The Advanced Design Project of Jaime Varas is approved:
Prof. Harrison Fraker
Date
Prof. John Ellis.
Date
Prof. Yulia Grinkrug.
Date
University of California, Berkeley Summer 2020
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MUD 2020 - UC Berkeley Student: Jaime Varas.
Re-combining The City
MUD
2020
Berkeley 2
PROJECT OUTLINE & SCHEDULE Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Preface 1.2 Research Topic & Questions 1.3 Significance of the Research Topic 1.4 Topic Background Chapter 2 Area of Research 2.1 Research Methods Descriptions 2.2 Precedents 2.3 Site Description & Data Collection Chapter 3 Thesis 3.1 The Project’s Subject / Constituency 3.2 Significance & Contribution Chapter 4 Site Analysis 4.1 A Centralized Logic 4.2 The Tōkaido Belt 4.3 Osaka Prefecture 4.4 Dōtonbori 4.5 Food District 4.6 Case Study: Satoyama, at the urban edge 4.7 Areas of Environmental Conflict in Osaka 4.8 Suponjika Chapter 5 Ideas for Periphery 5.1 Higashi 5.2 Abandoned Houses & Local Migration 5.3 Higashi: Foot of Hill Periphery 5.4 Regional Reforestation
Chapter 6 Dotonbori: Downtown Site 6.1 Downtown Osaka 6.2 Vertical Farming Block 6.3 Osaka: Freeway Loop 6.4 Urban Analysis: Downtown Osaka 6.5 Urban Analysis: Dōtonbori Chapter 7 Dotonbori: Project in Downtown 7.1 Urban Repair (Preliminary Concept) 7.2 Urban Design Framework 7.3 Proposal Bird's-eye view 7.4 Exploded Axonometric 7.5 Proposal Transept 7.6 Phasing 7.7 Freeway reuse 7.8 Canal Building 7.9 Canal Park 7.10 Urban Room 7.11 Conclusion
THESIS COMMITTEE Harrison Fraker (Chair) John Ellis Julia Grinkrug
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Chapter 1
Introduction
Preface This research is about the role of peripheral elements and non-industrial food systems as catalysts of an isotropic city. Thinking about food as a driver to restructure, health, food security, employment and communities in a horizontal approach. Although food industry issues related to food security, agricultural sustainability, diet-related diseases and social exploitation are of vital importance to the future prosperity of our cities they are underrepresented in the public realm. Today the reality is that sites of industrial food production dispersed around the globe replaced what always have been a role of the periphery: a reliable source of fresh food. As a result, basic commodities like agricultural produce travel an average fifteen hundred miles to get from farm to plate. This phenomenon is defining mayor cities in Japan into generic sites of consumption without food production. Osaka is the “kitchen of japan”. This is a city with a predominant culinary identity. The food district in the heart of the city used to have a strong connection to agriculture located in the periphery, today that relation is almost inexistent, Osaka has lost 40% of urban agriculture during the last decade. Today agriculture is being largely taken for granted and the reality is that Japan is importing the majority of its food. During the past three centuries the Tōkaidō agricul-
Aerial photo of Osaka’s waterfront
tural corridor would secure food for major cities in Japan. Today the megalopolis called Tōkaidō Belt, including Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka has a population of 50 million. Rural areas among Tōkaidō are depopulating and aging the most rapidly. The Ministry of Agriculture has been developing strategies to strengthen local food systems, but very often their guidelines clash with the regional masterplan that the Ministry of Infrastructure in charge of planning. They are promoting a compact city approach to the Tōkaidō belt as a whole. The main goal of this thesis project is to explore wa-
ys to recombine fragments of the city in order to revive decaying and often inexistent local food systems within a region with great land scarcity. Osaka’s waterfront and foot of hills are underused but developed areas, they are potential sites of transformation out of the monopoly of the food industry, opportunities to restore traditional food production. Exploring new functionalities of vacant houses, plots, streets, patches and infrastructure—Defining today the edge of Osaka—as elements of transformation. 4
Research Topic and Questions Critical lens of “development” paradigm, questioning the mainstream ideology of the “compact city” without announcing a categorical counter-statement. We need to recognize the importance of the periphery in urban life. Periphery is a potentially generative space—a source of innovation and adaptation that has the potential to destabilize the center. Challenge role of center, Informality / non-determinism, question the ‘compact’, periphery as relevant/center. How the split between the “art of building” and the “systemic nature of planning” might allow the periphery to test, backtrack and freely repeat activities with shifting focus in the “compact” (Formal) city? Examples of engagement and negotiation between claimed ground and shifting fluxed ground. The nomad and the sedentary, the collective and the individual. Spaces that resist popular prescriptions of use. Calcutta, open spaces that constitute at least 150 acres of open ground: Maidans Can we still accommodate and value the anonymity of the nomadic and the aspiration of the collective spirit within a constructed landscape? Values: Compact City, Ideas coming from the periphery, Informal Urbanism, Grey Spaces, Global South. Mixing Formal & Informal Urbanisms, Establish a “flow” from the periphery towards the urban core. The periphery as a source of creation, new ideas, new state of the art. Thinking about the “Global Border”. Is it possible to transform the border into a stage?
