Reimagining Recovery: The ‘Disaster, Architecture, and Community’ Forum

SPACE June 2025 (No. 691)​​ 

Home-for-All in Heita, designed by Riken Yamamoto. The Home-for-All is a small-scale public architecture project initiated after the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011) by Riken Yamamoto, Sejima Kazuyo, and Ito Toyo. Created in 16 locations across the disaster area, the project aimed to support community recovery through shared spaces for gatherings, children, and the rebuilding of agricultural and fishing livelihoods. / ©Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop 

What happens to the lives of disaster survivors after a crisis? This question was posed at a recent forum by Listen to the City (director, Park Eunseon), Yamamoto Riken (principal, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop), and After Estudio (co-principals, Julia Cano, Helena Jimenez, Sean Hussey, Jose Quereda). While some architects have contributed to the design of emergency shelters, these efforts often only address the immediate aftermath of catastrophe. As time passes, survivors face the challenge of either returning to their original homes and communities or rebuilding their lives from scratch in entirely new environments. It is in confronting these realities that architecture can begin to offer meaningful pathways to recovery. 

A village lost to the Cheongsong Wildfire (2025) / ©Park Eunseon 

As the frequency and severity of disasters driven by global warming and extreme weather events continue to rise worldwide, ▼¹ the importance of urban planners and architects in creating communities capable of withstanding future disasters has become crucial. However, due to a lack of direct involvement in post-disaster recovery process, their imaginative powers are often limited. Against this backdrop, an art, architecture, and urban collective Listen to the City (director, Park Eunseon), organised a conversation between architects who have actively engaged in disaster recovery, sharing ideas and experiences.

The online forum ‘Disaster, Architecture, and Community’, held via Zoom on the 15th of April, featured presentations by the author – who specialises in disaster recovery management in the field of urban engineering – alongside Yamamoto Riken (principal, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop) and Julia Cano, Helena Jimenez (co-principals, After Estudio). Yamamoto Riken, the 2024 Pritzker Prize laureate, has engaged in architecture for local communities since the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011), continuing to reflect and act on the role of architecture in recovery. After Estudio is a group of young architects based in Valencia, Spain. Valencia experienced the devastating Valencia Floods (2024) that claimed more than 230 lives. As members of the Valencian College of Architects, the group participated in post-disaster damage assessments of buildings. The speakers explored the importance of community in the contexts of disaster, vulnerable populations, and temporary housing architecture through the lens of case studies from Korea, Japan, and Spain.

Traditional architectures in Wajima City destroyed by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake / ©Park Eunseon 

Disaster Recovery Through a Long-Term Perspective

When the topic of disaster architecture arises, many architects and students tend to recall the paper tube shelters designed by Ban Shigeru. ▼² These structures are environmentally sustainable and easy to assemble, but they offer limited privacy and are difficult to store long-term. ▼³ In Japan, even these have recently been replaced by collapsible indoor tents. Ban Shigeru’s architectural interventions primarily focus on the ‘response’ phase. However, full recovery from a disaster takes more than a decade, and disaster management is comprised of four phases: prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. A breakdown in any one of these phases disrupts the entire cycle.

Survivors typically move out of evacuation shelters within two to six months and transition into temporary housing or public rental units. While the initial aftermath of a disaster draws public attention and widespread aid, the true hardship often only emerges about a year later. Survivors come to terms with the loss of their homes and loved ones. Many are relocated to unfamiliar areas far from their original homes, where isolation can lead to severe depression. ▼⁴ For this reason, relying solely on short-term architectural responses is unlikely to contribute meaningfully to long-term disaster recovery.

The morning market in Wajima City burned down by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake (2024) / ©Park Eunseon

A Caring Community

There are still things that AI cannot do. It cannot care for others, act out of empathy, or willingly risk its own safety to help those in distress. In-depth interviews were conducted with over 220 individuals who experienced disasters, such as the Great East Japan Earthquake, Kumamoto Earthquake (2016), Noto Peninsula Earthquake (2024), Valencia Floods, Goseong Wildfire (2019), and Cheongsong Wildfire (2025), focused on how they evacuated. Over 70% said they were able to escape thanks to warnings or assistance from neighbours or family. ▼⁵ Alerts were helpful for some, but many hesitate to act immediately due to a natural resistance to sudden change. ▼⁶ In other words, it is not cuttingedge technology that saves lives, but rather the presence of family, friends, and neighbours. ▼⁷

The problem arises for those without such networks, or those who lack social capital. These individuals face a significantly higher risk of death during disasters, ▼⁸ and many also experience suicide or solitary death during the recovery process. A 15-year longitudinal study following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1995) found that 236 people in emergency temporary housing and 681 people in disaster-recovery public housing died by suicide or were found dead alone. ▼⁹ Recognising this, the Japanese government and researchers have noted that box-type temporary housing and apartment-style rental units contributed to social isolation. Although studies have since focused on how to prevent isolation after a disaster, a definitive solution has yet to be found. ▼¹⁰

Home-for-All in Heita, designed by Yamamoto Riken / ©Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop 

Architecture That Revives Community

From this perspective, there is a clear alignment between Yamamoto Riken’s architectural philosophy and the goals of post-disaster architecture. At the heart of Yamamoto Riken’s work is the creation of ‘places where people connect’, an element that must be central to any architectural response in the aftermath of a disaster, especially when designing resettlement communities. ▼¹¹ After the Great East Japan Earthquake, architects including Yamamoto Riken, Sejima Kazuyo, and Ito Toyo established a community facility called ‘Home-for-All’, designed to support community reconstruction. Yamamoto Riken envisioned a space where residents could come together to share meals and drinks—a space for connection and everyday life. Researchers studying post-disaster solitary deaths emphasise that ‘what matters is not just institutional continuity, but the continuity of the victims’ lives.’ ▼¹² Following the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, Yamamoto Riken also insisted that reconstruction must preserve regional identity. He advocated for the use of traditional black roof tiles and argued that local markets and small shops should be rebuilt first, so that economic activity and recovery could progress together.

