The still unfolding disaster caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami has been in urgent need of attention from creative and critical thinkers since the catastrophe struck in 2011. Under the auspices of the organization ArchiAid, architects have taken on the challenge of strategizing reconstruction, calling upon key members of the design profession to take a leadership role in re-imagining what the built environment should look like. This exhibition presents a selection of architectural projects that provide ways for architects and citizens to think through their domestic and urban space in light of an ever-shifting planet.

ArchiAid, a featured organization in the exhibition, is dedicated to the building of a multi-faceted platform to support regional reconstruction and development through an international network, the revival of architectural education/development of a practical reconstruction education service, and the accumulation and illumination of disaster knowledge. The basis of the platform is the Sendai Design League, based at Tohoku University. Its principals are architect and engineer Keisuke Inuzuka, who worked for Ito Architects and Engineers from 2007 to 2012; and architect Kazuhiro Kojima, a professor at Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture and principal at the Tokyo office of Coelcanth and Associates.

Kimberli Meyer is a curator and has been the director of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture since 2002. She is a frequent lecturer and writer on architecture, art, and urban design issues. She was the recipient of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation Exhibition Award for her exhibition How Many Billboards? ArtiIn Stead (2010), an étant donnés grant for curatorial research (2006), and a full scholarship to the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders (Arts) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (2006). She was a commissioner for the US presentation at the International Cairo Biennial (2008), and cocurator of MAK Center exhibitions Symmetry, Showdown, and the Gen(h)ome Project. Meyer holds an MFA in fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts, and a BArch from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Project advisor and liaison Hitoshi Abe is chair of UCLA’s Architecture Department, and has maintained an active international design practice based in Sendai, Japan, and Los Angeles, as well as a schedule of lecturing and publishing, which places him among the leaders in his field. Known for architecture that is spatially complex and structurally innovative, the work of Atelier Hitoshi Abe has been published internationally and received numerous awards in Japan and abroad.

Anthony Carfello has managed programs at the MAK Center since 2009, overseeing a demanding schedule of frequent, key public events and exhibitions, while also managing the day-to-day activities of both the Center's international residency program and its exceptionally ambitious curatorial affairs office. He is a practicing author, with extensive experience as a curator, arts administrator, and photographer, and holds degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Unique in its role as a constellation of historic architectural sites and contemporary exhibition spaces, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, at the Schindler House develops local and international projects in art, architecture, and their intersections and tangents. Founded in 1994, it seeks out and supports projects that take risks in their fields and test disciplinary boundaries. The Center acts as a cultural laboratory, encouraging the development of ideas by engaging the center's places, spaces, and histories.