Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City

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Additionally, this book succeeds excellently in explaining Tokyo's development as a result of just one historical path that is not a uniquely Japanese or Asian, but could have resulted in a Western city given different urban and political constraints. The narrowness of these streets along with the topographical lopsidedness compared to neighboring streets prevents car access.

I work as an urban planner at a downtown development authority, and this book has many practical insights. Overall, it was fascinating learning about Tokyo's urban development context - how Japan's system of strong property rights has made it challenging for real estate developers to do large scale redevelopment; it was only with the 2002 Law on Special Measures for Urban Renaissance, which designated specific areas of the city as special zones where existing urban regulations were suspended, that developers could negotiate case-by-case deals with local government officials to redevelop these parts of the city. For instance, "the system [in yokochos] allows owners and managers to customise their spaces, invest in them as a long term project, and get involved in decision-making affecting the yokocho as a whole. Despite these attempts to portray the Japanese as a harmonious and homogeneous people since time immemorial, the idea of Japan as a homogeneous nation is actually a relatively recent development.These came about as a result of regulations on building heights and access to natural heights (which shaped the form), and ground up processes where different commercial enterprises moved into the buildings and placed commercial signages on the staircases and elevators to advertise their offerings.

The data-driven analysis and clustering of architectural districts was very interesting, and the numerous diagrams were highly illuminating. Golden Gai landowners have faced pressures from developers to sell up so that the plots can be consolidated but in 1986, some bar owners banded together to protect their interests. It look into six Tokyo urban design patterns, how they evolved, the experience they foster and how they are threatened by corporate development. The waterways are trying to provide something to us even as we have done our best to cover them up and forget about them. Compared to Western metropolises like New York or Paris, however, few outsiders understand Tokyo's inner workings.

His office, Jorge Almazan Architects, is committed to environmentally responsible and socially inclusive projects spanning from interiors and architecture to urban and community design. Tokyo is one of my favorite cities, and is also the world largest metropolis (with a metro population of 38 million.