Memory Landscapes

Memory Landscapes introduces a conceptual project by Seattle-based architect and educator Robert Hutchinson that explores the power of collective memory in designing for futures shaped by natural disasters. Focusing on Tohoku Pacific coastline, on Japan’s main island of Honshu, which was devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, it examines how lessons learned through the act of remembrance in one community can inform the process of future construction in others.

Through a detailed photographic study of existing sociological, geological, and constructed conditions, Memory Landscapes offers para-fictional proposals for architectural and landscape designs for emergency infrastructure in coastal communities living under the constant threat of natural disasters. The book combines Hutchison’s own photographs and architectural proposals with interviews and contributions from Japanese architects and artists as well as community members from Tohoku. Their work and experiences address memory, craft, and community in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Text in English and Japanese.