Dual experiences as a means towards reconciliation.

This architectural intervention is both subtractive and additive. Along the top of Unosumai’s 1.2-km-long, 16-meter-tall tsunami wall that crosses the Unosumai River Delta, a 200-meter-long ramp is excavated into the wall. Vertical cedar columns set into steel retaining piles support a latticework of ‘hanegi’ (corbelled) cedar members, which filter light in a manner reminiscent of the former pine forests that existed along the shorelines prior to the 2011 tsunami. The ‘hanegi’ framing in turn supports a floating walkway suspended above the subterranean space.

The Cenotaph provides local pedestrians who regularly walk along the top of the wall with two experiences: one that maintains views towards land and sea, and another that slowly descends into the wall, providing only filtered views of the sky above. While the massive tsunami walls block views and sever relationships between people and place, the Cenotaph frames a reconnection between land, sea, and sky—one that is activated by human movement. Embodying the conflicting duality inherent in this shoreline today, the Cenotaph provides contrasting spatial experiences of exposure and insularity, offering a space for survivors to physically move between the two as a means towards reconciliation.

Unosumai, Iwate, Japan
Design: Robert Hutchison, 2023 - 2024
Collaborators: Forrest Bibeau, Michelle Hook, Rachel Rubis, Scott Claassen, Xiaoxi Jiao
Drawings: Xiaoxi Jiao, Rachel Rubis
Models: Rachel Rubis, Xiaoxi Jiao, Kee Young Jung
Visualizations: Michelle Hook, Rachel Rubis, Scott Claassen