The Responsibility of Designing Resilience

Island nations around the world are susceptible to a multitude of threats, yet are also incredibly resilient and adaptive in their responses to change. We have seen this in Japan, in the recovery of the country after 2011’s triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, Fukushima nuclear crisis) and more recently in St. Vincent and the Grenadines after the eruption and prolonged activity of the Soufrière Volcano in the midst of a global pandemic.

Can resilience be designed? And if so, how do we create it, and what are the parameters to responsibly designing it? In this conversation, we explore the terrain of recovery, of reimagination, and reflect on the ways that cultures around the world have leaned into these experiences.

The Interview

Giselle Carr 0:03

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's first episode of *details - brought to you by Stardust Life-Centred Design. My name is Giselle Carr, I'm the founder of Stardust. And joining me today, we have two incredibly inspiring creative professionals, Nadia Huggins, and Yutaka Takiura. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today, we're gonna be talking about the topic of “The Responsibility of Designing Resilience.” It's a huge topic, really, but we're going to hone in on the response of creative professionals and leaders around the world, to natural disasters, and how we could plot a way forward for a thriving future for those who experienced them. So I'd first like to invite Nadia and Yutaka, to please introduce yourselves to our audience, so let’s start with Nadia.

Nadia Huggins 0:58

Visual Artist, Nadia Huggins. Photo credit: Kate Elliot

Transformations, by Nadia Huggins

Thank you so much Giselle. It’s really cool to be here doing this with you. I’ve known you for some time, and it's just nice to be able to talk about these things in this capacity.

I'm Nadia Huggins, I'm a visual artist, I'm based in St. Vincent & The Grenadines. I was born, I grew up, I've worked in the Caribbean my entire life, so I guess you can say like an island girl in every sense. My focus is in the visual arts, I work primarily in photography and my work focuses on documenting landscapes and seascapes.

A lot of themes I kind of deal with is belonging and memory - and well, quite recently, incidentally, the environment. This is kind of like the trajectory I've been on now with my work. And I mean, that just kind of like a side note, like, I've just recently gone through a volcanic eruption in St. Vincent & The Grenadines so that's really kind of been a very pivotal moment in the type of work I've been doing. And hopefully we can get into that a bit more through the discussion.

Yutaka Takiura 2:02

Yutaka Takiura, Architect & Professor. Photo credit: Ken Oshima

Hey, my name is Yutaka Takiura. I'm an architect based in New York City, New York. I do more interior architecture in general, as a practice, and I’ve been teaching at several schools, including Pratt Institute. I’m currently teaching in the Design Management Program, which is a business school, about recovery effort or risk management effort. One time I was on the board of Architecture for Humanity, where where we try to help provide design services for communities in need of help, especially after disasters. Also, currently, I'm a member of a Unified Risk Task Force of AIA New York, New York State and New York City as well as a committee - it's a long one - Committee of Design for Risk and Reconstruction.

Giselle Carr 3:27

Pratt Institute, Manhattan Campus

Awesome, yeah, I mean, we were just saying before, it feels kind of full circle, almost because I see you with the Pratt the logo there. And, you know, a side note is that I met Yutaka because he was my professor at Pratt in Design Management. And one of the most unforgettable projects I ever got to work on, which was reimagining a Japanese town after the triple disaster in 2011. So it's very, very exciting to have both of you here, and to be able to talk about this with you today.

So let’s just dive right in. So just to start off, could you guys describe some of the experiences you've had with regard to natural and man-made disasters, what it's like to experience them, witness them and document them? What that been like for you as a human being as well as a creative?

Nadia Huggins 4:21

Nadia Huggins with Nick Spencer and Kai Best, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 2021

Sure, I mean, I guess I can start and more specifically with the volcanic eruption that we the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines just went through in April on the ninth. It’s my first experience with a natural disaster of that scale. I suppose, I mean, for me as a creative being thrown into a situation like that my kind of baseline survival mechanism is to always resort to being creative in a situation to cope, which was very interesting to actually realise was happening as this thing was unfolding because a lot of people were asking me, you know, how can you find the strength in you to document something while this is going on? But for me, I think it was just sort of like that, like I said, that kind of baseline response that I've been kind of taught to, handle a situation.

