桶まち Oke-City

-Oke City-

Japan is a place where by various disasters occurs constantly. Our target area, Senju, is also attacked by disasters especially flooding of Arakawa River since it was man-made in 1930, during Meiji period.

The man-made river was originally designed to stop. Although it stopped the flooding near Sumida, areas near the Arakawa, such as became a high risks area for flooding. Moreover it is located in the lowest sea level in Tokyo. So once flooding occurs, not only water from the Arakawa River but also it causes the water to stay in the area for a long period of time.

During Edo period (16th century) this area flourished as a post-town from Edo (current Tokyo) to Nikko, a city that is dedicated to the Tokugawa Shogun. There are actually two Nikko highways, but we use the original one because it is located on high ground.

There’s a place, man-made hill along Nikko highway, for residents to escape to in case of flooding. Moreover, the new city is designed to let the water out of the city quickly.

In addition, we created two ponds to protect Nikko highway. In order to protect it we managed biotope used by Japanese people for farming.

We are planning to use such knowledge to prevent natural disasters especially flooding to protect people and enrich their life.