When Humans Are Torn from Their Environment: Fukushima Across Scales
Public Lecture with Akihito Aoi - Architectural History and Theory - Meiji University, Tokyo
An event part of "Torino Design City" - Section Design Voices and extended event of Urban Desires
What happened in Fukushima after the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster of 2011 is an extreme case of humans being torn from their environment. Is a reconnection truly possible?
Across different scales, from hundreds of thousands of displaced to a small community, to centimetres of soil, to two centuries of disasters, this lecture presents the Fukushima Atlas project, exploring what becomes visible, and what disappears, after the disaster, through the lens of an architectural historian and theorist.
PROGRAMME
15:00 - Welcome and greetings
Claudia Cassatella - POLITO Japan Hub, Associate Professor of Regional and Landscape Planning
Claudio Germak - Curator of Torino Design City
15:15 - Introduction and moderation by Ilaria Tonti - DAD
15:30 - PUBLIC LECTURE
Akihito Aoi - Meiji University, Tokyo
16:30 - Discussion
Andrea Bocco – DIST Director
Elena Gianasso – Director of the Postgraduate School of "Beni Architettonici e del Paesaggio"
Mauro Berta – Coordinator of the School of Architecture and Design
Claudia Cassatella – POLITO Japan Hub, Associate Professor of Regional and Landscape Planning
Speaker Biography
Akihito Aoi is one of Japan’s leading architectural historians and theorists, and Full Professor of Architectural History and Theory at Meiji University, Tokyo. While modern architectural history remains at the core of his research, his approach departs from conventional art-historical accounts of Japanese styles, ideas and movements. His work explores architecture through such themes as nation-states and religious communities, everyday life and political movements, geographical territories and disasters, and the physical movement and relocation of houses and even entire cities. As a theorist and critic, he is the author of Fukushima Atlas: A Mapping Project in Support of Communities Affected by the Nuclear Disaster (2017–2020) and The Horizontal and the Vertical: Ten Lectures on Architecture and Modern Humans (2023).
Website: https://aaoiarchive.hateblo.jp/
CREDITS
Curated by:
Ilaria Tonti - DAD, Claudia Cassatella - DIST
Promoted by:
Politecnico di Torino, Polito Japan Hub, Departments DAD - DIST - Postgraduate School of "Beni Architettonici e del Paesaggio"
Scientific committee and organization:
Andrea Bocco, Michele Bonino, Claudia Cassatella, Elena Gianasso, Ilaria Tonti, Mauro Volpiano
MORE INFO
- Torino Design City
- Urban Desires
- Contact: ilaria.tonti@polito.it
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