And in the moment, I sort of realised that there was a real value and importance to capture these things as it was happening, because, you know, I had done a lot of work prior, you know, curating like a photography exhibition on previous eruptions. And just from engaging with those images I realised the importance of people having access to that, and really getting a deeper understanding of what happens during an eruption. And I noticed there were gaps in a lot of the images, or like, the collection of images that were created during those times.

La Soufrière Volcanic eruption, 2021. Photo credit: Nadia Huggins

I wanted to be able to figure out ways to fill the gaps and, you know, in what wasn't there. So I tried to focus a bit more on the personal experience of what was happening during the eruption for me. So in a lot of my images, I'm not looking at people in shelters or that kind of panic and ‘disaster porn’, as you might put it, but trying to think about it from my own kind of experience going through it. Even though I wasn't necessarily in one of the more vulnerable areas, I was still very much affected within the area that I was living in. And I think it's important for people to understand that there's a variety of experiences that happen during a natural disaster.

“Beyond the obvious adrenaline, and terror and depression and everything like that you go through in that spectrum of emotions, I think, for me, I fundamentally understood that there was an importance in my skill set was and how I could have utilised that in some way, to help future generations understand what it is they'll be dealing with eventually.”

- Nadia Huggins

Giselle Carr 6:56

Yeah, it's tremendous. I mean, the thing that moved me the most in terms of some of your recent interviews - there was a quote about you looking back at the island and realising that that was how islands are created. I just, I felt that in my body when I read it.

Nadia Huggins 7:13

Yeah, I think, you know, we, we, it's a very abstract idea in some ways. I think it's really important for us to understand the geology of a place as well, and how that formation, not just islands but in the in the world in general, what our relationship is, like, with the sea; what our relationship is, like, with the land and how we actually engage with these spaces. I think it's helpful to you know, get a very bird's eye view on things. So, that will help us figure out ways to, navigate these contours of where we're living.

“I think it's really important for us to understand the geology of a place as well, and how that formation, not just islands, but in the world in general is and how we actually engage with these spaces.”

- Nadia Huggins

Giselle Carr 7:49

Yes, very much so; this is a probably a good segue to Yutaka - could you describe some of your experiences, because you've had a wide range of perspectives too.

Yutaka Takiura 7:56

A giant crane pulls crushed cars out of debris in Kobe after the earthquake turned over an expressway. The 1995 earthquake in Kobe was the most severe earthquake to affect that region in the twentieth century. (Reuters)

Yes, my personal experience was in 1995. I was in New York, but Kobe, Japan got hit by a pretty big earthquake. And about 6000 people died. It's 1995 - it's modern times. It's not ancient, and we had technology everything. But still, one earthquake killed 6000 people. That was shocking. And I couldn't connect to my mother and people there in that moment. It was really scary, even though I wasn't there, just because I couldn't get enough information about what happened there. Even TV showed some images, but I didn't know what happened. It was the first example of more of a personal experience.

Other than that, in August 2011, as Giselle mentioned, the northern Japan earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima and all those things. When it happened, of course, I couldn't believe it. I was already in Architecture for Humanity, and we tried to help. On the other hand - What do you do? We didn't know. We’re talking about 6000 miles away from New York. And where to start? That was the question. As an architect, well, can we go there? But go there and do what? And get food from people in need of food? It's weird. So we didn't know what to do.

And then personally, Sandy hit New York not long ago; it's already more than eight, nine years ago. That was a tremendous disaster in the city of New York. Personally, we didn't have water or electricity for seven days. It was tough, and that was in modern New York City. And, of course, we didn't have a cell phone signal. So we are totally out of power, and connection to all information, everything. So it was my personal experience. And of course, I saw many - in Haiti and others. Still, it happened two weeks ago, I think, last week or two weeks ago, and it happens everywhere.

But the difference for Haiti was, this time, people didn't pay attention like last time, unfortunately. Seems like they didn’t get enough funding this time, unfortunately.

“So in my experience, the most important points are where to start, and how to raise funds - it's a great idea to help people in need but on the other hand, so where to start? And how to do it? We have to always think about that.”

- Yutaka Takiura

Nadia Huggins 11:52

Yes, and especially with regards to their funding, I mean, it's always about I guess, and building trust on the ground with people who are going to do the right kind of work. Like you said, there's immediate needs in a natural disaster - food, water, shelter. But also thinking long term, like how to help people reconsider the ways in which they build their homes, how they are getting mental health help, figuring out real substantial ways forward, and you need trustworthy people in those positions to facilitate that.

