Islands and Villages | dot architects in Umaki

In Japan, architects are looking beyond the city in order to reinvent their practice. Learn more about this issue: In this documentary series, Kayoko Ota visits some of the rural sites where this experimentation is taking place, interviewing practitioners to understand how this posturban turn might help articulate a new architecture for today. In 2013, as part of the Setouchi Art Triennale, dot architects were invited to the island community of Shodoshima to realize a small community centre based on intensive conversations with locals regarding their desires, needs, and memories. Returning to this project for this video, Toshikatsu Ienari, one of the firm’s partners, relates how his own experience of a devastating earthquake as a child influenced his approach to social architecture, how his own interests shifted from design and construction to the user experience, and how he considers the countryside to be the frontier for innovation—with architect