A column about sustainable urban planning with introducing Chilean post-disaster recovery and Burkina Faso's self-build project to seek the hint for sustain Japanese cities for numerous decades contributed to the newsletter of Kolkata Centre For The Built Environment, a Calcutta-based international academic organization.

1. Centre for the Built Environment Newsletter
Kolkata, India
Sustainable Built Environment:
Stepping Forward the Fruition
Toshiki Munemasa
School of Architecture
Kindai University
1. Introduction
Many numbers of hurdles for realizing
sustainable built environment passed over
in past few decades, but there are still
concerns left. From the following, I will
introduce two cases that successfully done
post-disaster recovery for creating
community-based resilience, and self-
build project for enabling and
empowerment. Hints for sustainable built
environment would be shown at there.
2. 1. Chilean Case
The first case is the project of post-
disaster rebuild from an M8.8 earthquake
and consequent tsunami in a southern
Chilean city: it presided by Alejandro
Aravena, 2016th Pritzker prize awarded
architect. He focuses on shaping people’s
life out by integrating complexed
problems into a synthetic and simple
design. In the following project, he set the
plan that provides open access to the river
which is disaster community’s identity
and designed forest which surrounds city
to soak water flood in rainy seasons up
within it. And he surveyed over public
investment system and rationalized it to
get freedom from financial constraints
which hinder project’s perfection. As a
conclusion, Aravena integrally uses every
available resource in a community to carry
out an architectural project which meets
with community’s wants for succeeding
community’s basis; to carry out true
resilience.
2. 2. Burkina Faso’s Case
The second case is a self-build project:
Diébédo Francis Kéré, the awards-
winning architect whose objective is
community’s livelihood empowerment

2. while meet with member’s building
capacity and management ability. To
adjust project’s development system
within climate of Burkina Faso, his home
country and main workplace, Kéré uses
series of techniques: Villagers make
buildings with clay blocks with their
traditional techniques and by craftsmen in
local, cut clay pots and bury them in the
rooftop and use them to make skylights,
leverages rain to brings sands and pebbles
to the river which those need to build. And
these are also connected to training, that
now villagers can use their skills to earn
money, giving new qualities that can live
and work within the home country; a true
enabling and empowerment.
2. 3. Japan’s Case
Two cases shown above are the hints for
broadening the horizon for better built
environment in growing countries and
budding countries; but these especially
implicative for my home country, Japan,
in terms of public-private partnership and
urban-suburban disparity.
In Japan, notable modern issues
probably epitomized by an economic and
industrial dependency of subordinate
cities of megalopolises. Speaking of my
opinion, every Japanese must shape
unanimous awareness for groundbreaking
reforms: rebooting local economies with
creating industrial cluster commensurate
with urban competence, having drastic
reform on housing policy learning from
India’s restrictive dwelling system, and
consensus-making management on urban
redevelopment. Given that in a society
where the pathologic root is in
overshadowed depression, the first goal is
brought it the dawn; embarking on the
progress of domestic built environment
consequently achieve feasibility, and
therefore, a better built environment of
Japan will be closer to its fruition.