Chapter 21
Reconstruction and Architecture
Field of expertise: Reconstruction practice, architectural planning

Yasuaki Onoda
Translated by Catherine Sachi Kikuchi

SummaryArchitecture is an important infrastructure that is directly related to people’s daily lives, theenrichment of lives, and the maintenance of local culture. However, it was very difficult to bringsuch a qualitative perspective into the planning process immediately after the disaster. In thereconstruction of buildings, it is important to coordinate with civil engineering and urban planning,
not only for the needs of the victims, but also for the formation of social capital, and to develop
strategies for construction and operation to realize these needs.
Keywords: recovery and reconstruction, coordination with civil engineering and urban planning,social capital, comprehensive ordering, social inclusion

Introduction
Because the Great East Japan Earthquake was a complex and widespread disaster, land
use planning and civil engineering were brought to the foreground, and relatively limited attention
was given to architecture. However, architecture is where people live, and it is deeply related to thequality of life after recovery, such as inclusion of socially vulnerable people and maintenance ofregional identity. In the actual reconstruction process, various attempts were made to look longterm, while focusing on the short-term.

1: Problems Revealed by the Great East Japan Earthquake
1. Flexible land use
In the tsunami-affected areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake, land use was revised toa large extent, with the establishment of disaster risk zones restricting residential use. Therefore,
the focus shifted to how to use land in a flexible manner while also ensuring safety from majordisasters.
2. Inheritance of local culture1

In the reconstruction process, where the focus is on disaster safety, it is difficult to address
qualitative aspects such as architectural culture and indigenous culture based on it. The Kesen
region of southeastern Iwate Prefecture, one of the areas severely damaged, was the base of theKesen carpenters, a group of engineers who left behind important buildings from the Edo period tothe early Meiji period, and there are many buildings that convey their lifestyle and culture.
However, the reconstruction project was extremely indifferent to what we inherited from them. Inaddition, attempts to revitalize the rich fishing village landscape and use it for future lodging weredenounced as extravagant and devalued to a cliché that would only last a short time. There weremany obstacles to incorporating long-term perspectives regarding inheritance of technology andculture, landscapes and tourism into the reconstruction process.
3. Rising construction costs
Completing projects in a short period of time is the ultimate goal of reconstruction. At thesame time, however, the volume of projects has led to a shortage of materials and humanresources, which in turn has led to higher construction costs. Compared to civil engineering
projects, where the cost ratio is high due to performance orders and a flexible response to pricerisks is included, construction projects are strongly expected to be kept within the initial budget,
even though there is a price indexing clause. This led to a situation where bidding irregularities
occurred frequently, and even after listening to the opinions of the victims and creating careful
design documents, it was impossible to realize them.

2: Paradigms Destroyed by the Earthquake
1. Reconstruction and recovery
In the field of civil engineering, prior to this earthquake, there was a step-by-step process toreconstruction. The first step involved restoration to the original pre-disaster state, thenimprovement restoration, which incorporated improvement, and finally reconstruction, which aims
to restore and improve quality (Cabinet Office, Guide to Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction
Measures, 2005). In the case of construction, however, the laws governing each facility aredifferent, and the basic focus is on restoration. Therefore, in a situation like this, where qualitative
reorganization is required, various problems surfaced. The post-disaster reconstruction law
allowed reasoning to be provided after the fact, and it was difficult for decisions on-site to be madebased on the principle of recovery.
2. Private reconstruction and financing
Rebuilding homes for disaster victims was regarded as a private activity, and public funds
for building houses were severely restricted. This has resulted in a situation where we find poor
housing on top of solid ground, suggesting the need to consider the boundary between public andprivate reconstruction on an outcome basis. In addition, housing loans, which have supported thehome ownership policy linked to lifetime employment, played the role of the fulcrum for public
spending, such as interest supply in this reconstruction. However, since it is designed to financethe finished product, it was difficult to respond to the varying needs of those who wanted to rebuild
only the essential parts of a home, and then expand it later.
3. Re-inclusion of socially vulnerable people
2The critical situation created by the catastrophe forces out socially vulnerable people whohave been included in the family and community. There is not enough room to support them in thepublic welfare sector, which is under pressure from the financial authorities to tightly control therequirements for long-term care insurance. Therefore, the reconstructed environment (architecture)requires the creation of a space that fosters mutual assistance. Unfortunately, there is surprisingly
little understanding and support for this.

