The Virtues of a Well Designed Buildings When the Earth Shakes

I am not sure what exactly I have to say about this entire situation yet.  This post is more of a conversation starter about the importance of the quality of our built environment.

The events of March 11th in Japan are one the minds of much of the world at this moment.  The visual understanding of the events has been discussed on this blog as well as the instant accessibility of those visuals via modern technology.

Most of what we see and hear about in situations of this nature and magnitude revolve around the loss of life and the destruction of the livelihoods of those that survive.  Architecture as built artifact has direct affect and is directly affected by these issues.  Architecture is entrusted with our lives at nearly all moments.  It is the shelter part of "Food, Water, Shelter."  More specifically in the case of Haiti, the idea that structures, that were designed by someone calling themselves an Architect, directly lead to the loss of life is sickening.

These are simply some of my thoughts on this subject as of late.

Below is a terrifying video taken from inside of Toyo Ito's Mediatheque in Sendai.  Those that occupy this building are fortunate enough to be in a building designed and constructed with great care.  

Video of the 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

Recently I had a talk with a couple of the contributors to this blog, we discussed the Internet and what easily accessible video has brought to the game. This is being made evident right now, though the 8.9 magnitude earthquake happened only hours ago in the ocean off Sendai Japan which is viewable by you or me here in the United States now.  Not all of the video was shot by journalists and news reporters, some was shot by any citizen with a camera or cell phone capable of shooting video;  meaning we can see what it looks like when you are in a grocery store during an earthquake of that magnitude:



Or when the Tsunami rolls ashore near the airport.



Or footage of the oil refinery blazing away from the quake, shot by syndicated news cameras yes, but still imediate:



Or this really amazing footage of the Tsunami sweeping cars and homes away.



I am astonished by how accessible the world has become.

Tom Harris