Overview
Across the globe, few sites have faced as many environmental disasters as the islands of the Japanese archipelago. They have endured typhoons, cyclones, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Residents of Japan have responded to their precarious circumstances by developing a unique culture of disaster preparedness, known as bōsai, one that has become embedded in everyday life.
It has equipped the island nation to plan for future emergencies and to greatly reduce their impact. In this practical, engaging text, Miho Mazereeuw - who has carried out ethnographic fieldwork and space - based analysis for more than two decades- offers a detailed framework to design and prepare for anticipated disasters and describes effective interventions in urban landscape and architecture.
An urgent and timely book, Design Before Disaster represents the cutting edge in disaster mitigation and adaptation to empower communities in the world’s most vulnerable places.
Map of projects explored in this book (Image by Larisa Ovalles).
Anticipatory futures : imagining a city where everyone plays a role in preparing and adapting to hazards (Image by Larisa Ovalles).
Annual community-based firefighting drill in the historic village of Shirakawa-gō (Photo by Shō Suzuki).
Kaze-no-Sato Park, designed with residents to include numerous embedded bōsai functions (Image by Larisa Ovalles).
A well-researched, clearly written investigation of the ways that Japanese decision makers, designers, and emergency managers have built physical infrastructure in ways that can save lives and mitigate loss.
Those who seek to keep residents and communities safe from shocks of all kinds will learn something important from this book. It sets a high bar for future scholarship in the field.
Daniel P. Aldrich
Northeastern University, author of Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan’s 3/11 Disasters
Author
Director of the Urban Risk Lab and Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning
Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.
Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the Suntory Fooundation.
MIT Urban Risk Lab: Miho Mazereeuw, Larisa Ovalles, Saeko Nomura Baird, Endo Kenya, Lizzie Yarina, Taketani Maya, Jon Brearley, Chen Chu, Takahashi Ryosuke, Ichikura Ryuhei, Helena Hang Rong, Evellyn Tan, Lynced Torres, Eakapob Huangthanapan and Jie Zhang.
Editors: Boyd Zenner, Lisa Sone Twaronite, Lucy McKeon, Laura Reed-Morrisson
Supported by: Hayashi - ULVAC MISTI Japan, MIT HASS Grant, Harvard GSD Arthur W. Wheelwright Travelling Fellowship, Furthermore Grant by the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and Suntory Foundation’s Support for Overseas Publication Grant.
Website design: Tristan Kamata