Giselle Carr 12:33

I think it's also like this confluence of issues as well - like a confluence of crises, because remember, everyone is already living with at least a year, a year and a half of COVID-19, and the strain that puts on them economically, mentally, as you said, also, right? Financially, and otherwise and then this happens. And so it's like, you have to deal with these multiple moving targets all the time. And the frightening thing, at least, or the alarming thing I should say, that I've been seeing is that we've been warned about climate change for so long. We've been warned about the fact that there are going to be more and more extreme events.

So it's kind of looking at how are we going to adapt, you know? How are we going to create that resilience, that ability to adapt to these conditions? Because it doesn't seem to be lessening. We'll probably have to deal with multiple crises at the same time in the future. The next 20 or 30 years is probably going to be characterised by that.

Nadia Huggins 13:36

I mean, there's like, a lot of value in that kind of deep rooted indigenous knowledge. Indigenous peoples have figured out ways to adapt to a situation forever. They're working with some very simple techniques and fundamental ways of doing things. And we could learn a lot from them. You know, it doesn't make sense always trying to reinvent the wheel in certain situations. And of course, we want to innovate. But I think we also need to figure out ways to work with people who've already been doing things in a particular way and who have figured out how to adapt. I mean, for example, here during the eruption, both sides of the island have had very different experiences; like a lot of the economy actually depended on the marijuana farmers who were based around the volcano. And they've been some of the most resilient people during this eruption within the North; they've been able to move their crops and figure out new places to plant and in terms of agriculture, they are really the ones who've figured out how to survive after this thing.

There's something interesting there to look at, which is what they're growing and how they're supporting themselves, where they're growing. That's just second in the sense of agriculture, but you know, there's there's a lot of knowledge that's already within these communities that we can learn from other people, but it's just a matter of being open and receptive to that knowledge, you know?

Yutaka Takiura 15:08

Nadia, how do you get historical information? Like what happened before? From generation to generation? How do you, like get the stories from a grandfather or grandmother? They may remember some stories. What happened in the past maybe 100 years ago, for example.

Nadia Huggins 15:39

I mean, there's again, storytelling from different people like you have, we have a sort of like laziness to creating a collective memory for people to access. So we don't have museums or like a proper record of things, unfortunately, especially in the smaller islands; a lot of our content is either, recorded by the British, and it's held in their archives. We don't really have access to it. So you really have to go out there and get it to have an understanding of what happened during a certain time. But in terms of local knowledge, I mean, if you're inquisitive, and you speak to the right people, they will tell you a story about when they were children, and the stories that their grandparents might have told them.

There's no physical record that you can access, when you go into these spaces to say, “Oh, well, this would have happened here”. I mean, besides the landscape that's changing, and you can see obvious cuts in the land, or the river that might have shifted in a way. Unless you're trained to understand what you're looking at, you just kind of have to go based on your own curiosity, I suppose. And asking people what they might have experienced. And I think part of what I would like to do is be able to create that record for future generations, like I said, whether it's through photography, or video, recording these stories in some way.

Giselle Carr 17:13

So important, it's so important, and to document the relationship with nature as well. And the way that you have, it's very profound. I mean, it's coming up more and more in some of the other things that you had mentioned previously. Things happening now with, you know, the reef and so on. So a funny aside, I remember my mother actually, now that Yutaka mentioned it, I remember, my mother has a nursery rhyme about hurricane season. It's like a funny rhyme-y thing. So you remember the day, the months it's something like “June too soon, July fly by August come it must September, remember” - so I guess it's in remembrance of who have gone before - “October all over.”. So it's a really interesting way to just let people know hurricane season is coming, but for whatever reason, the older people know that. I don't know how many people our age know that.

Nadia Huggins 18:09

Yes, I don't think I've ever heard that rhyme. That's interesting though. I think Yutaka you had mentioned this story as well about that kind of like that kind of primitive means of documenting.

Yutaka Takiura 18:25

10 foot tall stone tablet at the edge of Aneyoshi, a small village on Japan’s northeastern coast.

