The involvement of architects in redeveloping the many towns and cities affected by March 11's Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami is not as common as might be expected.
Rather, local governments are primarily partnering for such work with civil engineering firms.
However, in addition to ArchiAid's work on the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture on the northeast coast of Honshu, there are a few architects at work on the ground in the stricken Tohoku region — including two of the biggest names in the business.