implies that it is one of the routes. As well as the roads being slightly widened to accommodate heavy traffic. The road the once existed along the shoreline of the bay had been moved further away from the shore to alleviate the heavy traffic and to reconnect the evacuation roads.
(A)
EFFECTIVE ESCAPE R
ES
ROUTES
RENDEZVOUS ROAD
(B)
(C) (D) (E)
(F)
C
3 METER
111.5 METERS
119.5 METERS
331 METERS
25 METERS 18 METERS 15 METERS 8 MEETER
A
B 10 METERS
113.5 METERS
20 METERS
331 METERS
F
10 METER
20 METERS
266METERS
E 4 MEETER
7 MEETERS
11 METERS
233 METERS
D 5 METTER
11 METERS
20 METERS
30 METERS
2
0
5
1
“BLACK, WHEN THE SKY TURNS BLACK, WHY DO I FEEL SO BLUE?”
Direction Flow Velocity Scale
Greater
2051 Scenario Plan
Less
1:250
2051 Scenario Section AA
direction flow and velocity
obstruction
2051 Scenario Section BB
sea level
sea wall / barrier
1:250
TSUNAMI KINETICS While the design stages were about creating a new export hub and central public space for Shibitachi. Researching and diagramming the kinetic nature of previous tsunamis was a very important component to our design. Our main catalyst was to design an alternative sea wall to the one being proposed by the government, therefore it had to be proven to be successful at protecting the village. The convex shape is a geometric shape that allows the waves of the tide to be broken and separated rather than a reversal/inverted geometry which would theoretically be destroyed by the distribution of force and pressure of the waves. The benefit of the convex shape is to create a crumpling effect when the waves enter while the rip tide that drag the oyster farming outwards it blocked by the inverted convex as the waves leave.
R
L EF
EC
D TE
W
ER AT
CONVEX
A Research Diagram of Geometry Against the Tsunami Force
SUBMERGED BARRIERS The second proposal to breaking the kinetic force of the tsunami tide are submerged concrete barriers that lie underwater. This was our design strategy when we didn’t want a surfacing sea wall that would block boats from entering the shore. The consideration that was made to put submerged barriers were that places adjacent from the shore that were vulnerable as well as unprotected from the sea wall. In Coastal Fortification, there are two rows of submerged barriers. The two barriers work together to fortify a more secure way for the waves to have less of a powerful impact.
Diagram of the Kinetic Energy without Submerged Barriers
Diagram of the Kinetic Energy with Submerged Barriers
RENDEZVOUS After the last tsunami, Mr. Suzuki’s house was used as a refuge as well as a source of food secure when cooking utensils and other needs weren’t made because of the disconnection of electricity after the damage.
SHELTER ONE (EXISTING TOWN HALL)
For our design, it was important to not only strategise a secure means of physically representing a way of evacuation awareness. But to also consider how the evacuation routes and shelters meet. The rendezvous implies that evacuators can gain closure for their concern on loved ones and fellow townspeople and reassure that they’re safe. And because the road intentionally connects the shelters, the road implies that there can be a distribution of food and other needs.
SUZUKI-SAN’S HOUSE
RENDEZVOUS ROAD
SHELTER TWO
SHELTER THREE
Establishing a Rendezvous Road that is safe from the Flood Line
2
0
5
4
‘‘THE MOON IS AN ARRANT THIEF, AND HER PALE FIRE SHE SNATCHES FROM THE SUN”
REGENERATION The decision on the year 2054 is the assumption that after the tsunami prediction of 2051. There will be an assessment of our design and a consideration in how the town can expand its seafood industry. Without really knowing how effective the buffering system would be to the town, the only thing we can assume that introducing a new exporting hub to the village, and the programs associated with the shoreline, will expand, and think beyond what we have designed. In this plan drawing, it shows the regeneration of the export hub by redeveloping building that used to exist as well as implying that there is a need for more buildings and programs along the shoreline. The buffer wall is also seen as rebuilt, but will hopefully be much further developed.
Encouraged Market / Utility District
Establishing a Rendezvous Road that is safe from the Flood Line
MARKET STRIP The market strip is a strategy that questions the population growth of Shibitachi and the successes of the seafood industry. The Market Strip is a seasonal intervention that aims to sell local produce to the Shibitachi people. It provides a space in which people can set up stalls and try and make an income while the kiosk/shop close by provides a casual seating area and sells food. The transition into other times when there isn’t a market it becomes a large export industry. The area where the market stalls are usually set up become a large parking bay that is close to the docking areas.