3: A New Approach
1. Land use with building restrictions
One of the flexible land use approaches is the multi-stage designation of disaster risk zones
that include building restrictions. This approach was used in the post-typhoon reconstruction of Ise
Bay, between Mie and Aichi Prefectures, and was adopted by several municipalities after thedisaster. However, its adoption has been limited due to the need for a variety of prior research,such as evaluating the effects of complex tsunami simulations and examining the impact ofbuilding regulations on real estate values and actual building designs. The city of Kamaishi, Iwate
Prefecture, which adopted this strategy and achieved urban reconstruction with little or no bulking,has used reconstruction projects to create a compact city by concentrating on building publicdisaster housing with the first floor as a parking lot.
2. Mutual assistance housing!"#$%&'("&%#)(#)*%#+$%,-%")#(..-$$%".%#(+#&(/0)1$2#3%1)*&#0"#'-4/0.#30&1&)%$#*(-&0"5#1+)%$#)*%#
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3. Cooperation between civil engineering and architecture
The cooperation between civil engineering and architecture is also an important but difficult
area to realize. In the Ayukawa area of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, an environment centerwas built by integrating a seawall, prefectural roads, cultural facilities, a local commercial center,and facilities of the Ministry of the Environment. In Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture, architecture
and civil engineering collaborated in the reconstruction of school facilities. In the reconstruction ofthe Higashi Junior High School and Unodome Elementary School in Kamaishi, a design proposal
was adopted to reduce the estimated amount of cut soil to about a quarter, and to maintain themountain body as a symbol of the region (Figure 21-2).

3Figure 21-1. Living-access Housing (O Housing, Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture)
Design: Chiba University Architectural Planning Office + Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd.
Design support: Tohoku University Onoda/Tsukada Laboratory

Figure 21-2. Mutual-assistance Disaster Public Housing (S District, Ishinomaki City, MiyagiPrefecture)
Design: Hitoshi Abe Atelier + Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd.
Design guidance: Tohoku University Onoda/Tsukada Laboratory
4. Development of a new ordering strategy

4In order to combat the rising costs, one feature of the reconstruction process that wasadopted was to order designs and materials all at once. In addition, early contractor involvement(ECI) was introduced, in which the prospective contractor participates as an advisor in theimplementation design. There have been some important attempts, such as the construction
council system, in which local construction companies work together.

4: Achievements and the Future
Although valuable trials have been made during the reconstruction process, there is still along way to go before reconstruction with a long-term perspective can be realized. There are manyissues that need to be resolved, from technical issues such as how to position architecturalreconstruction, which tends to include qualitative evaluation, to frameworks such as building aplatform that allows for multi-layered consideration of everything from institutions to daily life, andfostering multilingual experts who can understand other languages for collaboration.

Conclusion - From the author
When we (Yasuaki Onoda - Architecture, Katsuya Hirano - Civil Engineering, Michio
Ubaura - Urban Planning) started getting involved in the reconstruction work as part of ourresponsibility as people who work at Tohoku University and in the disaster area, we asked Prof.
Nobuo Suto, who is a pioneer in tsunami research, for advice. The first thing he showed us was theland use regulations, including building restrictions, in the reconstruction from the Ise Bay typhoon.
Prof. Suto was aware immediately after the disaster that sincere cooperation between urban
planning, civil engineering, and architecture is of utmost importance in true disaster prevention andrecovery.

References
Onoda, Y., Tsukuda, H., Suzuki, S. (2018). Complexities and difficulties behind the implementationof reconstruction plans after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011.
Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, 47, 3-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-58691-5_1
Onoda, Y., Tsukuda, H., Tohoku University Onoda Lab. (Eds.). (2016, August). New Germinationof Japanese Housing Complexes: Post-Disaster Public Housing on the Reconstruction from theGreat East Japan Earthquake. (Supplemental Volume). Shinkenchiku, 91(13). (In Japanese)5