When I visited Sendai area where Northern Japan earthquake happened, and hit pretty hard, and Sendai is one of the largest hub cities in that area. And very urban, very, like high rise buildings and so on. However, when I visited the people near the water, in a little bit of a more countryside area - talking about only 30 minutes away by car - and people pointed out that there is this song, that for generations they kept singing. It is about when some disaster happens, run up the hill, stay away from water, and don't look back and don't worry about other people because the water comes too fast and so on, that’s a song. And also when I visited there, I did some research and, I saw an old stone plate with a script saying that, if you want to build a house, build beyond this point, for example; or some other stone pieces, tell you to run this direction instead of that direction and so on.

I saw a hundred year old stone plate with a script saying that, if you want to build a house, build beyond this point [waterline of tsunami], for example; or some other stone pieces, tell you to run this direction instead of that direction.

- Yutaka Takiura

"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the rock slab says. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."

And some certain time, water come up to ‘here’ and so on. So those are about 100 years old, 200 years old, small pieces. So it's before digital age. So no cell signal or anything. But it's amazing to see those pieces still there. And that it was exactly right. And younger people miss it. Today's people didn't know. So just move to that neighbourhood and oh, it's open area. So why don't we build a house here? Of course - now the house is gone, because of water. So yeah, well, we should have listened to that little story. So storytelling is good.

Giselle Carr 20:55

Yeah, it’s tremendous wisdom.

Nadia Huggins 20:55

I think the thing with natural disasters is that people always think, “Oh, well, that just happens to those people”; there's always this distance from the situation. And then all of a sudden, you find yourself in that situation and have to consider, how do you recover? And you feel a sense of guilt, as well as like, “I should have listened to these people when they said that.”

I think it's just that preparation is always key for anything. I mean, of course these situations are so unpredictable, anything can happen; like a volcano can blow in any direction, and different people can be affected, even though there might be a demarcation saying this is a safe zone. So I mean, we always have to prepare ourselves in whatever way - whether it's for an earthquake or tsunami, a hurricane - that has been that the biggest takeaway from this experience. I will be the first person to say get an emergency kit packed, hands down, you just never know… you just never know.

Yutaka Takiura 21:56

Get up to three days of water and some food and so on.

Giselle Carr 22:10

Yeah, even just the basics.

Yutaka Takiura 21:56

Just in case anything happens, to be able to run away for 2 3 4 days.

Giselle Carr 22:10

Yeah. So just gonna pivot us a little bit to start talking about some of the ways that design we have practically met some of the needs of these events, you know, any strategies that either of you have seen, you know, any challenges that have been faced and overcome in creative ways? Maybe you guys could share anything that you've seen? We'll start with Yutaka, you can start with that.

Yutaka Takiura 22:48

So yes, let me start. Of course, what I mentioned, is like the song, or stone pieces, markers. It's already designed, talking about 100 years ago. And over generations; that's a very basic design strategy to carry on the message or information to the next generation and so on. And it's kind of built in for the people who live there or grew up there. And that's a fundamental strategy we have to take and the problem here is that these days, people move and new people move in to that neighbourhood, and people move out to go to big city and so on then there is a missing connection. And young people who just moved into this neighbourhood and start business, for example, how do they get such knowledge from generations up? And how can we carry on those information, critical information? And how can we design that design transferring might be what we have to think about.

Giselle Carr 24:32

The knowledge transfer. And how you understand, because it's true, it kind of collapses time in a way because as Nadia was saying earlier, you don't have to try to reinvent the wheel - so to speak, you're already building with this base of knowledge in place.

Nadia Huggins 24:53

I mean, I think for me, on a side note, I'm also a graphic designer. So I've actually done quite a bit of preparation work leading up to this eruption, designing hazard maps for, the vulnerable communities, giving people a sense of where they are within those dangerous zones. You know, just general education, awareness and communication, and I have to say is one of the first design projects I've actually worked on that I could see the results, like real time results - save people's lives, like help them understand where they are. In the sense of design, that is so critical, whether or not it can be posters, it could be videos, it could be primitive means like stones, as Yutaka was saying, it doesn't matter. But it's really critical for people to get that information, always be aware of where they are, what the risks and hazards are within that space, and how they can exit from a situation.

