Social Regeneration in Post-Disaster Urban Areas (Kamaishi, Japan)

Following the 11th March, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Kamaishi has been re-building its community mainly in physical terms — giving social regeneration less priority compared with physical and environmental reconstruction. In addition, very little has been done to recover the community from the psychological and social scars left by the disaster.

X-Crop explored the immediate and longer-term needs of the city of Kamaishi, its organisations and people post the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. The proposed directions for social regeneration are developed upon the findings from field visits and are based on local knowledge and best practice received from the residents, government bodies and local industries.

The benefit of social regeneration in post-disaster urban areas is multidimensional, but mainly to tackle social exclusion within communities, and in the case of Kamaishi between the increasing numbers of elderly and the shrinking population of youth. In addition, social regeneration provides design strategies — processes and outcomes — for improving life and economic conditions through placemaking and human interactions within the physical environment, as well as enhancing social mobility and developing localised policies.

Through the identification of two significant locations within Kamaishi; the Kamaishi Town Centre and Nebama Bay, this project uses design methods to investigate and propose solutions for immediate and longer-term needs of Kamaishi, its organisations and people, with a focus on unresolved and underlying social issues created as a result of post-disaster reconstruction.

Solutions for the Town Centre allows citizens and visitors to build trust and recognition as well as give an identity to the community. By keeping the activities for different age groups in a close proximity to each other, they are likely to help develop a sustained and meaning relationship between children, young people and the elderly — emphasising on the importance of long-term contact that is consistent. Similarly, solutions for the Nebama Bay combines the needs of the community with the qualities of the location to form a natural flow of experiences. It aims to provide attractive and inclusive activities that appeal to a wider range of people — emphasising on the importance of accessibility and interaction amongst generations.

The solutions, developed in collaboration with the project partners and key stakeholders, aims to connect ‘hope’ in Kamaishi society by capitalising on the existing and new opportunities for preparation and response, as well as recovery within the first 1,000 days post disaster — to generate macro and micro level ideas that help change, improve and integrate Kamaishi’s society and resources post-disaster.