Post Natural Disaster Regeneration of the Market Area
Post Natural Disaster Regeneration of the Market Area
NEW HOUSE ZONING Over the next era of the tsunami. It has become clear that people are more aware of the dangers in building their houses to close to the shore and on lower grounds. Shibitachi is fortunate enough to have steep slopes and a topography that allow the townspeople to build on safer ground without being too far away from the water. The plan is implying that these are areas of recommendation where people can build houses if and when there is a population increase. The areas are assessed by what land is available, and what land can be built upon only based on the topography (this is subjective due to property ownership and soil types.)
New House Zoning
KARAKUWA Along the Karakuwacho peninsula I found a number of existing sea walls, a select number of which are only mapped here. One sea wall I also found in-person and walked on. The Coastal Fortification design serves as an example of how the Tohoku region can utilize the structure of the sea wall and propose a design strategy in which it can be a useful incentive to affected communities as well as being a successful buffering system against disastrous tides. The mapping starts to think about how and where to apply a similar design approach to sea walls.
SHIBITACHI
ILLUSORY LIGHT What I wanted to do with this design research was to take if further in an engineering/physics angle and research through design into different versions of geometry that will effectively break apart the force of the tides. To a point where this would be this can only be shown through model-making (with water and effort). This would then be a more accurate process in designing a sea wall/buffer system. In our first designs we had the idea of digging out land for water to pool into, our most recent design was more focused on building into the water. I am wanting to take it further by using a combination of the land and the sea to fortify Shibitachi. The other avenue I wanted to take further, (and this couldn’t really happen because of lack of on-site research), was how Shibitachi can be statistically seen as capable of becoming a seafood export industry. However after suggesting this in the project itself initially, I wanted to start questioning the townspeople’s position into exporting the produce they catch, as well as the idea of their population growing from the affects of the industry. Would they want their population to grow? Would this taint the quality of life in Shibitachi?
AEQUUS NOX I COULD EMPHASISE HOW FAR I COULD TAKE THIS PROJECT, HOW FAR I COULD PUSH IT
ILLUSORY. I STOOD IN GRAVEYARDS, WALKED AROUND MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS,
OVER THE EDGE OR CONVINCE MYSELF THAT
LISTENED TO HEAVY STORIES AND FACTS AND
THE LOOSE NATURE OF TIME MEANS
I COULD
WATCHED THE PEOPLE LIVE ON, BUT THERE
PROPOSE ANYTHING TO ANY SCENRAIO TO
WAS AN UNSETTLING WEIGHT AGAINST WHY
SHIBITACHI. BUT MY STRONG VOICE OF
WE WERE HERE AND THE HARSH REALITIES OF
MORALITY AND GENTLE RESISTENCE CONVINCED
THESE PROBLEMS.
I CAN’T YET, NOT WITH HOW I GREW UP NOR WITH HOW I SAW SHIBITACHI. MYSELF THAT
I KNEW THAT THERE WAS A CERTAIN KIND OF SENSITIVITY AND EMPATHY I WAS GOING TO ADOPT WHEN VISITING SITE, THAT I WAS WORRIED I WOULD IMPOSE OR BE RADICALLY PRESUMPTUOUS WITH DESIGN. I DIDN’T WANT SHIBITACHI TO SEE ME AS A ‘CITY-SLICKER THAT ISN’T EVEN FROM THIS COUNTRY’ THAT ARRIVES AND THROWS A HARDCORE DESIGN AT THEM. I CAN’T EVEN COME CLOSE TO KNOWING WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN THROUGH, BUT I CAN TRY BMY
I’M PROUD AND APPRECIATIVE OF WHY I AM HERE AND THE DESIGN WORK THAT I AM DOING. I’M PROUD OF MY FELLOW STUDENTS WHO WORKED ALONG SIDE ME, THE PERCEPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS THEY MADE. BUT THESE PROBLEMS ARE MORE REAL THAN I HAD EVER IMAGINED AND CONTINUE TO IMAGINE, AND IT’S A DIFFICULT SITUATION TO COME TO TERMS WITH. IN THE LIGHTER SIDE THOUGH I ALMOST INSTANTLY CONNECTED TO THE REASONS WHY PEOPLE CHOOSE TO LIVE OUT THESE ISOLATED PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, EVEN THOUGH THEY
BEST TO RESEARCH AND DISCOVER WHAT TOUGH
KNOW THAT THE SUBTERRANEAN-TECHTONIC
ROADS LIE AHEAD, AND DESIGN UPON IT.
NATURE IS A HUGE AND REOCCURING RISK TO THEIR LIVES.