And that needs to be repetitive, that needs to be something that people are always aware of that's embedded in their culture, from the children right up to the elderly. And I think once we're able to maintain that transference of knowledge, as you were saying, that's important. I mean, that will change over time, you know, like, 50 years from now, it could be holograms, we don't know what means these things are going to take on, but I think it's important to balance that modern technology of getting that information across and also using that primitive way of doing it as well; I would say, that's the biggest thing.

Yutaka Takiura 26:35

Yeah, feedback on that, I think, education, which means schools and other educational system together, kindergarten, or any other school system, we have to embed the that particular regional or local information, teaching. And also what I learned from my experience was about community - building community is the key.

If anything happens, its community and rebuilding community after the disaster is a key. Because outside people just try to come in and help and recover, deal with houses again, that's physical, it's possible. However, it takes a long time and to survive, right after the disaster, community, and human connection is the most important. “Oh, we are missing that person from that family”, for example, or “where is he or she”, for example, and then try to help out, and “Oh, she's in the next village”, for example, or, “Oh, my grandma was rescued by somebody else”.

And so that kind of information and getting community together is very important. And even digital age, even though we rely on that digital information, and social network and so on - however, when disaster or any other situation, serious situation happens - you never know, maybe we don't have the power like I experienced in New York City. We don't have a cell signal, then we are out. So how do we know that you're surviving and I’m surviving in that moment? So proper education and community, building communities, very important.

Giselle Carr 29:05

I love where this conversation is going because it feels like it’s at at either end of the spectrum, you know - culture is something that's very individual and personal, but it's also something that exists through government and leadership and vision at the highest level of whatever that country is. I mean, one thing I'd love to note is I really admire Dominica’s stance, making the decision after Hurricane Maria to become the first climate resilient country in the world. I thought that was incredibly courageous. And what they've done is they've tried to solve some of those problems across the board at various levels.

So just to kind of wrap things up or come to points of takeaways; I mean, there's just been tremendous knowledge and experience shared from both of you. And I mean, well, obviously in your other work, I'm curious what you would say are the key takeaways or actionable advice for designing resilience in a responsible way? Like, how does that land for you? What would you tell someone who maybe is now emerging from an experience like this, and trying to rebuild or is just experiencing it as a person?

Nadia Huggins 30:26

I mean, for me, I would definitely say reach out speak to other people who have been through traumatic events, similar to what you've gone through. See if you can learn something from them. Also speak to people who haven't been through the events who might be able to offer like an objective eye on what they might see happening.

I mean, for example, I had a friend come in, like ask me, “Are you okay?”. And I’d never thought about the question. I was like, “Yeah, of course, I'm fine.” And then I started actually reflecting, maybe I'm not okay, maybe there's something that I'm doing, that's obviously showing, that on the surface that something is a bit off. So, speak to people, figure out a way forward. But for me, the key takeaway is really that preparation leading up to the event. And as Yutaka said, building community before and after, which was really tremendous especially when you're in the midst of a natural disaster, that community component is really important to keep things together.

Yutaka Takiura 31:34

It's great. It's great comment. I think, again, I tried to add on to Nadia’s comment, I think it's important to start early. That means it's not about rescue effort after the disaster. Talk to people; so each geographical area has some specific issues, right? Could be a hurricane, could be an earthquake, could be flooding; but each area has some specific problem or issues we have to know, which actually, I don't know until I get there.

So how to educate or reach out to people in each area, and share the information in advance and probably establish some training and knowledge sharing? A campaign maybe a good idea to start out. And then it's because we cannot go there and sit with them every time, everywhere. So how do you embed knowledge from generations to current generation. That's what I would suggest to start out.

Nadia Huggins 33:20

Yeah. And I think the biggest takeaway is trust the experts. You have to trust the experts. They've been doing research in this stuff. They have gone through disaster after disaster. It's really important to listen to the information that they're giving to you at the end of the day. And of course, like I said, there's that indigenous knowledge and community. But at the end of day the experts, they compile that information, into a way to keep you safe. and protect you.

Giselle Carr 33:52

Agreed. Guys, well, thank you so much for your time today. This was a really rich conversation. I hope it inspires a lot of people. And I have to say I feel inspired after having this conversation with both of you. So thank you again, so much for your time.

Nadia Huggins 34:09

Thank you. Thank you both.

Yutaka Takiura 34:11

Thank you for having me.