HANNEY DESIGNS
2022
Rebuilding "Unnatural Horizons"
This was an online international summer workshop and competition with Curtin University and NEOPLA architect & associates (Japan), held on 2-11 February 2022.
Brief
Recognised for its high-quality seafood freshness, vegetal abundancy, and Indigenous Ainu culture, students were invited to participate in a design ideas competition for the redevelopment of a port, centre, and outskirts of the town of Iwanai-cho in Hokkaido, Japan. Hokkaido sea waters and port area are ideal for rebuilding and for housing its residents and providing new platforms for tourists.
Rebuilding Iwanai-cho’s unnatural horizons design competition seeks a future vision to facilitate novel sustainable schemes to enhance the town’s traditional Ainu spirit, improve its existing architecture and interiors, and facilitate the financial prosperity of the town.
Structured as a hypothetical ideas’ competition, separate workshops arranged with mentors provided the opportunity for students to discuss and produce their visions and imagine new scenarios. Ideas and concepts redeveloped will assist the town of Iwanai-cho with an architectural strategy for the community’s future.
The goal for the Rebuilding ‘Unnatural Horizons’ competition is to focus on a creative concept within the town of Iwanai-cho to combat the abandoned housing problems in rural Japan.
Develop a creative solution to the Japanese rural abandoned housing problem that might be replicated across the country. Design schemes needs to be able to generate the income required to implement further change. Students will choose one site containing abandoned housing in Iwanai-cho and demonstrate ideas and planned proposals to the jury panel.
Three sites have been identified as potential areas to redevelop.
The port, centre, and outskirts.
For a full copy of the original Project Brief please click here.
Overview
Through time Iwanai-cho has undergone significant changes due to environmental devastation, urban migration, an aging population. Many of its abandoned buildings have deteriorated as some of the other regional Japanese towns. There is a necessity to redevelop the seaside town of Iwanai-cho.
The residents of Iwanai-cho revel in, and are exposed to, a plethora of natural elements. Mount Yotei (1898m) is an active Stratovolcano (resembling Mt Fuji), and its Ainu people named the mountain Makkarinupuri ‘female mountain’. From the town there are views towards the international ski resort town of Niseko. With the consideration of preserving and enhancing the Iwanai way of life, what is needed is a conceptual reinvention of the town.
The proposed redevelopment will be grounded in sustainability, foster community, and reflect the culture and heritage of Iwanai. Enhancing liveability will be at the forefront of the plan whilst strengthening its eco-tourism and existing industry.
Through the revitalisation of the streetscapes, built form, and the port, the potential of Iwanai can be realised and is a necessary step to ensure the town can face these contemporary issues, whilst thriving in the future.
Present a conceptual redevelopment of Iwanai-cho by addressing the main theme: Rebuilding ‘unnatural horizons’ as well as the themes covered by the keynote speakers and other presenters at the virtual global Colloquium.
Team Members*
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Francesca Lari - Universita Degli Studi Di Brescia (Italy)
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Sebastian Delattre - Curtin University (Australia)
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Hailey Hanney - Curtin University (Australia)
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Giovanni Cataldo- Universita Degli Studi Di Brescia (Italy)
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Caitlin Brown - Curtin University (Australia)
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Yara Abdelsalam Aldarawish - University of Jordan (Jordan)
Mentor: Jayesh Soul - Rothelowman Architecture (previously worked at Fratelle Architecture at the time of this competition).
* Team members were assigned on the first day of the competition and had not previously met. The competition was 100% online.
Concept
Horizon is a sight, a place of Pirikanoka (beauty) as Ainu would say. It is a place of duality where contrasts are strengths and not weaknesses, where tradition meets innovation, where the sky meets the skyline, and the mountains meet the water. In this line of “inclusion” there is no more separation from the “horizon”. It is a line where the contrast of artificial and natural are entwined, creating unnatural panoramas, like playgrounds in which nature, architecture and life synchronise and move together.
The unnatural vertical landscape of structures within Iwanai-cho are stagnant and falling to disrepair and abandonment, disregarding the natural beauty found in its surrounding horizons. As the younger generations migrate to the cities and opporunity, Iwanai-cho faces the prospect of an aging population and a community in pieces. The current architectural model in Iwanai-cho is failing as it does not provide opportunity for younger generations to progress within its limits, and it does not attract the attention of national or international travellers. Additionally, the prevalent infrastructure model within the city is outdated and does not support the desired agility of local inhabitants and visitors to the town. We believe a radical shift in the landscape is needed to stimulate the local community and spark interest for people to visit Iwanai-cho, with new thresholds that boost the social, economical, environmental, and cultural status of Iwanai-cho.
We propose to revitalise Iwanai-cho through an unorthodox approach of shaping an abstract and permeable horizon, through sustainable luxury that reconnects the community and provides opportunity for its people, while attracting tourists to the prefecture and gaining esteem. As a team we argue that at an urban scale, architecture can act as an instrument of regeneration regarding the social, economical, environmental, and cultural realms within the town. Our proposed urban design is long-term (25-50 years) and revitalises these increasingly decaying voids, through the creation of three vanguard architectural thresholds that bring Iwanai-cho into the modern age and beyond.
The creation of the Toredo Zone (Toredo, meaning ‘trade’ in Japanese) seeks to re-utilise the port area as a place of economic and environmental playgrounds, by extending and revamping the dock areas to provide more opportunity for future salmon farms as well as green spaces for the community. In addition, the widening of the existing mouth of the Notsuka River will provide better access for local farming and trade.
The creation of the Yoka Zone (Yoka, meaning ‘leisure’ in Japanese) seeks to revitalise the mountain outskirts as a place for recreational and environmental playgrounds, through the agency of updated accommodation and amenities, all designed to touch the earh lightly.
The creation of the Tsunagari Zone (Tsungari, meaning ‘connection’ in Japanese) seeks to connect both the Toredo and Yoka Zones, and refashion the city as a place of social and environmental playgrounds, by means of updated residential housing and multi-purposed community spaces which consider the surrounding horizons.
The group's overall design for the new urban development focuses on creating an attractive, artificial landscape that complements and connects to its natural panoramas. A new unnatural horizon that is easily recognised and promotes the ‘New Hokkaido’. In conclusion, we believe the considerably enhanced thresholds of Iwanai-cho will provide nourishment of the genus loci on an urban scale thereby demonstrating how unnatural landscapes can function as instruments of regeneration.