WHEN I WAS STANDING ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN AT THE SHRINE, LOOKING OUT AT KESENNUMA CITY, AND THINKING ABOUT THE FEW DAYS WE HAD BEEN FIDDLING, DRAWING, THINKING AND DESIGNING A POST-NATURAL DISASTER RURAL JAPAN, IT ALL SEEMED SO
AND THAT’S WHEN I START TO SINK.
“...AND HE ABSOLUTELY HAD TO FIND HER AT ONCE TO AUDIENCE BEFORE HIM SEPARATED HIM FROM THE DOOR, OF HANDS SAID THAT SHE WAS NOT AVAILABLE; THAT SHE
AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN; THAT SHE HAD BECOME A
TELL HER THAT HE ADORED HER, BUT THE LARGE AND THE NOTES REACHING HIM THROUGH A SUCCESSION WAS INAUGURATING A FIRE; THAT SHE HAD MARRIED AN CHARACTER IN A NOVEL; THAT SHE WAS DEAD.”
S
L E E P E R PART TWO
A
W A K E
SLEEPER AWAKE This was my first time overseas, I didn’t have much of an expectation that went further than small stories I’ve heard from other people, travel advertisements, and tv parodies. I sat on the edge of my seat, as Marieluise proposed the studio before us and convinced myself that this was how I was going to get out of the country and study something that I’m really going to appreciate in my scholar. I was inaugurating a fire that day. I listened to my wild instincts and moments later I was organising my birth certificate and passport, still in disbelief that I was going through this. Part Two of this port folio is about a young man, native to the arid Woomelangian landscape, the struggler of adjustment to the urban environment, wide-eyed and content, but restlessly eccentric. This ‘Little Village Child’ sought to research an alternative future for places that were so far away from home. To this day the young man is still drinking in the sites, sounds and stories of rural Japan and Tokyo. At moments when he felt nostalgic, where something reminded him of home, he could vicariously connect with and understand. Everything else was confidently embraced.
2
0
1
2
“I’M NOT GOING THERE TO DIE. I’M GOING TO FIND OUT IF I’M REALLY ALIVE.”
SHIBITACHI This is Shibitachi, a small town in north Japan we were introduced to through data 4 months before the visit of the site. Even though the entirety of the publication has been the aim to put together a ‘post-natural disaster manual; most of the designs and ideas were focusing on the fisherman’s village named Shibitachi, where the tsunami wiped out a large portion of the coastal area and killed 16 townspeople What was important for my analysis of the site was sensitivity and awareness. It was very important for me as not only a designer, but a human being, to understand that the scale of destruction, the quantity of loss, and the shaken quality of life is incomparable to anything our students could experience. We weren’t there before or during, but we are here now, and we need to acknowledge that. During the site visit, the village started making its own connections to my original home life in Woomelang. The humble and stubborn lifestyle was something I could relate to. This romantic idea of trimming away all innecessities and urban concern to achieve a fulfilling life was something I eventually felt when watching the fisherman work. The sketches after the following pages are an on-site analysis of the vertical walls, structures and housing typologies that exist. Most of the houses are on raised concrete. The retaining wall is a method of preventing tremors from causing a rockslide, another natural disaster to Shibitachi.
SONS & DAUGHTERS The Sons and Daughters of Shibitachi. The people who use the land and seas as a resource to shape their ideal lives. Our group, probably being the very few Australians who have visited Shibitachi, I was amazed at how remarkably well-adjusted and hospitable the people were. They are very grounded and stable people, who as a community can fortify themselves through some of the most critical times. Suzuki-San (pictured on the top left with his wife sitting behind him) told us most of the events that happened during and shortly after that day through his own perception, as he experienced the earthquake and tsunami from the surroundings of his house. Through what I interpreted mostly with body language he pointed out the movements of the tide; as the houses were torn apart and taken away, the debris, how high the water reached, The other Suzuki-san (pictured with Go I below) told us more in detail the damage to the environment that the tsunami caused, telling us that the contamination of the sea water made the earth very oily, not to mention the loss of the oyster farms. The fisherman also explained how he admittedly feels unprepared to cyclical disasters such as the tsunami, and that the evacuation procedure is relatively unclear. I guess he gave us a much more relevant intention in our design.
