INSIGHTS

2022.04.25

R&D DISCUSSION Vol. 35

The "extra" required for architecture revealed through regional projects [Part 1]

Yasushi Takeuchi Institute of Technology (until 2021), President and CEO of Abisei Planning Co., Ltd.

R&D DISCUSSION TOP

Top image: Banya project in Shizugawa, Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture (April-May 2011)

From 1994 to 2009, Mr. Takeuchi was in charge of Marunouchi OAZO (design development), Shin-Marunouchi Building (design development), and Palace Hotel Tokyo (competition to concept design) at Mitsubishi Estate / Mitsubishi Jisho Design. After retiring, he will introduce us to the projects he has undertaken as part of his educational and research activities at universities in the Tohoku region, and we will consider the situation in which society's expectations of architecture have been changing dramatically in recent years.

Q: Please tell us how you began to expand the scope of your research to include the "plus" things surrounding architecture, such as conducting fieldwork that considers not only the architecture itself but also the surrounding conditions and historical and social background of the local area.

A: When I was a university student, I visited Italian towns and saw statues of Mary scattered throughout them, which sparked my interest in small shrines, such as Jizo statues, scattered throughout Kyoto. These small shrines in towns are collectively called sacred shrines, and I researched how they relate to the origins and structure of towns, and compiled my findings in my master's thesis.
Even after I started working at Mitsubishi Estate (as it was then called), I continued my personal research activities, such as using my holidays to survey the layout of shrines in the town of Jaipur, India. However, I began to feel that I wanted to study Kyoto's Jizo statues in more depth, so I returned to university. I expanded the scope of my research to include countries such as Nepal, which has many sacred shrines. When the 2009 Sumatra earthquake struck, UNESCO requested the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties to conduct a damage survey of historical buildings, and I had the opportunity to join the survey team. I conducted a survey of damage to towns and historical buildings in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, and the results were published by UNESCO.

It was after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 that I began to confront local issues more realistically. At the time, I was enrolled at Miyagi University, and many of the students there had lost their families to the disaster. I wanted to help those in need firsthand. After consulting with affected fishermen, I launched the "Banya Project" to build a facility to serve as a base for the recovery of the fishing industry [page top and photos 1 and 2]. This project was launched based on the idea that a "banya" (a place for fishermen to rest and gather) was an immediate necessity for the recovery of the fishing industry. We received various forms of support from university students across the country and volunteers from the working world, including staff from Mitsubishi Jisho Design. In May, we built a small banya in Shizugawa, Minamisanriku Town, using lumber provided by the Nakatsugawa Forestry Cooperative Association in Gifu Prefecture through our "Kiko Juku" (Carpenter's School) activities, as well as lumber and plywood recovered from the disaster-stricken coastal areas of Miyagi Prefecture. This caught the attention of other supporters, and we were able to build two more, in Hamaichi, Higashimatsushima City, and Karakuwa, Kesennuma City. The latter is still in use as an oyster hut, contributing to the local economy. I was also involved in several councils that were established in each region as part of urban development aimed at recovery. I gave advice to local people about their concerns and hopes, both big and small, and helped them by drawing up diagrams where possible. After these activities, I transferred to Tohoku Institute of Technology in 2015.

Since 2015, I have been working on research to restore historical environments whenever a major earthquake occurs in Indonesia or Nepal. In parallel with these projects, I have also been involved in several local projects in Japan. From these experiences, I have come to realize that in order to properly understand architectural needs, it is extremely important to actually go to the site, grasp the situation surrounding the site, and obtain live information from the site.

[Slide 1] Timeline of my activities
[Photo 1] Banya project in Hama City (August 2011)
[Photo 2] Guardhouse project in Karakuwa (October 2011)

Q: What are some examples of local projects that you have worked on so far?

