The studio is focused on the urban and architectural implications of urban developments in the hyper-dense coastal communities of the world. We considered the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011 as well as storm surges from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Sandy in New York (among others) as an opportunity to critically re-visit the 20th century concerns of waterfront cities with the tools and techniques of the 21st century. The increasing urbanization of most countries, particularly in many parts of Asia, raises what can the architectural avant-garde contribute to the discourse? As a country hosting a number of ‘mature’ modern urban environments in a disaster-prone region, what can Japan offer as a vision for urban transformation in the 21st century? Can we uncover new strategies that re-form the relationship between the human ecologies of the city and natural ecologies? What are the architectural implications for this emerging urban condition?