“Stands Square” in Otsuchi Town
Shin OSAKI(Assistant Professor, Department of CivilEngineering, The University of Tokyo)---------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction“Stands Square” is an outdoor Izakayastyle bar and restaurant which was planned,designed and constructed by collaboration withcitizens of Otsuchi and a team in University ofTokyo (UoT). Izakaya is a place for everyone. No
dressing codes, no difficult manners. Just forpeople to enjoy eating, drinking and chatting. It isa common space. This project is to create acommon space for the victims in Otsuchi town; theTsunami hit area.

Fig.1 Geographical Condition of Otsuchi Town

The SiteOtsuchi is a narrow-shaped town,
which entirely covers up two rivers called Otsuchi
and Kozuchi that run from the inland, throughthe town and out to Otsuchi bay. Otsuchi has apopulation of approximately 15,000 (before theearthquake) and the total square measure is 200
km2. However, due to its geographical conditions
that limits the inhabitable area to be only thealluvial plain around the bay head, where the tworivers meet, and narrow land along the rivers; atotal of only 1 % of the entire area. Therefore,
the density of population in the inhabitable area
is extremely high (ranked 5th highest in Iwate
prefecture), and it is located right by the sea.
Otsuchi has lived with the sea. Due to theTsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake,the central part of the town as well as the seaside
area were totally washed out with as many as
1,281 victims (as of April 1st, 2013) werevictimized by this extraordinary disaster. Atmaximum, over 6,000 people were refugees. Halfof the citizens suffered from Tsunami seriously.
Iwate prefecture ranked the damages of cities into
4 grades. Otsuchi and other 3 cities were graded
as worst “catastrophic”. What made things worse
was that the town hall was washed out with theMayer and many officers together. So theadministrative function of the town got paralyzed.
Around the end of May, there were no houses, nostores and no restaurants in the center of thetown. It was completely blacked out when nightcome.

Fig.2 Central Area of Otsuchi Town (May 31st , 2011)

Beginning of the Project
In Otsuchi, there is a research center ofUoT (Otsuchi Marine Research Center). Dr. Yukio
NISHIMURA who is a chief of the Campus
Planning Office of UoT and his lab members(Urban Design Lab) planed to enter Otsuchi tosupport the community near the research center.
At the same time, Dr. Yu NAKAI was named as
an advisor of the town regeneration by Iwate
prefecture. He and his lab members including me(Landscape and Civic Design Lab) also planed toenter Otsuchi to relieve and cheer up citizens.
Then we organized a team; Otsuchi Regeneration
Support Team of UoT on May, 2011.
But we were totally at a loss that wedidn’t know how should we enter the town. As thetown office was very busy operating much moreworks with much fewer staffs, we didn’t want tobother them. However we didn’t have any
acquaintances in the town. After several days
passed, we could get information by chance thatsome citizens organize their team named “Yuicco
Otsuchi” for regeneration. So we had a contact
with the leader and joined their 1st workshop inOtsuchi. After the workshop, we had a discussion
what we could do with the Yuicco Otsuchi
members. What they need was simply “Place togather”. We propose to create a square withstands. Stands of Izakaya style. Square as acommon space. Then they immediately agreed
with us. Luckily, we had two key persons. Mr. K
who is a core member of Yuicco Otsuchi is a cook.
He ran a Bar Restaurant before 3.11. Everyone
agreed on that he should be a master of Stands
Square. Another key person is Mr. Katsushi
NAGUMO who is our friend and is a designer, had
experience to design stands.
But we were in adverse condition as far
as capital. As we wanted their stands obtained bycitizens themselves, not given by anyone else, wedidn’t get any subsidy. We decided to create
Stands Square by ourselves.

24th July. We succeeded to get the light back inthe center of the town.

Design and Construction

Fig.3 Site of Stands Square in front of Kozuchi Shrine

Mr. NAGUMO designed the Stands,
tables, and benches. They were designed to haveno complicated details so that even amateurs
could construct them. In addition, the size of thestands was designated to be able to carry by asmall truck. Design of stands made progresssuccessfully. What we did next was to findmaterials. We visited a lumbermill where a friendof Mr. K worked. The president offered that we
could take any lumbers we want. We chose
several lumbers that suffered from Tsunami. The
director of the lumbermill willingly helped us tocut timbers. Thus the project had proceeded withpeople’s bond and their kindness.
Then we searched a place for Stands
Square. At first there was an idea to carry stands
to the evacuee shelters scattered in the town. But
we didn’t do that because we wanted to show ourwill not to give up the central area of the town;
regenerate from the place filled with memories.
Therefore we thought the best choice was Kozuchi
Shrine which is a biggest shrine in the central
area where annual traditional festival has been
held. As citizens love traditional festivals so much,-- I hear almost all citizens belong or belonged to
any traditional dance team of the festival -everyone knows the shrine. Luckily again, afriend of Mr. K owned the land just in front of theshrine and willingly offered us to use the place.
But as there still left small debris like fragmentsof glasses, we needed to pave. Again a friend of Mr.
K who was a member of construction company
brought two mounds of crushed stone. (Fig. 3)
Another citizen also helped us to scatter and pave
the crushed stones. Next to that, two men
brought LP gas cylinder for grill. Some volunteers
from Kyushu district helped us to construct thestands. Our students also worked very hard.
(Fig.4) In this way, the Stands Square was finallycompleted by people’s bond and their kindness on

Fig.4 Construction

What Design Can Do for Resilient Society
Many citizens had visited Stands
Square and enjoyed eating, drinking and chatting.
It was a common space for their hardest days.
They could communicate with their friends,knowing they were alive from Tsunami. They
could whine and/or cheer up each other.
What we did was not a design of standitself but the design of place for very ordinary but
essential communication and the scenery ofpeople having communication at the symbolic
location in the center of the town. This project got
Good Design Award 2012 as special award fromthe chairman of Japan Institute of Design
Promotion. The evaluated point was not design ofstands itself but design to recover people’s bond in
the Tsunami hit town. In Japan, “Design” is no
more a word to indicate simply arranging shapeand color. “Design” is a kind of solution withknowledge and gentleness.
Stands Square had maintained for 3
months on its original place. The town officeconstructed temporally shopping mall in Otsuchi

North Elementary School grounds in November
2011. Mr. K opened his bar restaurant in the mallwith the Stands. The Stands Square is stillworking in the new bar restaurant to bond people
and enable them to have ordinary communication.
People’s bond must be one of the mostimportant factors for resilient society. Thus, what
we civil engineers should create is a place to breed
people’s bond. You can see plenty of public spaces
left deserted in Japan. We should not design“public but deserted” space but “common” spacethat enable people to enjoy their daily life lively.

Fig.5 Stands Square (July, 2011)