- Shigeru Ban architects has developed many other strategies in response to earlier earthquakes in Japan in Niigata and Fukuoka. A knockdown cardboard partition system and another one made of cardboard tubes (below) are already being supplied to the gymnasiums where refugees are being housed – providing much-needed privacy in a time of great deprivation. The Voluntary Architects Network, of which Shigeru Ban is a member, is accepting donations to support these and other efforts.Their website is accepting donations, and the solutions they come up with will no doubt be documented on the Open Architecture Network.
- British architect John Pawson has designed images of ribbons to show support for Japan that can be downloaded in exchange for a donation to disaster relief following the earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.
- One of the earliest responses to the Japan earthquake came from Architecture for Humanity (AFH), and this is perhaps due to their agile, distributed structure. AFH chapters in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto mobilized quickly, sending out teams to assess the damage, and to start organizing the community for the massive task of re-building. An impressive timeline for their plans is in place, informed by AFH’s experience of very similar situations in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, and the floods in Pakistan. Their website is accepting donations, and the solutions they come up with will no doubt be documented on the Open Architecture Network.
And more in METROPOLIS MAGAZINE
