Recommended by my aunt, I visit 21_21 Design, a design museum in Roppongi, Tokyo. During my visit, they feature an exhibit on Civil Engineering.
As part of the exhibit, there were blueprints, models, videos demonstrating how civil engineering is applied to the city.
My Thoughts
With the hustle and bustle of Tokyo city, it is always a nice break to visit a museum.
One piece that has me thinking is “Groundscape“, a documentary about the relationship between landscape and development. It talks about how new developments can disconnect us from our understanding of the landscape. We develop without considering what the landscape means to us.
For example, building a seawall can prevent tsunamis from the destroying villages but comes at the cost of the beauty of the landscape and the knowledge that tsunamis are a natural part of life and death. In the film, one of the speaker suggests that perhaps it’s okay to live in a high-risk area. We just need to accept the fact that natural disasters happen, for people to die in them.
This makes me think of Vancouver. The trade-off for living in one of the world’s most beautiful places? The risk of dying or living through “the big one” earthquake.
For those interested, here is the trailer for Groundscape (with English subtitles).
Your thoughts?