Collage “Instant city + Rome”
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Topic Background Staged Uncertainty Values: Compact City, Ideas coming from the periphery, Informal Urbanism, Grey Spaces Stakes: Mixing Formal & Informal Urbanisms, Establish a “flow” from the periphery towards the urban core. The periphery as a source of creation, new ideas, new state of the art. Diagnosis: Two related crisis: accelerated urbanization (Factual), and urbanism failing to conceptualize urban dynamics (theoretical). Periphery, mainly understood as the area that physically surrounds the city, but also can be understood as the source of innovation, new ideas: this is a conceptual periphery. Downtown is the most important area for the compact city. Which is an approach that uses short distances to make a city walkable and sustainable, the problem is that it fails to conceptualize the periphery as the source of change, but is only conceptualized as sprawl. This problem is the origin of a subaltern relation. But this two urban forces, downtown and periphery, interact among constellations of patches in the urban fabric. Periphery & Downtown: What interested me about this relation? How I got there? Now in an urban scale, I am trying to characterize periphery and downtown as a subaltern relation. Urban forces that interact creating constellations of patches in the urban fabric, subalternity can make completely disappear some of those fragments of the city. For example, is interesting to see how eco-
Collage “Maritime transit routes + world dense cities”
nomic prosperity create the possibility of urban agriculture to gradually disappear from within the city in the last centuries. The collage city, an approach in which fragments are interrelated in synergetic way. A subaltern relation between urban patches transforms the character in a generic area. Periphery, mainly understood as the area that physically surrounds the city, but also can be understood as the source of innovation, new ideas: this is the conceptual periphery.
Downtown, the city core, is the most important area for the compact city, and they do a great job in make it livable, walkable, and sustainable. But this is only one patch of the city. It fails to conceptualize the periphery as the source of change, but is conceptualized only as sprawl.
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We need to recognize the importance of the periphery in urban life. Periphery is a ‘potentially generative space—a source of innovation and adaptation that has the potential to destabilize the center. The concept of periphery has the ability to transcend territorial location. For example, the periphery is also a platform for politics, one where peripheral status can be used as an advantage. Searching for a multi-functional constellation staged by the postmodern city The first world urbanism is the Compact City. International policy discourses are actively promoting the compact city as a universal way to achieve sustainable urban development. We need to recognize the importance of the periphery in urban life. Periphery is a ‘potentially generative space—a source of innovation and adaptation that has the potential to destabilize the center. The concept of periphery has the ability to transcend territorial location. For example, the periphery is also a platform for politics, one where peripheral status can be used as an advantage. Informal settlements should be seen as a reflection of local knowledge, skills in production and self-regulation, but there is a clear inability of the EuroAmerican compact city to conceptualize urban informality. Informality has created a big independent agency in cities. The EuroAmerican Compact Urbanism needs to accept informality as an expression of subalternity in order to embrace rapid population increase in cities
Global sites of consumption and production
Will a push to getting to zero emissions impact trade & thus the #maritime industry? Our deputy Secretary-General told the Global Maritime Forum summit today that while 80% of global goods trade uses maritime transport, something needs to be done. Produce travels about 1,500 miles to get from farm to plate. On that journey, approximately 400 kilograms of CO2, 50 grams of methane, and 20 grams of N2O were emitted into the atmosphere.
Global systems defining cities.
Net exporters of food: US, China, Australia, South America. Net importers of food: Russia and Japan.
