Design Before Disaster: Japan’s Culture of Preparedness

Models of disaster preparedness

Across the globe, few sites have faced as many environmental disasters as the islands of the Japanese archipelago. They have endured typhoons, cyclones, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Residents of Japan have responded to their precarious circumstances by developing a unique culture of disaster preparedness, known as bōsai, one that has become embedded in everyday life. It has equipped the island nation to plan for future emergencies and to greatly reduce their impact. In this practical, engaging text, Miho Mazereeuw--who has carried out ethnographic fieldwork and space-based analysis for more than two decades--offers a detailed framework to design and prepare for anticipated disasters and describes effective interventions in urban landscape and architecture. An urgent and timely book, Design Before Disaster represents the cutting edge in disaster mitigation and adaptation to empower communities in the world’s most vulnerable places.

Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.

Miho Mazereeuw is the Director of the Urban Risk Lab and Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.