One of the most important steps in the disaster recovery process is accurately assessing the level of building damage. Rapid scientific evaluations are essential to ensure that sufferers from disasters receive fair emergency relief or compensation. In Korea, assessments are still conducted primarily through visual inspections by public officials, often leading to frustration among disaster survivors. In Spain, concerns have also been raised about the accuracy of government-led damage assessments.

In response, architects from the Valencian College of Architects volunteered to visit damaged homes on behalf of the city, systematically evaluating structural damage and safety. One photographer whose home was damaged by the floods said, ‘When architectural experts came and said that my house was still usable, I finally felt a sense of relief.’ As this shows, architects and urban planners can contribute to disaster response in many ways beyond designing temporary shelters such as tents.

This spring, we visited Cheongsong, an area severely impacted by wildfires, with architects interested in post-disaster recovery. We met with local government officials and residents. However, the municipality had neither the time nor the capacity to imagine how to build the community as a more resilient and sustainable one, and the residents remained in shock. Given the scale of the damage, recovery will take a long time. It demands a sustained, long-term engagement. Now is the time to return to the fundamental question: how can architecture recreate spaces for human connection, remembering that it is community that saves the people?

​A part of the TABLA DE INSPECCIÓN POR CATÁSTROFES - TIC v3.0. Provided by the GENERALITAT VALENCIANA, IVE (Instituto Valenciano de la Edificación), this form includes criteria for assessing structural safety and determining necessary follow-up actions. / ©GENERALITAT VALENCIANA, IVE (Instituto Valenciano de la Edificación) 

1 Jeane Camelo, Talea L. Mayo, and Ethan D. Gutmann, ‘Projected Climate Change Impacts on Hurricane Storm Surge Inundation in the Coastal United States’, Frontiers in Built Environment 6 (Dec. 2020), https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2020.588049.

2 Ban Shigeru, Shigeru Ban: Humanitarian Architecture, Routledge, 2014; Ernesto Antonini, Andrea Boeri, and Francesca Giglio, Emergency Driven Innovation: Low Tech Building and Circular Design, ‘Innovation, Technology, Knowledge Management 1’, 2020, pp. 978 – 983.

3 https://peacewindsamerica.org/, accessed 15 May 2025.

4 Machiko Inoue, Shoko Matsumoto, Kazue Yamaoka, and Shinsuke Muto, ‘Risk of Social Isolation among Great East Japan Earthquake Survivors Living in Tsunami-Affected Ishinomaki, Japan’, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 8.4 (2014), pp. 333 – 340; Kathleen J Tierney, James D. Goltz, Emergency Response: Lessons Learned from the Kobe Earthquake, University of Delaware Disater Research Center (1997).

5 Eun-Seon Park, D. K. Yoon, ‘The Value of NGOs in Disaster Management and Governance in South Korea and Japan’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 69 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102739.

6 Nam Yi Yun, M. EERI, and Masanori Hamada, ‘Evacuation Behavior and Fatality Rate during the 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake and Tsunami’, Earthquake Spectra 31.3 (2015), pp. 1237 – 1265; Adeola O. Francis, ‘Katrina Cataclysm: Does Duration of Residency and Prior Experience Affect Impacts, Evacuation, and Adaptation Behavior Among Survivors?’, Environment and Behavior 41.4 (2009), pp. 459 – 489, https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916508316651.

7 Dewald Van Niekerk, Livhuwani David Nemakonde, Leandri Kruger, and Kylah Forbes-Genade, Community-Based Disaster Risk Management, ‘Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research’, edited by Havidán Rodríguez, William Donner, and Joseph E. Trainor, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018, pp. 411 – 429, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63254-4_20; Rajib Shaw, Mikio Ishiwatari, and Margaret Arnold, Community-Based Disaster Risk Management, World Bank Publications – Reports, The World Bank Group (2011), https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wboper:16110.

8 Ryan Ojerio, Cassandra Moseley, Kathy Lynn, and Neil Bania, ‘Limited Involvement of Socially Vulnerable Populations in Federal Programs to Mitigate Wildfire Risk in Arizona’, Natural Hazards Review 12.1 (2010), pp. 28 – 36; EunSeon Park, D. K. Yoon, and Yeon-Woo Choi, ‘Leave No One behind: Experiences of Persons with Disability after the 2017 Pohang Earthquake in South Korea’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 40 (2019).

9 田中正人 and 上野易弘, ‘被災市街地の住宅セイフティネットにおける「孤独死」の発生実態とその背景­ ’, 地域安全学会論文集 15 (2011), pp. 437 – 444, https://doi.org/10.11314/jisss.15.437; Tierney and Goltz, op. cit.

10 Hitoshi Ohto, Masaharu Maeda, Hirooki Yabe, Seiji Yasumura, and Evelyn E. Bromet, ‘Suicide Rates in the Aftermath of the 2011 Earthquake in Japan’, The Lancet 385.9979 (2015), p. 1727, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60890-X.

11 Christian Dimmer, ‘Evolving Place Governance Innovations and Pluralising Reconstruction Practices in Post-Disaster Japan’, Planning Theory & Practice 15.2 (2014), pp. 260 – 265.

12 田中 and 上野, op. cit.