Group project, Summer 2023
Group Members: Josh Fellows, Darius Polillio, Dani Llaguno, Jiamen Weng, Tru Truong, Andrew Pusey
Group Members: Josh Fellows, Darius Polillio, Dani Llaguno, Jiamen Weng, Tru Truong, Andrew Pusey
Onomichi is a small port city on the Seto Inland Sea. The southern coastline forms part of the Setonaikai National Park - a collection of over 3,000 islands, and is recognized as one of Japan's most scenic locations.
Our project looks at two main aspects of Onomichi - the aging population and thus a rise in abandoned buildings, and the connection with the National Park.
Note the shaded areas - a darker area represents a higher desnity of abandoned buildings. Most of the abandoned buildings are away from the urban core.
Onomichi is facing potentially huge problems with an aging population - lack of economic growth, an increase in abandoned buildings, both of which reduce tourism - one of the largest draws to the city.
Onomichi is the start of the Shimanami Kaido - a 60 kilometer bike route through the National Park. One of our main targets for improvement in the city is to increase accessiblity and access to the National Park and bike routes through it. This is done through the new bike connection of the Shinkansen (high-speed rail) to downtown Onomichi.
One of the stratagies we are using to revitalize the city is adaptive reuse. Above are two examples of this - a new cafe and a revamped residential space.
Another new piece of infrastructure - these bike shelters would be placed throughout the Shimanami Kaido. We hoped that these bike shelters would become an icon of Onomichi and the National Park.
Tourism poster for the Shimanami Kaido.
Tourism poster for the port city of Onomichi.