A: I would like to introduce three examples from Japan. The first is a plan to utilize an abandoned school in a town in Yamagata Prefecture that I was involved in when I transferred to Tohoku Institute of Technology [Slides 2 and 3]. The town was in an area that attracted national attention for its pioneering nature education immediately after the war, and after a school in the area was closed, the plan was to renovate the old school building and revive it as a nature education learning center.

schematic design was completed by arranging functions on each floor of the building in accordance with the plan, and rearranging the functions while making use of the building's main structure. However, it was not realized and the project ended up only as a plan. When the plan was first conceived, the premise was that this facility would form a nature learning network within and outside the local area (local area, town, prefecture, outside the prefecture) and disseminate information, but the specific methods for linking these elements had not been fully worked out, so the project ended at the planning stage. The proposal envisioned the revitalization of the building as an opportunity to involve local residents in the operation of the facility, and to solve local issues such as the declining birthrate and aging population, effective use of the building, the preservation of local culture, and the improvement of government services.

[Slides 2 and 3] Case 1: Proposal for reorganization of a closed school in a town in Yamagata Prefecture (2015)

Q: Are there any cases where you have actually tackled issues, including local issues, as part of "architecture + alpha"?

A: In 2017, we were involved in a regional reorganization plan for a town in Iwate Prefecture [Slides 4-7]. The town is located in a mountainous area that receives heavy snowfall, and the current town was formed through the merger of one village and one town. The plan called for the formation of a sense of unity within the town. A few years before we became involved in the plan, a medical facility had been built in the center of the town to serve as a regional hub, and the plan was based on the idea of concentrating the town's core facilities around it. We were then asked to organize information and conduct research to put it into a concrete plan. I was in charge of analyzing the town's structure.

We plotted the distribution of all public facilities on a map and layered the town's structure while illustrating the natural environment, such as the topography, population distribution and changes, and classification of administrative districts and school districts. We organized the information, including whether each facility was earthquake-resistant or not, so that it could be used for the management plan of public facilities throughout the town. We were able to confirm that public facilities are dispersed along major roads, that administrative functions are located in two locations, and that the management status of the facilities varies. By visualizing the current situation on a map, we were able to show that a public core zone, including a new government building, should be established in the center of the town in order to streamline the operation and management of administrative services and public facilities.

While there was the issue of fostering a sense of unity throughout the town, there were also issues of reducing snow removal costs, which account for a large part of the budget, and looking after the elderly in areas with poor transportation access, and it was necessary to use the opportunity of the regional reorganization to comprehensively solve these regional issues. The plan also included a concept of establishing a seasonal relocation facility in the core zone, so that elderly people living in the snowy interior could relocate for short periods during the winter, making it easier to look after them and reducing snow removal costs. In addition, a proposal was included to develop a community bus route along the main road axis and to place community stations in each area to replace community centers, so that administrative services could be provided to areas far from the center. This is an example of considering solving various regional issues by building an integrated regional network, along with the theme of reorganizing the new town hall (urban facility) into the core zone.

[Slide 4-7] Case 2: Proposal for regional reorganization in a town in Iwate Prefecture (2017)

[Photos and slides: provided by Yasushi Takeuchi]

Continued in Part 2

PROFILE

Professor, Tohoku Institute of Technology

Yasushi Takeuchi

Yasushi Takeuchi

Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1967. After completing his Master's degree in Architecture at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University in 1994, he joined Mitsubishi Estate (now Mitsubishi Jisho Design). In 2009, he became an associate professor at the Department of Design and Information at Miyagi University, and in 2015, he became an associate professor at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku Institute of Technology. He became a professor in 2019. In 2020, he completed his doctoral degree in Architecture at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. His specialties are Architectural Design, architectural planning, architectural history, and urban history. His main research activities include "Research into the gradual stratification of multi-layered urban culture in Southeast Asia as revealed by the placement of sacred shrines." He will serve as Representative Director and President of Abisei Architects Co., Ltd. from April 2022.

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Update : 2022.04.25

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