Launched only 40 hours after the Great East Japan Earthquake, “OLIVE” is a wiki that delivers open designs useful in times of disaster to disaster victims. The site gathered ideas from around the world on how to make what people need to survive in disaster areas without supplies, using things around them. It was estimated that its information has been successfully disseminated to over 10 million people.

OLIVE, which has been translated into many languages with the help of volunteers, continues to expand as a disaster relief database that draws on our collective knowledge. It also has developed into the OLIVE books, disaster prevention kits, and “TOKYO BOUSAI,” the disaster prevention book which was distributed to all households in Tokyo. Even today, whenever a disaster occurs in any part of the world, the information disseminated through this project is referenced.

This initiative has successfully demonstrated the power of design in times of disaster and become a landmark project in the history of design that has made its way into high school textbooks.