Thesis

to recover the place

Hashima Island, an eerie ghost island that lays off the west coast of Japan, is one of 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island, once home to Mitsubishi’s coal mining operation, was inhabited from 1890-1974 and was nicknamed “Battleship Island” for its unique external appearance that mimics the silhouette of a battleship. Hashima island represented the height of Japanese Industrialization and bustled with life, until petroleum eventually replaced the demand for coal, and the flow of time on the island came to a stop when Mitsubishi officially closed the mines. Today, the island, now a Unesco World Heritage site, is in a state of historic ruin and decay. Nature has now reclaimed its rights, and Hashima island has become an undisturbed world of the past. . .

hashima, 1910

hashima, 1930

hashima, 2009

However, Hashima island may also be a peek into our future. The current state of Hashima island, in a state of crumbling concrete ruin, will no longer be a unique situation anymore. Japan—a small island with limited land—is already experiencing abandoned communities and structures due to an aging population with a decreasing birth rate, and across it’s coast lay hundreds of similar coal mining islands. In a couple decades, these locations may as well become the “future gunkanjima.”

images from wikipedia (top to bottom)

長崎の手彩色絵葉書 Antique Hand-tinted Postcards of Nagasaki

Unknown author - Japanese book "Series of Japanese geography and folk culture: Vol.13" published by Shinkosha.

Hisagi (氷鷺) - The deserted Japanese island of Hashima

Carousel images below from

https://www.businessinsider.com/controversial-history-of-coal-production-on-hashima-island#waves-have-battered-and-eroded-hashimas-coast-and-vegetation-has-reclaimed-space-among-the-crumbling-buildings-in-the-40-years-since-its-final-residents-left-22

Tourists viewing the ruins on Hashima Island, 2015

The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Aerial view of Gunkanjima Island, 1998

The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Ocean barricade on Hashima Island

Sitthinart Susevi/Shutterstock
Hashima Island’s derelict buildings

Kyodo News Stills/Getty Images
A ferry on its way to Hashima Island, 1956

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Part of Hashima Island from above, 1948

The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Gunkanjima's 'Stairway to Hell,' in 1956 (left) and 1999 (right)

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (left), The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (right)
Hashima Island in 1956 (left) and 2014 (right)

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (left), Jordy Meow/Offbeat Japan (right)
Rooftop views of Hashima Island in 1956 (left) and 2013 (right)

The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (left), Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images (right)
The same street in 1956 (left) and 1999 (right)

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (left), The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (right)
Concrete apartments on Hashima Island 59 years apart

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (left), The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (right)
Ferries approaching Hashima Island in 1956 (left) and 2019 (right)

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images (left), Carl Court/Getty Images (right)
Crumbling buildings on Hashima Island, 2013

Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images
Residents fishing by the coast of Hashima Island, 1956

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Coal miners on Hashima Island, 1956

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Miner walking to work on Hashima Island, 1956

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Workers preparing to enter the coal mine, 1956

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
A coal miner returning from work, 1956

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Mitsubishi work-boats by the docks on Hashima Island

The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
People walking towards a ship on a Hashima Island pier, 1956

Yasuo Tomishige/The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images

So how can the island be re-envisioned as a future of how the human body can begin to truly coexist with nature? How can the aftermath of the damaging industrialization process on the island be addressed, while also celebrating the force of nature that has returned to take back what is rightfully hers? In today’s society, nature is mostly thought of in economic terms, rather than aesthetics. They are numbers and percentages on a data set, and reserves that must be met and protected. However, in recent years, Japanese architects such as Sou Fujimoto and Kengo Kuma have redefined the relationship of architecture and nature. Fujimoto’s “Primitive Architecture” explores design formed through “place-making” in between artifice and nature, and discovering different spatial relationships found in nature. Kengo Kuma’s “Material Structure” threads together material and structure into one to produce ecologically sound buildings that both protect and enhance the environment.

In taking inspiration from these architects, the island will be redefined as a single organism with the biological components of a plant (root, trunk, veins, leaves). Kuma views the relationship between the body and the environment “mediated by nature.” By bringing material and technology into this dynamic, we can see how humanity can continue to coexist with nature, where the buildingscape connects to the natural landscape. Akin to a work of joinery, of traditional Japanese temples such as Kiyomizudera, built without nails, I will create an architectural language that reflects the organic, unpredictable growth and temporality of nature, to frame nature in a harmonizing way in order to “recover the place.”

the tree grows, the family grows, the house grows. . .

As the tree grows, and the family grows in size, the house will mold and evolve to fit the needs of both the tree and the family.
Living in a Tree

An achitectural language that will grow on the island, drawn upon ecology.
Rethinking ths island as an organism

The regeneration process begins by rethinking the island as a system, as an organism itself, an independent self-sustaining organic system that sits within the larger contextual ecosystem of Japan. An island that can purify and heal, and once again allow for a cohabitation of humankind and nature. . .
Living in a Tree

On the left is a biological system of a tree, and on the right is a diagram of the proposed architectural system.
An island that grows

Intervention on the island will happen over time, allowing the island to slowly grow and evolve, like an organism.

t o l i v e , t o g r o w , t o e v o l v e w i t h a t r e e

L i v i n g i n a t r e e

living within a tree

00. The Island

Hashima island, in a state of crumble and decay
01. The Roots

Starting with the root system, the tuberous roots becomes the underground spaces connected via mycorrhizal networks
02. The Trunk

The trunk, the primary grid language, which structurally supports the entire structure, and also functions as the vertical circulation like veins
03. The Branch

The tree branches off, creating the secondary structural language: the limb joinery, that begins to break the rigidity of the grid, and mimics the free and chaotic growth of a plant
04. The Flower

The tree then begins to flower, creating pockets of land, or “floating islands” that become opportunities for growth
05. The Fruits

Lastly, the tree bears fruits, which become the bulbous forms that serve as spaces for humans to occupy
07. The Ecology

As the structure grows, the ecology grows as well
08. Coexistence

Eventually the Ecology overgrowth consumes the structure…

a house that grows with a tree

01. The Seedling

A family moves into a house, a house with a seedling planted in the central axis
02. Vegetative

As the seedling grows, the family grows
03. Budding

As the tree grows, the house grows
04. Flowering

A house that molds to the tree and family’s needs
05. Ripening

to live, to grow, to evolve with a tree
is that not truly what it means for humans to live with nature