BROTHERS & SISTERS This was my analysis of the environment and town-life who share the peninsula along with Shibitachi. It was mainly conducted in the first early morning of our stay when I was enthusiastic to gather my own feeling of the place. It was early enough that the fisherman were out at sea, presumably gathering the fish for breakfast, and I stood along the water noticing the wife of one of the fisherman, gazing still and hopeful. Not far from the Inn I walked to a bay which already had a sea wall reconstructed along the shoreline. Inside the concave of the sea wall were another group of fisherman, harvesting, While behind them along the shore were obvious marks and signs of damaged soil. As I stood on the grey, concrete sea wall I could feel first-hand at how thick and evasive it is. However it was somewhat comfortable being so close to the sea, yet quite remote from the land. Standing out there, on that sea wall, had a big influence on our design catalyst.
KESENNUMA The biggest city that is closest to Shibitachi, and renowned for its locality to the Karakuwacho Peninsula. Kesennuma was once home to about 900,000 people before the tsunami and is still scarred and tormented by that day with the tiny shards of debris and the concrete floor plans that were left over. The ship (pictured in the bottom left image behind the car debris) stands as a globally recognised monument. When we were returning to Tokyo from Shibitachi, one of our stops was the monumental ship, and all around us you couldn’t see any sign of residential living or anything in good condition for that matter. Within the hour of our research there an elderly man began talking to us and shared his story of what happened that day. The man in his early 80’s told us that he was at the time walking to where his home stood 16 months after the tsunami had happened. Majority of that time was spent in hospital recovering after his back was damaged from carrying his wife uphill to safety at a nearby shrine. We went with him to where he used to stand, and there was nothing but a concrete slab still sitting in the ground. As he expected.
TOKYO A city that is still only at the beginning of its rapid embrace in modernity and development; with a strong work ethic, an ingenious utility of space and technology, and is able to sustain remarkable cleanliness and order with a massive population. All of which sits on the edge of a narrow island country that is positioned in-between two highly-sensitive tectonic plates. The effect Tokyo has suffered from the earthquake has held the city back from securing a healthy economy. Specifically the food, steel, car manufacturing, chemical, petroleum and other industries have been greatly affected and what the city heavily rely on. When we took the train from the airport to our hotel in Hanzomon, the city felt like it was endless, the houses and tall buildings hardly lost consistency during the trip. I welcomed the belief that when I read that Tokyo doesn’t have a CBD, it was true. I scaled the streets so wide-eyed and consumed that it never occurred to me that it would be overwhelming. The train system was like a system of caves you live in, and vicariously change through until you reach the surface. You don’t recognize anything, nor do you know how far you travelled.
FLÂNEUR The flaneur’s role in Japan was about defining the space based on first impressions, loosely walking the streets either by myself or with company with the difficulty of language barriers and social customs. This was supposedly one of the biggest things I was looking forward to when travelling in Japan. It was inevitable that I was going to compare pedestrian customs and routines to what I am used to in Melbourne, considering that this was my first time overseas. I was a bit disappointed in how easy it was to get around Tokyo, at first the transport network was a bit intimidating, but the fact that a lot of information was translated into English ruined the experience for me, like I didn’t need to make as much of an effort to learn Japanese or understand. However majority of the Japanese were very tolerant of the fact that I was a complete foreigner to them, and on our first train into the city one girl by the English name of Sarah wrote down a big list of instructions into how we can find our hotel. This was one of many examples of how friendly and helpful the people were to us.
HARAJUKU / OMOTESANDO One of my precedents that I research in Asian Urbanism was Harajuku and the streetscapes that are associated with it. I used it to investigate what the new public space for Tokyo is, after arguing that Urban Renaissance deteriorating the human scale and social awareness. And causing an imbalance to communal values. Harajuku appealed to me as cultural icon, where it uses the streets to embrace aesthetic experimentation and bizarre clothes. The individuality become an extension of the streetscape as much as the flower pot gardens and shops become an extension of the residential houses. The back of the busy streets that were abused by cars and pedestrian overpasses lied a sort-of informal icon, easily relatable to the lane way ‘culture’ in Melbourne, but more disorientating and surprising. After a short time in the crowd though a realised how over hyped Harajuku was, and how the consumerism of the streets had over-taken the glamorous expression in clothes the internet made it look. It was still very much a human-scale environment in-comparison to a lot of Tokyo, and it was definitely something that was worth experiencing.
MEIJI SHRINE Not far from Harajuku, in the centre of the dense gardens is the Meiji Shrine which remains as a preserved example of a much older and simpler Japanese culture with traditions and close connections to religious regimen. When entering the grounds of the shrine it was like being taken down a dark and wide path in the woods until you step out into the vast and exposed courtyards which connect each other. Inside, in the main courtyard, it was like being in a thick wall of re-established buildings which aimed to prevent all the outside trees from seeing you. The first time I visited was later in the afternoon at the end of opening hours, and you saw girls in-costume packing up the stalls and It was amazing that at that moment one could lose sense of being in Tokyo by not only being visually segregated from it, but by being surrounded by these precious buildings and traditions and taking part in spiritual and rituous activity. It was a nice change from what we were doing the first few days.
