Space, materials, and the social: in the aftermath of a disaster

How do spaces and materials relate and create the ʹsocialʹ contexts? How are material ʹorderʹ or the ʹsocialʹ meaning such as collectivity and individuality interrelated? In this essay I explore the relations of spaces, materials, and the ʹsocialʹ using several episodes in a public shelter after the great earthquake happened in Japan in January 1995. Sudden collapse of continuous interrelations of the materials and spaces in a metropolitan area reveals the process of the (re)creation of both collectibility and individuality through the delegation of the spaces and materials at large and small scales.