Sculptor Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki have teamed up to design and build the world's first large-scale inflatable concert hall in Tohoku, Japan. The mobile structure, called Ark Nova, was designed not only as a venue for concerts and events, but also to spread hope throughout the northeastern part of Honshu, which has been ravaged by earthquakes and tsunamis. The concert hall opens to the public on October 14, reported the Inhabitat. The giant structure is made from a translucent purple membrane that can fully inflate in two hours and seat 500 people. Built in the northeast of Japan using repurposed tsunami-damaged cedar trees as material for the seating, the concert hall is easily transported around the region. The organizers of the Swiss Lucerne Festival commissioned the temporary structure as a way of helping the Ark Nova Music Festival in Matsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture, an area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The organizers see the Ark Nova Project as "a symbiosis of architecture, design, traditional kabuki theatre performances and classical music as well as music education."

The historic magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck eastern Japan back in March of 2011, setting off a cascading chain of events that ultimately resulted in an ongoing nuclear catastrophe, was unfortunately not "the big one" that has been predicted to strike Tokyo for many years. In anticipation of the Tokyo's next major seismic event, developers have been working on ways to reduce the potential damage. Elevated land-based islands are what Keiichiro Sako of Sako Architects is proposing for the Tohoku region of north-east Japan, another Japanese company, Air Danshin Systems Inc., has come up with another solution - they fit out existing houses to levitate in the event of an earthquake and Japan government officials consider building an alternative capital to allay fears of another natural disaster. Now two Japanese companies have unveiled plans to retrofit older skyscrapers with a device that could help to reduce the impact of major quakes on the buildings and potentially save lives in the process. Developed by real estate developer Mitsui Fudosan Co. and general contractor Kajima Corp, the several hundred ton seismic control device could suppress vibrations and counter the effects of a potentially destructive earthquake. The giant steel pendulums work by being hung on a building at rooftop level. In the event of an earthquake, they will apply force in the direction opposite of "long-period seismic motions," halving the amplitude of vibrations. The project will be unveiled on top of Shinjuku Mitsui Building, a 55-story skyscraper in Tokyo, in 2015 at a cost of US$ 51 million. The trial system will feature six pendulums, each weighing 300 tons. The system is also compatible with older buildings, meaning that all of the country's skyscrapers could be retrofitted with protection from seismic damage.

Demolishing tall buildings is typically a loud and messy process that produces a lot of dust and not a lot of building materials that can be salvaged. But Japan's Taisei Corporation is pioneering a new technique that preserves building materials and actually generates energy from the demolition process. The process, known as Ecological Reproduction System (Tecorep), uses huge jacks and an energy-generating crane to dismantle high-rises from the inside. Some of the most common demolition techniques used around the world include the use of wrecking balls, explosives and jackhammers-all of which are very noisy and disruptive, not to mention wasteful. But this new technique employed in Tokyo is much more environmentally-friendly. First, everything in the building that can be removed is taken out. Then, beams and concrete in the floors are dismantled, and they're taken down to the ground by a crane that harvests energy from descending. Giant jacks are used to keep the floors in place as structural elements are dismantled, which are then lowered. The building looks roughly the same from the outside throughout the process-even as the jacks are lowered and the building begins to shrink, it still keeps its roof. The novel demolition technique is believed to reduce dust by 90 percent, while also reducing the noise pollution caused by standard demolition techniques. But best of all, because Tecorep uses renewable energy to power its operations it reduces carbon emissions by about 85 percent.

Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose buildings have been praised for their fluid beauty and balance between the physical and virtual worlds, has won the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Along with Tadao Ando, the 1995 Pritzker laureate, the 71-year-old Ito is the dean of Japanese architecture, though with his mop of black hair he looks many years younger. He is best known for his 2001 Sendai Mediatheque, a seven-story glass box of a building that was dramatically shaken, though only lightly damaged, by the Tohoku earthquake two years ago. Some of Ito's notable creations include the curvaceous Municipal Funeral Hall in Gifu, Japan; the arch-filled Tama Art University Library in suburban Tokyo; the spiral White O residence in Marbella, Chile; his stadium for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and the angular 2002 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London. Like much of his work, it distills a series of complex technical breakthroughs into a spare, even-keeled finished product. The Mediatheque's structural and electrical systems are bundled inside 13 vertical tubes, leaving library and exhibition spaces open and accessible from all sides and visible from the street through floor-to-ceiling glass. Ito has designed museums, stadiums, houses and commercial buildings across Japan. His largest and most ambitious project to date, the 58 thousand square meters Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, is under construction in Taiwan and due to open next year. Ito began his career at Kiyonori Kikutake & Associates after he graduated from Tokyo University in 1965. He founded his own architecture firm in 1971. He has also been a teacher and mentor to many Japanese architects. Two former associates in his office, Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, who run the firm SANAA, were the joint Pritzker winners in 2010. Ito will receive a US$ 100 thousand grant and a bronze medallion at the formal Pritzker ceremony May 29 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The 71-year-old architect joins such masters as Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano and Wang Su, the first Chinese architect who wins the Pritzker Prize , in receiving the honor that's been called architecture's Nobel Prize. Ito, the sixth Japanese architect to receive the prize, was recognized for the libraries, houses, theaters, offices and other buildings he has designed in Japan and beyond.

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, countries around the world questioned the value of nuclear power - and Japan, reeling from the impact, vowed to become nuclear-free by 2040. Japan became completely nuclear free for the first time since 1970 as it shut down the Tomari nuclear reactor on the island of Hokkaido in May of last year. But now, with the tragedy seemingly fading from memory, the newly elected Japanese government has decided to reverse this decision and once again invest in that same energy that is still damaging the Japanese environment. Prior to the Fukushima disaster, which occurred in March 2011, the Japanese government had pledged to increase nuclear energy in Japan from 30-percent to 50-percent. The disaster sent dangerously high levels of radioactive material into the surrounding air, water and soil and the effects of the radioactivity will be felt for decades. Last month the elected conservative Liberal Democratic Party took control of the government and with it, killed any hope of a nuclear free Japan for the foreseeable future. The government has pledged to re-open dormant reactors if they pass safety tests and has not ruled out the possibility of building new reactors. Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan's trade minister says that he will not risk reviving Japan's economy at the cost of nuclear freedom. Since all but two of Japan's reactors have been shut down, it will likely take months or years to get things up and running again. Only time will tell if the people of Japan will support or reject nuclear energy.