NEZU MUSEUM I loved the Nezu Museum, it was another place like the Meiji Shrine where you completely forgot that you were in the middle of Tokyo. The museum had exhibited an out source of precious old items from mainly japan and China that stretch back further than the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD). The artefacts (mostly delicate ceramics, plates, scripts, vases & artworks) told many stories through a range of eras about historical Asia. Outside the back of the museum were the gardens, a thick and dense example of Native Japanese plants and trees with beautiful subtle paths that network around the park and over the body of water. It was great to see another contrast to the Tokyo streets. The gestures that are made in the layout of the garden imply a journey around the lake with nodes of built houses that serve as a utility, an onsen (I think), and a place to dine, and spots that intentionally ‘frame’ a view. The vocal point in the walk for me was the Japanese Maple tree fringing between the path and the bank of the water, this was because there was a contrast in the foliage. The Nezu Museum park is understood as a good example of the necessity of parks and gardens in Tokyo, even though the notion of a public space is evolving in a diverse way we see on the streets.
ASAKUSA Asakusa was one of the most action-packed places I’ve been to. I visited it twice because my last hostel was very close-by, the first was with the studio group and my last visit was during the Winter Cherry Festival to try and scab some presents for the olds. The markets themselves were like a giant, generic tourist giftshop that lined up and framed the temples which were scattered around the centre of the park. The market area had wild transitions between open and closed spaces, most of which were congested upon entering the markets, and then west of the markets became more about food and tea houses. Closer to the temples were practices in prayers and displays of religious beliefs. One couple I watched (pictured standing behind a woven circle) would clap at the temple (apparently to get the deities to notice them), walk in a round the circle three times, and walked closer to the monument to continue their prayer. This was an interesting custom. During the Winter Cherry Festival I was in the parading, partying streets by myself (with a hectic hangover) as I stood out as the only Caucasian in the festival. Along the main street there was amazing street food, kids playing with fireworks around me, drinking, and older people wanting a photo with me. This was the part of Japan that I loved, One of my favourite moments, I didn’t understand a single word they were saying to me, I would instead just smile and dance with them jubilantly.
YOKOHAMA It was nice to feel grass again after being in Tokyo for so long. Because there is such a large population, a lot of the grasses are restricted to pedestrians. The waterfront at Yokohama had a long strip of public space where people were able to sit. This was a beautiful spot on a beautiful day. Onto the well-acclaimed Yokohama Port Terminal and the public space on the top level was amazing to be on; feeling, seeing and trying to guess how the terminal was built and how the forms work. While I was there trying to draw beneath what I could see I was also trying to trace back to the series of sequential section cuts I’ve once seen. I tried to conclude through drawing that it was a combination between the tessellated layout of a diamond that has a consistency of vertical pillars to hold the top level up. When I went inside to the exhibition space, after I was staring at the ceiling wondering how the building was made, it later dawned on me, “what the hell does this port terminal actually... do...?”. I saw no large ships or boats, no major events, a few tourist stalls, a bridal expo and an art exhibition. Apart from that, with the large space that’s there and the complicated architecture required to build, it seemed pretty desperate to find programs. In the photos on the opposite spread, you can begin to see how complex it must have been to puzzle together the planks of wood as the changes in grain help the building to undulate, close and expose. The other photos are about the history of migration to the port, and how the spaces along the waterfront continuously change. It’s a very versatile and privileged space.
TOKYO UNIVERSITY This was our main supplier of information, and the space that we were studying in during our stay. I didn’t know how prestigious the university was until after my visit, but I was astounded by the space while I was there. It was where I made a lot of great friends as well. It was good to be in this kind of study environment like the Ota Lab to listen to presentations on Shibitachi and the scale of destruction of the tsunami, the discourse of the economy, the damage the nuclear industry has caused, and importantly, the history in the growth of Japan in the past century.
WATER EQUILIBRIUM
DESIGN PHOTOMONTAGE
Cut & Fill Landscape Design. Paisajes Emergentes
Our main precedent for the project were various projects by Paisajes Emergentes, which show the process of ephemerality with water when the landscape is subtracted and placed somewhere that would be an advantage, rather than just excavating land and disposing it off-site. In this stage of our design strategy. What we wanted to focus on was working how we can alleviate the pressure and damage of the tsunami itself, considering that the phenomena is a cyclical prediction. The following flow charts were our understanding of what was the most important position in the site to design upon, which to us was the security and welfare of the townspeople in the awareness of natural disasters. The design catalyst was narrowed down to Evacuation and Flooding, which was then our decision on how we wanted to research Shibitachi during site visit.
