THE UNDERGROUND FORTRESS

ESTABLISHING A CULT OF REHABILITATION:
RETHINKING JAPAN'S SHOWA MENTALITY IN THE MIDST OF LIVING WITH NATURAL DISASTERS
DE THE CREATION OF A SYMBIOTIC EVENT BETWEEN DISASTERS & COMMUNITY

M.ARCH I | OPTIONS STUDIO | 2023 - 2023

Located at Arakawa river, one of the capital’s most important water resourses to Japan, the Arakawa is also the deadliest river in Japan in the event of flooding - risks being amplified by extreme weather, rising sea levels and other climate related events associated with global warming.

The avoidance of flood from the rural region causes several bottleneck / pressurization to the Arakawa river. Flood water begin its journey 173-kilometer at the western edge of Saitama Prefecture. Flowing east down the mountain slopes to the Chichibu basin, the river then turns north through the famed rock terraces of Nagatoro Vallery before making its way southeast into the Kanto Plains. After winding through the capital’s densely populated northeastern wards, it eventually deposit its floodwater into the urban region of Tokyo Bay.

Arakawa River basin is home to approximately 10 million inhabitant that spreads across Tokyo metropolitan area, where one-third of Japan’s population and industries are concentrated. A major source of agriculture irrigation and its tap water, the river is quite literally the lifeblood in shaping the nation’s economy.

The project investigates new life patterns by dispersing flood waters to community spaces along the edge of Arakawa river in the likely event of flooding. Water as a notion contributes to the public as a beneficial agriculture element when flooding is likely to occur from June to July. Agricultural production in the urban environment of Tokyo Bay seeks to negotiate with the rural areas of Chichibu Basin, which is the fundamental source of dispersing floodwaters to its urban region. On the other hand, during the dry period from October to March another spatial program emerges that seeks to negotiate with the public.

Subsequently, the architecture aims to explore ways in which water as a by-product and its co-existing contribution from local communities could reflect Japan’s Showa Mentality in the midst of staying resiliently with natural disasters.

The Pain of Flood Renders the Terror of Beauty – As the sea-level subside, flood water emerges from underneath, discharges via mechanical pump into the surrounding sewers as a warning system to the public.

Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.

The passion caused by the great and the sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.

SUBLIME CONDITION:

PROPOSED MASTERED CONTINGENT INFRASTRUCTURAL-SCAPE IN JAPAN
PREAMBLE

Due to a recent climate change, natural disasters are ubiquitous and especially so in Japan. Susceptible to harsh natural forces: an earthquake, typhoon, flooding, and heavy snow, the country has experienced numerous disasters and gradually developed a variety of systems to prepare, respond and reduce damage caused by them: the national/local warning system, identification of escape routes and destinations, organization of volunteer force for rehabilitation, and the foremost, construction of a physical infrastructure.

By investigating and analysing the variety of attempts, and engaging with the sequence of events, the studio will explore relationships of the system and everyday life of people. Taking the disaster as an event that is no way out, and accommodating it to their life inevitably, the studio questions how architecture can participate in the system, while changing people’s perception on disasters and life patterns.

KANTO MAP:
COLLATED DISASTERS ACTIVITIES

KANDAGAWA:
7th Loop Ring Underground Water Tunnel

The Kandagawa is a river in Tokyo, Japan that runs for 24.6 km and is classified as a class A river. Its source is Inogashira Pond in Mitaka City and it flows east, passing through Shinjuku, Toshima, and Bunkyo, and eventually branching off into the Nihonbashi River before flowing into the Sumida River. The river basin covers 105 km and includes 2 cities and 13 districts, including Suginami, Nakano, and Shinjuku.

Two tributaries feed into the Kanda River: the Zenpukuji River (10.5 km) and the Myoshoji River (9.7 km). The former originates in Zenpukuji Pond in Suginami and joins the Kanda River near the border of Nakano, while the latter starts at Myoshoji Pond in Suginami and eventually flows into the Takadanobaba diversion canal.
The upper stream of the Kanda River is undergoing small and medium river improvement projects, while storm-surge control projects are being carried out downstream. The small and medium river improvement projects involve the improvement of bank protection, division canals, and underground regulating reservoirs to handle a rainfall of 75 mm per hour.

