Islands on land could make towns tsunami-proof

February 23, 2012 | Filed under: Asia,News,Sci & Tech,World | Posted by:

Elevated land-based islands could protect people living in low-lying areas from tsunamis – and archipelagos of them could form entire towns

LIKE giant spacecraft that have just touched down, they give the countryside an otherworldly look.

Elevated land-based islands are what one architect is proposing for the Tōhoku region of north-east Japan, the area that was devastated by last March’s magnitude 9 earthquake and the mega-tsunamis it triggered.

Keiichiro Sako of Sako Architects in Tokyo has created a blueprint in which groups of these islands form entire towns. They are designed to protect people living in low-lying areas from future tsunamis.

Tōhoku Sky Village is not just an architect’s flight of fancy: one municipality in the affected region is making moves towards building one in its locality and others could follow.

Most islands will be used for residential purposes, with between 100 and 500 houses and apartments. Fuel stations, waste disposal and storage facilities, and car parks are on lower floors.

Sources :

  1. NewScientist
  2. Picture : Sako Architects
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One Response to Islands on land could make towns tsunami-proof

  1. David Gordon February 28, 2012 - 8:05 pm

    Great idea! However, where does one get the vast quantities of earth (as in dirt) to develop such a structure when the land is already “low-lying?” If you take it from somewhere higher nearby, that area then becomes low-lying.

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