MATERIAL CONSIDERATION IN DESIGN
CONGREGATION SPACES
SHELTER
ROUTE SYSTEM
EVACUATION
TOPOGRAPHY WHERE ARE PEOPLE GOING?
MATERIAL DESIGN DESIGN PLANTING DESIGN
FLOODING WATER LEVELS TOPOGRAPHY
PROTECTION
BUFFERING
DIRECTION FLOW
BUFFERING SYSTEM After learning about how the minerals from the cedar trees on the higher ground feed the water and provide a vast growth from oyster farming, our plan for the buffer system was to try and create a buffer wall sufficiently out of a planting design that will be of nutritional value to the sea when not used to alleviate the kinetic force of the tsunami. The planting design consisted mostly of bamboo trees because of their overall structural integrity and the ability to use them to make oyster farming rafts. However the design couldn’t prove that the bamboo would be capable of having any effect in alleviating the pressure and force of the tsunami waves. Nor was it confident that a mere planting design was capable or convincing to replace the proposed sea wall.
A
B B
A
C
C
Shibitachi: Before the Next Tsunami
Pre-Flooding Sections
Section AA 1:250
Section BB 1:250
Section CC 1:250
Buffer Zone Photomontages
FLOOD ALLEVIATION In our previous work, we initiated a proposal which would channel the water into deposits if and when the sea level happens to rise and a plant-designed buffering system which should create a sea wall. This stage we are taking the design further, considering the test of design through methods of how to rebuild structures and what materials to consider. Our aim was to focus on how we can rebuild a sound and necessary structures using materials that would not be as harmful as, say, all-concretebased, to the environment if a tsunami was to occur again. There were a large number of reasons why this was a flawed design. Cutting a moving the earth, particularly the amount of effort we were proposing would be a huge financial loss. This was incomparable considering that even though the gesture that we were creating wasn’t even as sufficient as our precedents or the slope created outside Mr. Suzuki’s house. The following series of sections were intended to illustrate the design through a time scale, before natural disaster and during natural disaster. This was our understanding of how the space would change over time if it was to flood or not.
A
B
C
B
D
C A
D E
E
F
F
Shibitachi: After the Next Tsunami
Sections Before Flooding
Sections AA
Sections BB
Sections CC
Sections During Floods
(NTS)
Sections Before Flooding
Sections DD
Sections EE
Sections FF
Sections During Floods
(NTS)
EVACUATION ZONING Our other main design catalyst was to figure out strategies in how the evacuation process can be made clearer to the townspeople. The process into evacuation became interesting when I listened to a lecture from Oxford University on the uniqueness in providing natural disaster evacuation information and that the distribution of mere flyers have a far less significant impact in instruction than practice and performance (in Indonesia they use shadow puppets). We focused our strategy and research in three design questions; - What route do the townspeople take to evacuate to higher ground? (depending where they are) - Where do despondent people find shelter? - What are the procedures of reconnaissance and the method of natural disaster congregation?
ZONE 1 +
ZONE 1 + 2
In the adjacent plan what we were implying that the shoreline and where the tsunami had previously affected has been divided into quadrants which allocate where people should evacuate and find shelter in the notification of an earthquake.
ZONE
ZONE 3
+2 ZONE 3 ZONE 2 ZONE 4 ZONE 4 1
Evacuation Zoning Plan 1:1500
RECONNAISSANCE A Reconnaissance is a specifically relatable place that people use to meet, not necessarily as a primary congregation tool, but a moment in the landscape where a form is recognised for its purpose. In the design what we wanted to do was to build a monument or a recognisable moment in the village which can be used as a reconnaissance space during the happening of a tsunami. The congregation is the method of knowing that family members and loved ones are safe from the tsunami, as well as influencing togetherness in a natural disaster. In this reconnaissance design the monument is a moment in the footpath where a structure becomes a point to look-out to sea. The structure is placed along the reconnaissance path which aims to connect each of the shelters using a single road network.
