"MIYATO-JIMA RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT" by Sanaa

Another contribution to the Venice Biennale 2012, is the Sanaa's project located at the arsenale in venice, an expansive site model shows the topography of the island of Miyato-jima. The project involves the reconstruction and recovery of the land of Tohoku (Japan) for free.

Contribution to the Venice Biennale 2012."Miyato-jima reconstruction project" by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/ Sanaa

Sanaa contributes to the Venice Biennale in 2012 with his project "Miyato-jima reconstruction" which shows a plan post-disaster reconstruction for Miyato-jima Island,( Japan), located north and east of Sendai, devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku and approximately half of the 260 homes were destroyed, forcing the residents to move to elevated ground.

Sanaa shows her work through an expansive topographic site model currently spans the interior of the arsenal. The discussion and an awareness of topography can offer relief from the trauma caused by the disaster.

Each of the interventions in the model is represented by different colors which promotes understanding of the project.

-The area affected by the tsunami is represented by a blue light and a light pink indicates the safe zone above the 10 meter line.

-The buildings are indicated in the following way; white, new housing, brown and yellow, common facilities and existing work and existing roads are in yellow tape and gray are new roads.

-As for vegetation, green is a conservation area of forests, white trees are for breakwaters and colored trees are phytoremediation meadows.

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KAZUYO SEJIMA & RYUE NISHIZAWA. SANAA

Kazuyo Sejima (Ibaraki, Japan, 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (Kanagawa, Japan, 1966) worked independently from each other before founding the SANAA Ltd. studio in 1995. Having studied architecture at the Japan Women’s University, Sejima went on to work for the renowned architect Toyo Ito. She set up her own studio in 1987 and in 1992 was proclaimed Young Architect of the Year in Japan. Nishizawa studied architecture at the Yokohama National University. In addition to his work with Sejima, he has had his own practice since 1997.

The studio has built several extraordinarily successful commercial and institutional buildings, civic centres, homes and museums both in Japan and elsewhere. These include the O Museum in Nagano (1999) and the N Museum in Wakayama (1997), the Day-Care Center in Yokohama (2000), the Prada Beauty Store in Tokyo and Hong Kong (2001), the Issey Miyake and Christian Dior Building in Tokyo (2003) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2004). Sejima also designed the famous Small House in Tokyo (2000), the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, Toledo, Ohio (2001-2006), the extension to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2002 – ), the Zollverein School, Essen, Germany (2003-2006), the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003-2007) and the Novartis Campus WSJ-157 Office Building, Basle, Switzerland (2003 – ).

In 2004 Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale for their distinguished work on the Metamorph exhibition.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have won the 2010 Pritzker Prize.

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition, was directed by Kazuyo Sejima, the first woman to direct the venice architecture biennale, since its inception in 1980.