Post-tsunami 'eco' vision for Japan's restart

Their knowledge is not only key to reviving local culture but also to preserving marine ecosystems and the economies they support, says Tohoku University architecture professor and ArchiAid founding member Yasuaki Onoda.

Mr. Onoda and his students, along with other professors belonging to ArchiAid and their students, have been interviewing residents of Ishinomaki's Oshika and Ogatsu Peninsulas, where densely forested hills drop steeply down to dozens of tiny inlets, each with its own community that fishes and cultivates seaweed and shellfish.

"Each village has a different culture and history, different geography, different kinds of fish," says Onoda. "A small river feeds each inlet, and the quality of the oyster beds depends on the quality of the forest upstream. Villagers have made huge efforts to conserve those forests. Before we do any master planning, we need to do very careful research to understand the slight differences in each biological system."

In many towns along the coast, that research is not being done. Onoda says some municipalities have rejected assistance from ArchiAid and are instead relying heavily on the advice of civil engineers, who are less likely to base their plans on the ecological knowledge of rural fishing communities.

A prominent Tokyo architect, Masahiro Harada, says that few local and prefectural governments have actively sought out architects for help with planning. "I was shocked that we haven't been called on to a greater extent," he says.

Nobuyuki Takahashi, director of the nonprofit Disaster Area Revitalization Center and manager of a shelter in Ishinomaki, says he worries that political promises of a sustainable reconstruction may translate into a handful of isolated projects rather than a wholesale redesign of how people live.

"I think the government is probably planning some wind farms or seaweed biofuel projects. What we really need is to change our lifestyles and reduce energy consumption," says Mr. Takahashi, who hopes to start an ecovillage in the disaster area.

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