Welcome to ねぶたの家 ワ・ラッセ), a museum and center for creative culture in the heart of Aomori.

In 2002, having only studied Japanese architecture in books, Todd MacAllen and his creative partner at Molo Design, Stephanie Forsythe, began what started as yet another residential space in Aomori, Japan and transformed it into a creative community space that goes to the heart of the city, and taps into the very marrow of the nation’s culture.

It was certainly an auspicious start. The pair competed for the project in an international architecture competition that was judged by the legendary Tadao Ando and equally illustrious Jean Nouvel, and won.

The project opened just before the devastating earthquake and Tsunami hit in March 2011 and was subsequently shut down. Nebuta House reopened its doors again a few weeks ago. I spoke with architect Todd MacAllen about the mercurial nature of the Nebuta House project, its new function as a community cultural space, and what he learned about the Japanese spirit along the way.

The Nebuta House started as residential project in 2002. When and why did you and Forsyth change direction?

After we initially started working on the project, the city invited us to assess it again and look at other possibilities. Over time, we realized, housing wasn’t what needed to be looked at as much. We realized there was an opportunity for a more public use of the Nebuta House.

It’s a relatively small city, with fishing and some industry, but not a lot of public space. It’s unique in that there are two really great museums, but they’re more about fine art.

Whereas the Nebuta Festival, wherein gigantic illuminated and animated floats made out of Japanese paper are paraded around the city in early August, is more a celebration of folkloric art.

Seeing the festival for the first time definitely changed things. We experienced it like children, with that kind of open mind and delight. Sometimes the Nebuta [floats] are terrifying and other times amazing. It’s strange and mysterious, and we wanted the Nebuta House to have that same mysterious quality, as well.

The images from the festival are spectacular. The Nebuta floats seem to represent animals, monsters, and demons fighting to the death with, kind of, anime-like human counterparts. It is quite, wow! How does the building fit into all that?

It isn’t necessarily a building. We think of it as a house for the Nebuta. They’re creatures, but they are depicting a story. There are several mythical beings housed in the Nebuta House, but they’re almost the same – one mystical entity. When you’re entering the Nebuta house, you really are entering their dwelling.

Nebuta House opened right before the earthquake and Tsunami, closed for a time, and recently reopened. While Aomori was not directly impacted by the devastation, what has that experience been like for you, of re-launching this project post-recovery?

They closed it to save energy, but it also doubles as a shelter. So they prepared for that, though in the end it wasn’t necessary. From what I experienced, the standards for preparedness and post-disaster clean-ups are quite high.

In Japan, there seems to be a collective understanding that you wouldn’t necessarily expect someone else to come in and clean up for you. The community gets together and does the work without waiting for the government or anyone else to come in and tell them how to do it.

Judging from the before and after clean-up pics that have been making their rounds on the internet, it’s quite remarkable the progress these communities across Japan have made.

And now with the Nebuta House, northern Japan has a new community heart to call home.

Images: courtesy of Molo Design; The Daily Telegraph

The post Merging Form & Function, The Nebuta House Captures the Japanese Spirit appeared first on EcoSalon.

With Japan at risk, the nuclear energy debate returns.

Japan’s nuclear power plants were supposed to be safe. Theoretically, one safety mechanism after the other would prevent damage to the plants in the event of an earthquake. But on March 11th, that theory was disproved when a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami washed away backup generators that were designed to keep nuclear reactors cool in the event of a power outage.

Now, frantic efforts to cool the nuclear cores might not be enough. Four of the six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant have faced crises, and toxic radiation is threatening citizens that have already been through the trauma of losing loved ones and seeing their cities flattened to the ground.

For decades, America and other nations have held up Japan as a model of safe nuclear power. President Obama continues to assert that nuclear power is an essential part of a ‘clean energy economy’, and has called for over $50 billion in federal loan guarantees to build new nuclear power plants around the country.

There’s no doubt that we need viable alternatives to fossil fuels, and we need them as soon as possible. But in light of the disaster, we’ve got to ask ourselves: is nuclear power really the answer? What about ongoing environmental effects?

We like to think that major disasters simply won’t happen – and so do nuclear safety regulators and advisers. David Okrent, who advised the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on reactor safety for 20 years, told Bloomberg that reactors are only designed for events that are highly probable, not for anything remotely approaching worst-case-scenario.

“It’s hard to quantify a rare event. When you get to rare events, the design is usually up-to-but-not-including.”

The 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan was certainly a rare event. Japan’s nuclear reactors were designed to withstand up to a 7.2. The designers of the Fukushima Daiichi plant even built a 25-foot tsunami wall between the ocean and the reactors – but the 30-foot wave triggered by the earthquake plowed right through it.

Proponents of nuclear power plants, even those built on major fault lines, are willing to accept the risk of such an event. After all, Mother Nature is unpredictable, and we can’t control when a natural disaster might strike or how powerful it will be. But it’s all too easy to be lulled into a false sense of security as decades pass in between major disasters.

California, which sits on the San Andreas and Hosgri faults as well as the Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault, has a 99% chance of getting hit by a 6.7 or greater earthquake in the next 30 years. It’s also home to two coastal nuclear power plants, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Clemente. Diablo Canyon officials believe that their tsunami walls are ‘robust’, but Japanese authorities said the same thing about Fukushima.

And what most Americans don’t realize is that when it comes to potential for catastrophic damage from an earthquake-induced nuclear meltdown at a power plant, California is pretty low on the list. The highest risk is in places you wouldn’t expect.

