The Nomura and the Maguro Traditions are hard to change. Oma, Japan, is a traditional fishing town, with a long and deep connection with Bluefin Tuna (Maguro) fishing. With global Maguro stocks dwindling and competition from large commercial operations, Oma It is a town at risk. This project explores the role of architecture in re-shaping traditions and renewing community. In the preceding years, the seas off Oma have seen an exponential rise in jellyfish blooms and a corresponding decline in Tuna numbers. The project imagines the community responding with a shift away from a Tuna based fishery to one which primarily harvests jellyfish. Building upon the townspeople’s deep-seated traditions, which stem from a respect for the sea and the importance of the collective community, the project engages with a community in transition, evolving new practices and renewing traditions. The project explores how architecture connects past to future and can be both an agent of continuity and change. A new fisheries landscape emerges from the old, one with its own aesthetic and poetry.

- Adj. Assoc. Prof. Peter Sim