+ +
(UN news https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1050251)
+ +
+
+ +
+
Map. Global sites of food consumption and production.
around the world. I am interested in the relationship between the compact and the informal. Recombining the City The intellectual split between the “art of building” and the “systemic nature of planning” was not helpful to city building or the rebuilding that the postWorld War II era still demanded. And is not helping now. Local ecologies of actors’ relationships can link patches into a larger system—a network, constellation, or archipelago.
Rapid relational shifts typify a heterotopia of illusion influencing the emergence of new solutions of from the bottom up. The characteristics of heterotopia—its multicellular structure, its flexibility and its ability to combine diverse elements and desires— make it an ideal instrument for actors seeking a sense of freedom.
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Chapter 2
Area of Research Z axis.
Research Methods Description
X axis.
Person
al: Hin
a
Factua
l: Agric
ulture S
g >>>
Global sites of production and consumption.
. xis
Ya
The urbanism of the first world is the compact city, the UN is promoting it as a universal way to achieve sustainable urban development. The problem is that the EuroAmerican compact city fails to conceptualize the informality. It does not recognize the periphery as a source of innovation. But the postmodern city is not about core and periphery, it is more like a collage. A city made of fragments. A conversation between volumes and voids, allowing the planned and the spontaneous to happen, the old and the modern, public and private. The fragments of a previous urban structure, historic areas, and cultures
Global: Pacific Rim
Be
g
lla
Co
Ur
Ag
ric
na
ce
S st
: rio
y,
it ec
d:
ce
n ba
Theory
>>
e> ur ult
<<<Regional: Tōkaidō
N
C
hrinkin
Megalopolis and countryside
n ua
r Wo
io:
ar
en
c tS
s
Local: Dotonbori
I began the semester interested in the idea of the Global South, Subalternity in a global scale. How the Global North is using the compact city as a tool of power. I wanted to see if there are ways to disrupt this subalternity. In the way I realized that concepts like Global south and north are too ambitious and sometimes fall into oversimplify complex interactions in a generic way. I chose to address subalternity as the result of the compact city approach; particularly the relations between downtown and the periphery. Periphery, mainly understood as the area that physically surrounds the city, but also can be understood as the source of innovation, new ideas: this is a conceptual periphery. Downtown is the most important area for the compact city. Which is an approach that uses short distances to make a city walkable and sustainable, the problem is that it fails to conceptualize the periphery as the source of change, but is only conceptualized as sprawl. This problem is the origin of a subaltern relation. But this two urban forces, downtown and periphery, interact among constellations of patches in the urban fabric.
Downtown and Periphery
ct
pa
m Co
n
gio
Re
ity
: Imperi
al Path
and Su
l tua ep ry nc Co riphe Pe
baltern
ity
Conceptual Map.
The most accepted way to achieve this relation between formal and informal are Street Markets. These markets allow people to use the open space of the city in a different way than they usually do. Street markets are somehow informality staged by formality, but they rarely are a source of innovation that has the potential to change the city. How we know they are accepted? They have been conceptualized by the film industry as the space where you visit and can wander around. 8
An extreme case of the same phenomenon was Archigram. Instant City is brought to the towns by a fleet of vehicles and helicopters. This idea of infiltration. Instant City is precisely what its name implies: when it arrives on a site, it creates an event and then disappears. They understood that in architecture things no longer sit there forever. Archigram was a real source of innovation, because of ideas la that they ended building the Pompidou. An indirect way to address this issue of conceptualizing periphery and informality, is the project that Rem Koolhaas made in Lagos. This project is trying to build informality as close to the core as possible. Is a flexible multicellular structure. It is showing an ability to combine different elements of the city. A “collage city” can accommodate a range of utopias in miniature. Local ecologies of actors’ relationships can link patches into a larger system. A network, constellation, or archipelago of rapid relational shifts. Places that can influence the emergence of new solutions from the periphery. Precedents The ordinary, everyday, mainstream, the banal. What would you say is the most widely accepted scope or scale of how this topic is approached? A “diverse” compact city. Many actors play a role in the urban fabric and every voice needs to be heard. A mainstream way to respond the demands of local actors is to preserve a historic district or a
Belgrade. Enclave approach.
community territory, encourage retro styling and reintroduce the street corridor, but what happens when formal and informal forces start to struggle in a political/economic crisis scenario? The formal city adapting itself to be the stage of mayor changes, and at the same time informal forces getting “formalized” among the urban fabric. In Europe, along the centuries the city has been able to adapt to such changes embracing informality at its core.
