Photo: At Hatsukoma, a café whose building is an old folk house renovated by studio CATALYST. (Mr. Kadono, far right)

Komagabayashi in Nagata Ward, Kobe City is also called the City of Alleys because of its labyrinth of narrow alleys, and it is a downtown area with many old houses. Situated in one of these houses, studio CATALYST designs architecture, is involved in urban planning and landscaping, and plans and organizes workshops and events.

Studio CATALYST emphasizes prioritizing the ideas of the local people, creating new relationships, and encouraging voluntary developments in the city planning process in depopulated rural areas, anti-disaster seaside areas, urban landscapes, and sustainable “old” new towns.


Seeing the collapse of Kobe

On that day 20 years ago, Mr. Kadono, then in ninth grade, was woken in his home in Kakogawa City by a strong shaking. Although the seismic intensity in Kakogawa City was four to five, which did not cause a large disaster in his neighborhood, he soon found out about the huge damage in and around Kobe, and the classes at his junior high school were called off.

Even though I was still a child, seeing the Nagata area burning and highways collapsing on TV made me realize that the earthquake damage was serious. I told my parents that I would go work as a volunteer, but they stopped me. I had a strong urge to do something for Kobe.

Mr. Kadono enrolled at the Department of Architecture in Hyogo Technical High School in Wadamisaki. Until the summer of his first year at the High School, there was evidence of the huge devastation from the earthquake, such as a two-story apartment building collapsed into one-story near his school, but the blue sheet-covered city was reconstructed day by day in front of the eyes of the teenage boy.


The disappearance of the life before the earthquake

After studying at the Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Mr. Kadono returned to Kobe as an architect in 2002. He currently works on many city planning projects to protect architecture which coexists with life and the environment around it. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake is of course the underlying motive of his work.

My wife’s mother used to live in a downtown tenement in Suma Ward, Kobe City, and it was a city filled with memories for my wife too. But the disaster was huge and most of the city was burned down.

Although the city looks pretty when you see it after reconstruction, the life before the earthquake has completely disappeared. My wife and I felt a sense of loss that is hard to describe, as if our heart and soul had disappeared.

As a city planner, it is a good thing that the city became safer, but it’s hard to accept it if the previous city vanishes. This experience made me realize that people can find their heart if there are traces of the old city left, and that it is best if the heart of the residents remains and is inherited in the city.

It is said that the reconstruction of Kobe proceeded quickly, but the traces of life can never be recovered once they are lost. Mr. Kadono felt the pain of such loss.



Mr. Kadono starts to tackle the challenge of valuing and ensuring the conservation of the traces of the past life with anti-disaster awareness.

Community is the disaster prevention with the most immediate effect

Komagabayashi, where Mr. Kadono is based, still has an old down town atmosphere. Middle-aged women in the neighborhood casually talk with us during the interview, making us feel the openness in local relationships.

Komagabayashi is a village with a long history dating back to the Nara and Heian Periods. There is a labyrinth of narrow alleys, which is why it is called the City of Alleys. Despite the difficult problem of wooden-building congestion, the local residents love the atmosphere.

A general answer to this problem would be to widen the streets, but if that happens, people will lose their homes, and the structure of the town will change and we can no longer call it the City of Alleys anymore, can we? I believe that we need to protect the atmosphere of this town and at the same time renew the hardware and software.

The present day construction code requires that a street be more than four meters wide when you rebuild a house. It is difficult to widen streets in a wooden-building congested area, resulting in decrepit houses that are not renovated. Mr. Kadono made great efforts to realize the “Higassho Alleys City Planning Project”, which sets rules including alleviation of street width to 2.7 meters and increasing the fire-resistance capability of new houses.

Mr. Kadono places great value on maintaining communication through streetscape conservation and using the community with people’s relationships to realize disaster prevention.

I believe that the idea of community has the most immediate effect for disaster prevention. People in this neighborhood are so close that they borrow soy sauce from their neighbors.

Along with this project, we have made the Water Tap Agreement in Komagabayashi. Next to each house is a water tap, and when a disaster occurs, we attach one of the town’s hoses to the nearest water tap to extinguish fires. This is a kind of disaster prevention where the close bonds of a community play an important role.

People in this town conduct a fire drill when they meet to make rice-cakes. This is the chance to pair up people who cannot evacuate without help and those who can help others.

Many residents moved after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake not only because they lost their homes, but also because they lost their reason to stay. Even if their houses are lost, if the structure of the city remains, it can be an important reason to continue their life there.




Loving this city

In the Kobe town development information magazine “My town talk”, we interviewed members of the local government and city development council about the city 20 years after the earthquake.　→http://www.city.kobe.lg.jp/wagamachi/

One of the members’ quotes, “the earthquake was my 52nd birthday present” was impressive. Kobe has the strength to call sadness and hardship “a present”. The citizens of Kobe may have had the potential to care about their own city even before the earthquake.

Photo: Post-its with the activities Mr. Kadono is currently working on. A great variety of activities!

The City Vacant Land Revival for Disaster Prevention Project is one of Mr. Kadono’s activities.

Vacant land which has been untouched since the earthquake is used as a disaster prevention base and is being redesigned for practical use. The development fee is partly funded by Kobe City, and the owners of the land are exempt from real-estate tax for several years.

If we are going to make a disaster prevention base, it’s better to make a fun place, isn’t it? That’s why we worked with artists to make it a place where children can play.

Photo: A huge blackboard (!) was placed on a vacant lot, where it became a disaster prevention base park called “Futaba Jizo Square”.

I don’t think children will ever forget a fun experience. If adults tell them to come to a place with fun memories in case of a disaster, they will come. It is important to teach them about danger, but it’s also effective to give them happy memories. The more they see traces of our past in the city, the more they will love it.

Photo: “Laundry Pole Gallery”, an alley in Komagabayashi where the residents enjoy art works and daily life scenes at the same time.

Local artists have recently started a committee called “Shinnagata Art Commons Committee” to host Downtown Art Festivals in Nagata with a downtown atmosphere. Mr. Kadono is making attempts, including the “Laundry Pole Gallery”, an alley gallery filled with laundry poles where people can enjoy art and daily life scenes.

There are many artists living in this town. My job is to share their work with the local residents when they have an urge to express something in the town. I know the head of the district’s residents association, and I personally love having fun, so my wish is to see more people raised in this town and people who are interested in and visit this town.

Moreover, Mr. Kadono, in an attempt to discover the charms of the town, features those who have started fun activities in Komagabayashi and Nagata as “Town Players”, such as “a barber who writes a riddle on the blackboard in front of the shop” and “Mr. Telescope who appears on the alley when the moon is beautiful.

Photo: “Nagata Art Map”, with fun and artistic information

People in this town are so indulgent about what they like that it’s enviable. I have included them in the Nagata Art Map by Shinnagata Art Commons Committee. This information is a treasure for the residents. They make you love the city, don’t they?

The movements in Komagabayashi and Nagata make us feel a strong love toward the city and the residents. Through the activities led by Mr. Kadono, we see that creating a city where collaboration and where residents know each other’s faces is more important than anything else, and that the citizens of Kobe already know this secret.
The city enhances its residents.

If people fall in love with the city, they will try hard to protect it. They can prevent disaster with their own hands. Disaster prevention activities can be the trigger for caring for the city.


(Interviewed and written by Mami Asai)
This article was created with the cooperation of greenz.jp.