Ecotope

Problem: Japan is very susceptible to disasters and due to its reliance on nuclear power the impact of natural disasters can be magnified.

Solution: The creation of new safe zones away from nuclear power stations and away from the areas that are the most susceptible to natural disasters.

Potential: The creation of a new society and an alternative and sustainable way of living.

Paradox: There is no such thing as a safe zone; once you move people there it is no longer safe as new issues emerge ie. safe zones become disaster zones but on a new and higher level.

The proposal has two parts, firstly to carefully identify the areas that are the ‘safe zones,’ (above) and then create a system that ‘plugs in’ to the existing infrastructure within these places so that the function of evacuated areas can be retained when they are moved to these zones.  

Secondly, to rejuvenate the evacuated areas so that they become the safe zones for future evacuations, this would enable the Ecotope system to work in a cyclic manner.

An example of cities that will be evacuated and where they will be evacuated to. 

An example how the cities could be evacuated using the existing rail network.


(Below)
A study of Sendai and Matsui, two cities in the 'danger zone.'

An example of what each 'unit' that is moved to the 'safe zone' will contain- retail, service, manufacturing, housing and agriculture.

How the 'units' will be placed into the 'safe zone.'

A safe zone before the evacuation.

A safe zone after the evacuation when all the portable 'units' have been plugged in.

An example of what a unit would contain/how it would work.