The reactor with the highest earthquake risk rating is actually the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, New York, just 24 miles north of New York City. Other high-risk locations are found in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Florida. Why would these locations be more prone to core damage from an earthquake, when they’re in areas with far less seismic activity? Mostly because plant designers consider earthquakes to be such a low risk here, they lowered their safety standards for the structures.

Nuclear power is often held up as a ‘clean’ source of energy, and when we’re talking emissions – especially compared to those released by coal-fired power plants – that’s true enough. But what do we do with the radioactive waste? Right now, without a central permanent repository, nuclear waste is stored near the facilities where it’s generated. A plan to turn Nevada’s Yucca Mountain into the nation’s dedicated disposal site was overturned by President Obama when Nevadans protested their backyard being turned into a radioactive wasteland – and can we blame them?

Part of the problem currently unfolding in Japan has to do with spent nuclear fuel rods, which are stored in pools of cooling water to contain high levels of radioactivity. Unlike the fuel rods used in the reactor vessel, spent fuel rods aren’t protected by a steel-and-concrete containment vessel designed to prevent leaks of radiation. Once water evaporates from the pool, the rods overheat and release radioactivity directly into the atmosphere. Clearly, this isn’t a great way to deal with the problem.

Accidental release of radioactivity isn’t unheard of even in the best of circumstances. Last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a disturbing report detailing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s inconsistent oversight of radioactive releases from nuclear power plants. UCS reports on over 400 accidental leaks, many of which remained undetected for years. These leaks have resulted in radioactivity contaminating the soil and nearby waterways.

Even beyond the issue of radioactivity, reliance on nuclear power introduces the need to mine a finite resource: uranium. Mines have already cropped up in places like the edge of the Grand Canyon, and more will be needed if the number of nuclear power plants in the U.S. increases as planned. Furthermore, uranium mining is an incredibly water-intensive process.

The fact of the matter is, nuclear power is risky, harmful to the environment, and expensive. Why should we accept this technology as a cleaner replacement for coal-fired plants when we could be using natural sources of power that are far safer? Large-scale solar and wind power generation projects, not to mention wave power, algae and other biofuels, offer literally endless sources of energy without the danger of wayward radioactivity. They will require a shift in research and development, to be sure. And it’s up to us to do so.

Editor’s note 3.18.11: the opening description of this article has been modified from the original version for tone. We appreciate constructive feedback from our readers.

Image: daveeza

The post The Nuclear Option appeared first on EcoSalon.

Does the current trend for boho glam mean more than meets the eye?

Fashion’s ability to reflect society’s struggles and sensibilities is well documented throughout costume history. The fashions of the 1920s are a great example. With the end of the war and the rise of the suffragette movement and an emerging middle class, the world was full of choices for the ’20s woman. Shorter hemlines, dropped waists, bobbed hair, the use of wool jersey and the availability of relatively inexpensive colorful costume jewelry created a style of clothing that a woman could work in, move in and assert herself in, representing a major shift in women’s lives at the time.

With the stores currently full of ’70s full-leg pants, floor sweeping scarfs, maxi skirts, lace, leopard and liberty prints, what is being expressed by today’s clear embrace of all things bohemian? And for that matter, what is bohemian?

This week has seen a series of coincidences involving feathers, the ultimate symbol of boho glam. It started with an awareness of the birds singing unusually loudly outside my window on the morning the news hit about the devastating tsunami in Japan. Driving to yoga later on, the Jimi Hendrix CD I’d randomly grabbed on the way out  got inexplicably stuck on one track, Hendrix’s American Indian-inspired Bohemian Rhapsody, “Little Wing.”

Friday night, I sat at the edge of a runway show as a series of glorious silhouettes strutted past, but my eyes were looking beyond, upwards to the feathery hats and mohawks adorning the model’s heads. Over the weekend, I startled when the wind blew the French doors open knocking a little bird – a decoration from a wedding centerpiece I’d kept – off its permanent perch on top of my computer. By Sunday brunch, I wasn’t at all surprised when a new friend carrying a tin of feathers sat down and offered to weave my very own plume of rooster feathers into my hair.  Sitting outside at a cafe table as it began to rain, I was the picture of calm with feathers weaved like highlights through my hair. It’s most unlike me. Reader, I have been fea-dazzled!

Love Child Feather Hair Extensions

A huge trend with young girls right now, feather extensions are all the rage in Hollywood. It’s nothing new, of course. In the ’70s, girls were using roach clips caught with feather bundles to achieve the same look (be sure to dust off your crimpers as that is also back).

I’m inclined to believe this is all a sure signal of a fashion subconscious at work. According to my comprehensive research i.e. Duncan, from Wellington, N.Z., “Patterns that emerge through coincidences or synchronicities are believed to demonstrate connection with the subconscious and super-conscious,” according to your preference for either Jung or Eastern sages, respectively.

Regardless of your philosophical views, with a little age comes a well-earned amount of self assurance that entitles you to say “Why not?” to a bit of self-indulgent styling. A naive touch, like wearing a feather in your hair, appears to me to connect to our collective sense of hope for a better world right now – or perhaps, a heart’s desire to fly far away from unnecessary war, regressive politics and environmental devastation. If you’re inclined to agree, allow me to point you towards a more convenient expression of hippie wanderlust in these ethereally beautiful feather earrings (see above). They’re handmade ethically by Heidi Roland in Philadelphia and are available now at ecocitizenonline. “Fly on little wing, fly on.”

The post Flights of Fancy: A Feather Trend Re-Emerges appeared first on EcoSalon.