CLASS DESCRIPTION
The destruction from the events of 3.11 in Japan has forced communities to re-question the concept of resiliency. This class will focus on the design of small, resilient cities in Tokoku, Japan, by developing new and scalable housing, mobility, and energy systems. These systems should be designed to be adaptive, robust, reconfigurable, redundant, and exhibit self-healing much like wireless mesh networks in computing. Participants of the course will have the opportunity to travel to Japan during spring break for a one-week design charrette. We will work with community leaders, sponsors, and local universities to design “Living Lab” experiments that can be deployed and tested in Tohoku. Prior to going to Japan, teams will focus on developing key components of a resilient city – in a generalizable fashion – that could scale to new cities in China, India, and Latin America.

SIX EXPLORATION AREAS
The course will focus on the following research areas: electric mobility systems, new energy systems, transformable housing, urban farming, rethinking the streetscape, and new technologies enabling art, culture, and design.

EXPECTED STUDENT DELIVERABLES
Students will collaborate in small teams to propose well-crafted design solutions through illustrations, building scale prototypes (working and non-working), back-of-the-envelope calculations, videos, and other types of media.

REQUIREMENTS
All backgrounds are welcome to participate in the workshop. Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to apply to the course. Experience in Architecture, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Management, Material Science, Media Arts and Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, and Urban Planning are preferred.

COURSE COLLABORATORS
Nicholas Pennycooke, Daniel Smithwick, Praveen Subramani, Jenny Broutin, Shaun Salzberg, Brandon Martin-Anderson, Tyrone Yang, Ira Winder, Jet SiZhi Zhou, and Topper Carew.

*This course will be coordinated with Shun Kanda’s Spring Architecture Design Studio (4.154) held in the Department of Architecture (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-6pm).