This studio aims to project a sustainable future for Kurobe, Japan, where the delicate balance among nature, industry, land, and the economy will be challenged by anticipated physical and social changes of great magnitude. Landscape architecture is the agent and medium of this projection for the future.

The current stable land use of the Kurobe River alluvial fan owes much to the flood control and water supply projects carried out since the turn of the 20th century, especially the construction of upstream dams and a continuous protective embankment alongside the braided Kurobe River system within the alluvial fan. At the same time, constructing a mechanized, artesian irrigation network of canals and farmland consolidation across most of the area led to substantial growth in rice paddy cultivation. Combined with flood control measures, the hydrological structure of the alluvial fan has transformed significantly throughout the 20th century.

In the meantime, from the mid-1950s, large-scale manufacturing businesses (YKK and YKKAP) that use non-ferrous metals as raw materials have established operations here, taking advantage of the alluvial fan’s abundant groundwater resources and stable electric power supply. Such efforts have helped drive the local economy and improve the livelihoods of Kurobe’s working population.

However, practices of water use for agricultural development and industrial production have not been considered jointly or holistically, and as a result, these initiatives have drawn no particularly meaningful interaction despite the prosperity they owe to the same alluvial fan. The climate crisis requires us to think about an alternative, sustainable future for Kurobe, especially given the overutilized groundwater resource, extreme power demand, declining population, and the dynamics of the current industry that will be affected. The abundance of water resources, once treated as a danger (i.e., flood control) and then as an unlimited asset (i.e., industrial and agricultural establishment), must be reexamined holistically to allow for water, industry, and civic life in this region to become much more intertwined and nourish each other mutually.

The studio will travel to Japan during the GSD’s preferred travel week. We will, first, spend two full days in Kyoto, the city that has flourished thanks to such abundant water resources of Kyoto Basin, to learn its hydraulic culture and to see how Kurobe can learn from the city. Then we will move to Kurobe to perform field research and acquire local knowledge. Thoughts and ideas will be tested and developed through various lectures and workshops during the semester, including the topics of Japanese rural landscape, traditional and contemporary Japanese landscape language, environmental engineering, and model making. The students enrolled in this studio are strongly encouraged to take the discussion-based seminar, “Designers of Mountain and Water: Alternative Landscapes for a Changing Climate (PRO-7453),” to gain a more fundamental understanding of the vicissitudes and unrealized potential of Japanese landscape architecture.

This studio is supported by the Kyoto Protocol Studio and Research Fund.