Belgrade (in particular the city’s development following the international embargo against the Milosevic regime after the Yugoslavian wars of separation in the 1990s until the present day) is an example of how contemporary cities develop in an increasingly global community. Provides a model of how cities spatially adapt to the constantly expanding needs of their inhabitants. 9
B) Nuanced Inner complexities are important to recognize. What is the difference between a resolution and a clarification? A “collage city” can accommodate a whole range of utopias in miniature. Local ecologies of actors’ relationships can link patches into a larger system. A network, constellation, or archipelago of rapid relational shifts—Heterotopias of illusion. Places that can influence the emergence of new solutions from the periphery (or bottom up). The characteristics of heterotopia—its multicellular structure, its flexibility and its ability to combine diverse elements and desires—make it an ideal instrument for actors seeking a sense of freedom. A multi-functional enclave constellation over the postmodern city territory. But on this attempt to crystallize informality in a Collagist approach, the “informal” is maybe lost (?).
Lagos’ project. Rem Koolhaas.
LAGOS. In the year 1997 Rem Koolhaas started to visit Lagos, this was very controversial. Some people were saying that there was not place there for an international architect. In an interview he said: “Lagos is not catching up with us. Rather, we may be catching up with Lagos. At that point, there were no state in Lagos; the city was left to its own devices, both in terms of money and services. That created a big independent agency”.
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Site Description & Data Collection + Analysis This is about food culture as a driver to restructure communities, food security, employment and health in a changing environment. During the past three centuries the Tōkaidō corridor would secure food for major cities in Japan. Today Tōkaidō is no longer capable to provide enough food for a mega-region of 50 million people. While rural areas are depopulating rapidly, cities are becoming more compact. This rural exodus is leaving behind available land that is only being used by the single-crop food industry. Japan is replacing sprawl with Industrialized agriculture, but they are very similar in their disregard of cultural and environmental values. This phenomenon is defining mayor cities in Japan into generic sites of consumption without food production. The main goal of this thesis project is to explore ways to recombine fragments of the city in order to revive decaying and often inexistent local food systems. As a result of the compaction process, Osaka’s waterfront and foot of hills areas are shrinking, they are potential sites for food culture expansion as a driver to restructure communities, food security, employment and health. In the following proposals I’ll be exploring new functionalities for this spaces Osaka has a peculiar Hard Edge in the waterfront: some of that is part of a system of sea walls. In the east a natural Edge of Forest and mountains. The city cannot grow further than this two edges.
なぜ日本は自然災害を起こしやすいのですか？ Why Japan is prone to natural disasters?
The first Shinkansen (bullet train) line opened between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964, and trains can now make the journey in 2 hours and 25 minutes. Additional Shinkansen lines connect Tokyo to Aomori, Niigata, Kanazawa, and Hakodate and Osaka to Fukuoka and Kagoshima, with new lines under construction to Tsuruga, Sapporo and Nagasaki.
01a| Japan’s Rails 01b| Japan’s Main Roads 02| Historical Tsunami Event Locations. 04| Tsunami Energy. Datasets: 01| Japan Roads and Transit, Geospatial Information Authority of Japan(GSI) (gsi.go.jp). 02| Historical Tsunami Event Locations, 01/29/2020, DHS.GOV DHS GII FGDC.GOV HIFLD GEOPLATFORM. 03| Japan - South. Pergamon World Atlas, 1967, Polish Army Topography Service, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. 04| Tsunami Energy Map by NOAA’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC). Energy map is a mathematical surface representing the maximum rise in sea-level on the open ocean caused by the tsunami.
According to Japan Statistical Yearbook 2015, Japan in April 2012 had approximately 1,215,000 km of roads made up of 1,022,000 km of city, town and village roads, 129,000 km of prefectural roads, 55,000 km of general national highways and 8,050 km of national expressways.
Japan has the longest recorded history of tsunamis (“harbor wave”). The reason for the Japanese name is that sometimes a village’s fishermen would sail out, and encounter no unusual waves while out at sea fishing, and come back to land to find their village devastated by a huge wave.