Design History
The Kanda River/Loop Road No. 7 Underground Regulating Reservoir project aims to enhance flood safety in the middle basin of the Kanda River. The design involved the construction of a 4.5 km long underground tunnel with a 12.5-meter inner diameter beneath the area of Loop Road No. 7. The tunnel will have the capacity to store approximately 540,000 m³ of floodwater from the Kanda River and Zenpukuji River. The project is divided into two stages, as it deals with a large regulating reservoir facility and will take a considerable amount of time to complete. The goal is to provide the greatest benefit as quickly as possible.

Stage I Design
An underground tunnel measuring 2.0 km long with a capacity of about 240,000 cubic meters of floodwater storage and a facility called the “Kanda River Intake Facility” which takes in floodwater from the Kanda River have been finished. The project started in 1988 and ended in fiscal 1998, with the control building being completed. Since April 1997, river water intake has begun and significantly reduced flood damage in the downstream basin.

Stage II Design
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has built a tunnel that is 2.5 km long and has the capacity to store about 300,000 m³ of reserve volume. This tunnel is connected to an intake facility that receives flood water from the Zenpukuji River and the Myoshoji River. The construction of this project began in 1995, and the Zenpukuji River intake facility started taking in flood water from September 2005. The construction of the intake facilities, including the control building and electrical and other facilities, was completed in March 2007. In addition, a civil engineering facility was completed in the Myoshoji intake facility in March 2007, and it began taking in water. Finally, the intake facility, including the electrical and other facilities, was completed in March 2008.

CHIKASHINDEN (G-CANS):
Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel

Shaft I: Discharge Channel (Main Output)

The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel is a flood control facility designed to minimize flood damage in the metropolitan area of Japan. It is one of the world’s largest underground discharge channels, spanning approximately 6.3 kilometers from Kamikanezaki to Obuchi in Kasukabe City, Saitama Prefecture, and situated around 50 meters below National Route 16. During floods in small and medium-sized rivers such as Naka River, Kuramatsu River, Oochi Furutone River, No. 18 Waterway, and Komatsu River, some of the floods are redirected to the Edo River to decrease flood damage. The channel is also called Sairyu no Kawa, and its nickname in the media is the “underground temple” because of its spectacle, which resembles a temple with a ceiling supported by 59 massive pillars that are 18 meters high and weigh 500 tons. It is a first-class river that belongs to the Tone River system and is a minister-controlled section under the direct control of the government.

The Tone River’s primary stream used to flow in the area near this canal, which was at a lower elevation and prone to water pooling. During the early Edo period, the Tone River was relocated to the east, and the area was converted into paddy fields. In April 1992, a full investigation began, followed by land acquisition in response to city planning decisions in January 1993, and construction commenced in March of the same year. The 3.3km stretch from Edogawa to Kuramatsugawa was finished ahead of schedule in June 2002, and only part of the section was put into operation to achieve early outcomes. Construction continued on the unfinished portion, and the 6.3km section up to the Oochi Furutone River was completed in June 2006, marking the facility’s completion as originally intended, at a cost of roughly 230 billion yen. As of July 2021, flood control has been conducted 131 times, with an average of 7-8 times per year.

The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel serves as both an underground river and a large flood control reservoir, storing and releasing excess water to the Edo River during typhoons and heavy rains to avoid flooding in the surrounding rivers, including Naka River, Kuramatsu River, and Oochi Furutone River. The floodway’s opening has decreased flooding in areas like the Kuramatsu River Basin, which was previously prone to flooding. The pressure regulating water tank, which has 59 massive concrete pillars and measures 177 meters long and 78 meters wide, is used to adjust the flow of water from the underground tunnel. Its capacity is about 670,000 cubic meters, approximately the same volume as the Sunshine 60 Building in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Since it is solely intended for flood prevention, it is a vast underground space that people can enter without taking in water during non-flood periods.

Shaft II & Shaft III: Re-Distribution of Water

Shaft IV & Shaft V: Re-Distribution of Water

MACRO MAP:
CONTEXT OVERVIEW I

Located at Arakawa River, one of the capital’s most important water resources to Japan, the Arakawa is also the deadliest river in Japan in the event of flooding - risks being amplified by extreme weather, rising sea levels and other climate related events associated with global warming.

MESSO MAP:
CONTEXT OVERVIEW II

The avoidance of flood from the rural region causes severe bottleneck / pressurization to the Arakawa River. Flood water begins its journey 173-kilometer at the western edge of Saitama Prefecture. Flowing east down the mountain slopes to the Chichibu basin, the river then turns north through the famed rock terraces of Nagatoro Valley before making its way southeast into the Kanto Plains. After winding through the capital’s densely populated northeastern wards, it eventually deposits its floodwater into the urban region of Tokyo Bay.