ZONE 1 + 2
Reconnaissance Look-out Point
ZONE 3
ZONE 4 Establishing a Road that Joins the Shelters
HAUNTED & UNSETTLED In the end, the biggest flaw in our design approach in Water Equilibrium was a lack of basic research into our ideas of cut and fill, as we only assumed that it would be a simple gesture to dig up dirt as well as it was acceptable to place it elsewhere. Steph and I were just very caught up in the idea of manipulating the topography on-site to create a reinforced wall. We got so far ahead of the concept that we didn’’t question how pheasable it was, or how much it would cost. We treated this project as a way to throw everything onto the table, any means of design research that was relevant to what we were focusing on (from the flooding and evacuation diagrams) was dealt by a means of eratically drawing rather than considering how possible it would be. After ‘Water Equilibrium’, Steph and I had a hard time putting away a lot of the design work that we did in this project, because it meant a lot to us that we did a lot of the drawings at Tokyo University and Shibitachi.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Quotes: “Kaubôi bibappu: Cowboy Bebop” (Japan 1998) quoted by Spike Spiegel. Page viewed 16 of October 2012 < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213338/quotes> ‘Tekkonkinkreet’ (Japan 2006) quoted by White. Page viewed 16th of October 2012 <http://www.allsubs. org/search-movie-quotes/tekkon+kinkreet/1> Theodore Adorno. Page Viewed 24th of October 2012 <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/ theodor_adorno.html> Nobokov, V ‘Pale Fire’ 1962. Published by ‘G. P. Putnam’s Sons’ in USA Photos: Gabion Drainage Design, Page Viewed 10th August 212 <http://gabion1.com.au/gabion_drainage.htm>: Page 27 Suzanne Nguyen: Page 61 Chris Armstrong: Page 68, 71, 75, 121, 144 Stephanie Kumer: Page 78, 81 Facebook - RMIT Landscape Architecture Shibitachi 2012: Page 82 Nick Jenkinson: Page 97 Paisajes Emergentes: Page 124 (Page viewed 5th of August 2012 <http://www.paisajesemergentes.com/>
Text: Buck, D N 2000. Responding to Chaos: Tradition, Technology, Society and Order in Japanese Design. Taylor & Francis, U.K.
Figueiredo, I; De Souza, M; Dionisio, M.R ‘Shibitachi Overview’. Provided by Tokyo University. Figueiredo, I ‘Social Resilience Based on Communication with Local Communities’. Provided by the Yashiro lab of Tokyo University. Kerr, A 2002, Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan. Penguin Books, Japan. Ganesan, S 2001. Sustainable urban designs for Asian cities: economic reality and technological choices. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Jonas, M 2007, Private Use of Public Open Space in Tokyo: A Study of the Hybrid Landscape of Tokyo’s Informal Gardens. The University of Tokyo, Tokyo. Bruce Mau Design 2002, New Tokyo Life Style Think Zone. Minoru Mori and Hiroo Yamagata, Tokyo. Minami, K 2005. Regeneration of City Space based on the Continuity of Orders. Architectural Institute of Japan, Japan Stewart, I ‘Earth: A Three Act Structure’ .School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University
KANPAI I REALLY WANT TO START BY APPRECIATING THE WARM AND HUMBLE HOSPITALITY OF THE SHIBITACHI COMMUNITY; THE COMMUNITY LEADERS WHO WATCHED OUR PRESENTATIONS, MR. & MRS. SUZUKI FOR TEA, CAKES AND TOURS; MR. SUZUKI THE FISHERMAN, THE PEOPLE AT THE SUNAGO INN (AND THEY’RE LOVELY FEASTS). ALL THE FRIENDS I MADE HERE AND THERE... ESPECIALLY THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS, A LITTLE SHOUT OUT TO SARAH AND ANYONE ELSE WHO HELPED ME THROUGH THE TRAIN SYSTEM. OUR MENTORS, SUPPORTERS & STORYTELLERS; HAIKA, PROF. NAKAI, PROF. JULIAN WORRALL, PROF. HIROSHI NAITO, PROF. NORRIS, THE FELLOW