Living with Disaster: Stories from Seven Regenerative Cities
The Living with Disaster Exhibition showcases “Regenerative Urbanism”, a new anticipatory and combinatory approach to urban design that demonstrates the possibility of symbioses between humans and the natural and constructed worlds courageously embracing inevitable disaster cycles. The exhibition and relative symposium are the culmination of three years of speculative design and research by the participants of ArcDR3, the “Architecture and Urban Design for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience” global initiative.
Importantly, the proposals are not reactionary or defensive planning strategies; rather, they courageously embrace inevitable disaster cycles through anticipatory techniques, and they demonstrate the possibility of new symbioses between humans and the natural and constructed worlds. In doing so, each proposal forms a part of a globally scaled mosaic of Regenerative Urbanism, framing renewed possibilities for ecological and sociological ethics to ensure that we not only survive, but thrive both with and despite threats of disaster.
Four components compose the exhibition: Octagon, Wall, Cloud, and Well. Eight wells will provide visitors with an immersive physical, video, and audio experience of the stories of Tohoku and the Seven Regenerative Cities. The visitor’s experience will transverse imagery, data and urban proposals to explore possible scenarios of living with disasters, while examining a global perspective on the future of urban environments.
The Octagon describes the activities of the ArcDR3 Initiative. The Wall, displaying the Manifestation of Regenerative Urbanism responds to question: What can we do to nurture a culture of living with disasters and build a city that is resilient and regenerative? The Cloud covers the exhibition hall with images and data describing the necessity to coexisting with risks. What would a regenerative city look like where people can live with disasters as part of their daily lives? The Wells contain seven stories exploring what a regenerative city could look like. Diverse proposals from eleven participating universities have been organized into seven hypothetical regenerative cities. By looking into the Wells, visitors can visualize each city through plans, perspectives, and interviews discussing the concepts.
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Project Data
Title: ArcDR3
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Size: 6,000 sq. ft.
Use: Exhibition
Client(s): Mitsui Fudosan, xLAB
Status: Exhibited April 9-24, 2022
Photography: © Eiji Ina
Project Credits
Organizers
xLAB, University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA]
International Research Institute of Disaster Science [IRIDeS], Tohoku University
ArcDR3 Exhibition Executive Committee
Cooperation
Association of Pacific Rim Universities [APRU]
UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design
UCLA Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies
UCLA International Institute
ArcDR3 Initiative
National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)
National University of Singapore (Singapore)
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Chile)
The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
The University of Melbourne (Australia)
The University of Tokyo (Japan)
Tohoku University (Japan)
Tsinghua University (China)
University of California, Berkeley [UC Berkeley] (US)
University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA] (US)
University of Washington (US)
Special Sponsor
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
Executive Producer / Concept Planning and Exhibition Design
Hitoshi ABE / Professor at UCLA, Director of xLAB
Producer
Shinobu NAKANISHI / IDEAL COOP Inc.
Curator Team
Mohamed SHARIF / Associate Professor at UCLA
Carlo STURKEN / Curator, UCLA xLAB
Yelena POZDNYAKOVA / Assistant Scenario Director
Tohru HORIGUCHI / Associate Professor at Kindai University, Faculty of Architecture
Akihiro SHIBAYAMA / Associate Professor at IRIDeS (Tohoku University)
Masashige MOTOE / Associate Professor at Tohoku University, Graduate School of Engineering Department
Elizabeth MALY / Associate Professor at IRIDeS (Tohoku University)
Mao IMAIZUMI / Does Inc.
YoungJa PARK / Office PARK Inc.
Project Supervisor / Archival Materials
Fumihiko IMAMURA / Director and Professor at IRIDeS (Tohoku University)
Project Cooperation
Toshikazu ISHIDA / Professor at Tohoku University, Graduate School of Engineering Department
Yasuaki ONODA / Professor at Tohoku University, Graduate School of Engineering Department
Osamu MURAO / Professor at IRIDeS (Tohoku University)
Exhibition Scenario Director
Takenori MIYAMOTO / Curator
Production Director
Yoshikazu INUI / BOCTOK Inc.
Hitoshi TAKAHASHI / CROSSCO Co.,Ltd.
Creative Director
ujidesign
Video Director [Wall]
Satoru HIGA / BACKSPACE Production Inc.
Video Director [Cloud＋Well]
Akio OKAMOTO / Ney-Anton G.K.
Technical Director
Hiroshi KANECHIKU
Installation
HIGURE 17-15 cas Co., Ltd.
Narration
Yuka KATO
Music
Hakobune
Research Cooperation
Yoshibumi YANAI / Assistant professor at Tohoku University, Graduate School of Engineering Department
Earth Data Cooperation
National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan)