Unveiling the Monumentality of Protection: the Japanese Infrastructural Network as an Urban Device

This research and design process aims to recognize, describe and unveil the unexpressed architectural potential of the Japanese infrastructural system as an urban device, seen as an activating and engaging element of urban dynamics, as a support matrix for collective practices stimulated by the inclusion of architectural devices.

At present, the material consistency of the space, halfway between architecture and engineering, does not have an intrinsic value of its own, but it is like a homogeneous white canvas, a hybrid artifact. A landscape of passage is generated, in a condition of continuous periurbanity, where being outside the dynamics directly related to large urban centers is in itself a degrading condition, in socio-economic, cultural and service levels. This potential space can be redesigned as a contemporary zen garden made of pop-up micro architectures, "pet architectures” defined by Atelier Bow Wow as "byoproducts of urban development”, fragments escaped a planner's perspective. Small but crucial, simple but effective. It is only through abandoning a large-scale approach, focusing on specific spaces, that can be appreciated the richness of spontaneous practices active in the city, making them an inductive and inclusive element of future projects. Engineering structures can be transformed into design opportunities in a historical period in which the relationship between anthropic and natural has profoundly changed.\nThe articulation of the design action takes place through a cultural approach, not purely programmatic or spatial. Three infrastructures are taken as different examples for practical application: _ Retaining Wall _ Tsunami Wall _ Reclaiming Land\nThere is no rigor, no grammar, no specific program. The design process does not presume to demonstrate the best solution or all possible design actions, but aims to unveil the potential of Japanese defensive infrastructure through micro design interventions. Its role can be extended, recalculated, both as a technical element and one of strong urban, social, architectural, landscape value, for the achievement of resilient forms of development and, above all, as a right to a sustainable form of life.\nThe infrastructural system gains an economic, social and political role, but its civic and aesthetic terms also remain imperative, as a place for the community, if they really will be outlined as "the cathedrals of our times".