Towards a Non-neoliberal design paradigm ISHINOMAKI 2.0 – a network of grassroots community building

The projects are selected for their focus on maintenance and repair and are articulated to establish a design methodology of repair, while reframing disaster as an opportunity for new non-neoliberal networks to emerge. This research is attempting to elucidate architecture’s broader design response-abilities that supersede the architectural object and can encompass ways in which architects can orchestrate design in a Harawayian “sympoietic care” ethos. It is informed by the case of ISHINOMAKI 2.0, the grassroots movement that emerged directly following the disaster of 2011 and its activity in three different projects, namely: 1. Ishinomaki IRORI, 2. Ishinomaki Bookshelf, and 3. Recovery Bar. The methodology of the research consists of interviews, literature review as well as ethnographic and visual observations to support the analysis followed in the future by community network drawings made by the author. Through this selection of projects, the scope of design can be seen to be expanding further than material considerations into community-led practices.