CRITS AT THE CIVIC LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE LAB (TUS), AND TO ANY OTHER IMPORTANT SPEAKERS I NEGLECTED TO MENTION. THE LOVELY PEOPLE I DANCED WITH AT THE WINTER CHERRY FESTIVAL, THE WOMAN IN ASAKUSA WHO INVITED ME FOR TEA IN HER BEAUTIFUL HOUSE, AND EMI FOR KEEPING ME OUT OF TROUBLE. OTA & ITO SENSEI, THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH FOR LETTING US USE YOUR WORK SPACE AND FACILITIES. MY SPECIAL FRIENDS MARIA RITA, MARIA CLAUDIA, IVANA & SHINPEI; YOU HAVE BEEN LOVELY AND I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR FUTURE WORK. TO THE RAD STUDENTS FROM TOKYO UNIVERSITY WHO JOINED AND HELPED US. I HOPE TO SEE YOU AMAZING PEOPLE VERY SOON. TO YUIKO & GO; IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH YOU TOO AND YOU’RE BOTH AMAZING PEOPLE. TO THE BEST CLASSMATES EVER IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER; NICK JENKINSON, CHARLIE ALLEN, SIMON MEADE, CHRIS ARMSTRONG, EMI HINAGO, DANNY BROOKES, EMMA HICKS, SONAM SHERPA, BEN KRONENBERG, SUZIE NGUYEN & KENNETH NICHOLS. I’M SO GLAD YOU COULD ALL BE THERE WITH YOUNG, LITTLE ME. MOST OF ALL A BIG AND ETERNAL THANK YOU TO MARIELUISE JONAS, FOR SHOWING ME THE BIG, WIDE WORLD. AND MY WARMEST GRATITUDE FOR STEPHANIE KUMAR, WHO STUCK WITH ME THROUGH THE WHOLE PROJECT, WORKING HARD FROM DAWN TO DUSK, SHARING WHAT WAS ONE OF THE FUNNEST EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE. MY BEAUTIFUL, LOVING PARENTS; LYN & CRAIG. MY SUPPORTIVE FAMILY, TARYN, KOREY, SARAH, NATHAN. THE BARBARY AND DE VRIES FLOCK XX. THANK YOU X
SOLSTICE UMBRA THE BIGGEST DIFFICULTY I HAD WITH THIS
WAS TOO STRONG FOR ME TOO IMPOSE A WAY
RMIT ARE ORGANIC. THIS IDEA THAT OUR DETERIORATION, ISOLATION AND MISREPRESENTATION; THE IDEA OF AGRICULTURAL REGENERATION, CONNECTING PEOPLE TO RESOURCES, AND A NONEXISTING ALLIANCE WITH OUR STATE CAPITAL, COULD
OF LIFE ON A GROUP OF PEOPLE, WHEN IT’S
BE FORMATTED INTO A MASTERS PROJECT IS
PROJECT WAS TO BREAK AWAY FROM MY OWN RURAL ETHICS AND TRY AND COMMUNICATE
SHIBITACHI WELL ENOUGH TO ANALYSE ITS OWN STYLE OF ETHICS. MY MORALITY WITH
NOT MY LIFE THAT
I HAVE TO LIVE. I GUESS IT
OF MY PROJECTS AT
SOMETHING THAT
I ASPIRE TO. TO LOOK AT
BOILED DOWN TO THE ENDLESS WANT OF THEIR
MY OWN PEACE-TAKE OF HOW LANDSCAPE
APPROVAL; IF THEY APPROVE OF MY DESIGN
ARCHITECTURE CAN RETHINK A SELF-SUFFICIENT
AND ARE COMFORTABLE THAT IT WILL BE THE
WOOMELANG IS SOMETHING I WOULD BE PASSIONATE TO RESEARCH.
SALVATION OF NATURAL DISASTER; IF THEY APPROVE THAT IT WON’T CHANGE THEIR SIMPLE LIVES DRAMATICALLY.
WOULD RATHER HAVE
THE SHORELINE AND OYSTER FARMS PERISH
AFTER THIS PROJECT, THE ANALYTICAL DATA AS WELL AS THE DESIGNS I MADE FOR SHIBITACHI
AGAIN THAN TO CHANGE THEIR LIVES WITH A
WILL NOW BE USED AS A COMPARATIVE
SEA WALL?
ANALYSIS TO THE DATA AND PROJECTS RELATING TO, OR ARE ABOUT,
WOOMELANG. THE
NEXT YEAR I WILL BE COMMENCING MY PROJECT A & B OF MY MASTERS OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT RMIT. I
TWO TOWNSHIPS MAY BE GOING THROUGH
AM NOT CONFIDENT OF WHAT IT WOULD BE
TOPOGRAPHY (LONG-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL
MODELLED AROUND,
DISASTER AND SHORT-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL
I AM NOT COMPLETELY CONFIDENT ABOUT WHAT I WILL RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN, BUT I AM CONFIDENT THAT IT WILL BE IN (OR THEMED AROUND) MY HOME, WOOMELANG.
COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PROBLEMS, AT DIFFERENT TIME-SCALES AND AT A DIFFERENT
DISASTER), HOWEVER THEY ARE STILL
I CAN LEARN FROM, AND TAKE INTO THE FINAL PROJECT. COMPARABLE IN A WAY THAT
THANK YOU. THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE THAT MY WOOMELANGIAN BACKGROUND AND MAJORITY