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The Tané Initiative ongoing research MIT Japan Retreat @ Tane who we are join us Mountains and Forest Fields of Agriculture Homes and Villages Water and Irrigation
 
    Ongoing Research      
     
   

Since 2006, the MIT Japan Design Workshop under the direction of MIT’s Shun Kanda and the Kobayashi Laboratory of Keio University with the people of Tané, have been conducting joint sessions on a project dealing with a crisis of a different urgency, one Kanda refers to as a “slow disaster” in the making. As is true with hundreds of other rural settlements across Japan, Tané is facing a systemic erosion of its very existence.

Despite its centuries-old village settlement, endemic population depletion accompanied by unmanaged forest, water, and field resources forecasts an imminent and unfortunate demise. “To Live in Tané” underscores the MIT & Keio University’s initiative at developing models for alternative futures guided by improved management of the surrounding ecology, a revived resident population and the introduction of an educational center for environmental design.		     Tane no Neta  
   

Tané no Neta

Pages 1-50 | Pages 51-100 | Pages 101-150 | Pages 151-165
Tané no Neta is a compendium composing 4 years of MIT-KEIO Design Workshops in Tané. Also published as a hefty tomb, the digital pages can be viewed using the above links. While written in Japanese, most diagrams are still legible to non-Japanese viewers.

     
             
 
      Satoyama  
       

Satoyama: Japan's Historic Community Model as Modern Inspiration

"The United States and Japan are vastly different from one another using any number of physical and ideological parameters, including: physical scale, population density, climate, culture and traditions. Yet despite these most fundamental differences, the rural landscape in both countries is quietly suffering the same fate. The 20th century industrialization of agriculture has undermined not only the farmers’ noble craft, but also once-healthy ecosystems and local economies. Both rural Japan and rural America are caught in a web of interrelated ailments: air, water and soil pollution; biodiversity and habitat loss; population loss, low income, unwillingness of younger generations to either stay or return, and disappearance of farming livelihood. That such dissimilar cultures, climates and locations could suffer the same ills shows us that the problem is systemic."

- Adele Phillips' Fulbright Graduate Research (Abstract)

© 2011 Tané Initiative. MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Site design by Ira.