Yasuyuki KAWANISHI + ICHIBANSEN / nextstations
​川西 康之 + 株式会社イチバンセン 一級建築士事務所 / ネクストステーションズ

Exhibition, creating graphics, implementing workshops, designing the venue, and supervising construction in total.

The first railway line opened in Makurazaki City in 1931. After the war, Makurazaki’s number one specialty products in Japan, such as dried bonito flakes, fresh fish, shochu, tea leaves, black pork, and timber, were developed into national brands by utilizing the railway network.

However, with the declining birthrate and aging population, the only users of Makurazaki Station are a few students and railway enthusiasts. As the automobile society deepens, commercial facilities have been transferred from the front of the station to the suburbs, and the role of railways on the Satsuma Peninsula is changing.

The theme of this exhibition was “Nostalgia and Technology for the Future of Makurazaki,” and it introduced the role that the railway played in promoting the sale of Makurazaki’s specialty products, which are the best in Japan, the current state of railways and public transportation on the Satsuma Peninsula, as well as on-demand transportation and drone freight transportation, and the state of railways in the farthest parts of the world through panel displays. As representatives of high school students along the line, we asked students from La Salle Academy to cooperate and hold workshops such as dialogue with a preserved railway in the UK, and had young people create a model railway of the future Ibusuki Makurazaki Line as they imagine it.

Discussions about the sustainability of unprofitable local railways are taking place not only throughout Japan but all over the world. This exhibition made us realize the importance of objectively sorting out the past and the future.