Tsunami v/s Shinkansen, in Japan About 10% of the world’s active volcanoes are found in Japan, which lies in a zone of extreme crustal instability. Undersea earthquakes also expose the Japanese coastline to danger from tsunamis. All Pacific Rim countries collaborate in the Tsunami Warning System and most regularly practice evacuation and other procedures. In Japan, such preparation is mandatory for government, local authorities, emergency services and the population. Transportation in Japan is modern and highly developed. Japan’s transport sector stands out for its energy efficiency: it uses less energy per person compared to other countries, thanks to a high share of rail transport and low overall travel distances. Transport in Japan is also very expensive in international comparison, reflecting high tolls and taxes, particularly on automobile transport.
Now a process of depopulation is progressing, and maximizing urban functions is the most pressing issue for Osaka’s authorities. A Compact city approach has been taken: The long-term goal is to see Osaka evolve into a “right-sized city”. 11
Chapter 3
Thesis
Hina in Osaka The Project’s Subject / Constituency Tōkaidō route is connecting mayor cities in Japan. It was created as a structure of control and also as an agricultural corridor that would secure food into mayor cities in the seventeenth century. During the Edo Period, Japan had almost no exchange of goods and services with other countries, they were self-sufficient and also had a very peaceful time. Today the megalopolis called Tōkaidō Belt, including Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka has a population of 50 million. These mayor cities don’t have a strong relationship to peripheral agriculture anymore, instead they have strong connections between them. A linear system of cities that had been densified. The agricultural periphery is almost inexistent. Rural areas in Japan are depopulating and aging the most rapidly, jeopardizing Japan’s food self-sufficiency. Urban forces are people. My protagonist: Hina left the agricultural periphery in order to start a small business in Osaka’s food district. Make a living out of agriculture is very hard right now in Japan. This is a city entirely at ease with its culinary identity. The city has indigenous fast foods, and worldwide recognized refinement. Osaka is the “kitchen of japan”.
Hina A yatai is a small, mobile food stall in Japan typically selling ramen or other food. The name literally means “shop stand”. The stall is set up in the early evening on pedestrian walkways and removed late at night or in the early morning hours.
(37), meaning: “good vegetables, edible greens” Witch is a very popular name in Japan. Origin: Yawata small agricultural village, between Kyoto and Osaka. All part of the Tokaido Belt: Japanese Megalopolis connecting Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.
A small-scale business owner is the owner of a business that’s considered small in terms of its work force, sales volume or organizational structure. Inexpensive and informal lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with modest food served in simple settings at low prices.
Dependents: married to a sailor (39) years old man, have son (5) and a daughter (1). Yayai + Restaurant + Dwelling
"Access to good quality produce is very difficult for Hina. Agricultural production is very little. She is buying all supplies in local supermarkets, fisheries, and produce markets located in downtown. My Japanese protagonist, moves within a 10 kilometers linear system, starting at Osaka´s port, and fishery. Ending at the peri-urban edge of the city."
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Significance & Contribution
Ring of Fire
Civilization has steered itself into a seeming paradox: cropping, fishing, and livestock farming must continue to expand and intensify to meet the nutritional security requirements of a growing global population, yet such expansion will only accelerate the exploitation of Earth’s arable lands, potable water, forests, marine ecosystems, and fisheries, as well as global warming
About 90% of the world’s earthquakes and about 81% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. All but three of the world’s 25 largest volcanic eruptions of the last 11,700 years occurred at volcanoes in the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics.
A large 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes (more than 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes).
Maritime routes. Corridors of a few kilometers in width trying to avoid the discontinuities of land transport by linking ports, the main elements of the maritime-land interface.
The disconnect between food systems and the urban population has led to a lack of awareness in the natural resources essential to life which are now in a state of depletion. In order to combat this, farming needs to be reintegrated into dense metropolitan environments, and we have the chance to do it in a compelling way. 50 years ago, men traveled almost five hundred thousand miles to see the moon, but instead we saw earth. Only after that: earth day was created, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, The National Oceanic Atmospheric administration, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act. Everything All within 3 years after the first picture of earth was taken from the moon. Only when we see, we act. As periphery is recognized and structured in order to release cities from a large unsustainable system, it can start to play a meaningful role in cities, Food production has the potential to improve public health, community engagement, and environmental quality.
01| Cumulative commercial shipping activity 02| Historical Tsunami Event Locations 04| Historical Earthquake Event Locations Datasets: 01| Cumulative commercial shipping activity in the twelve months beginning October 2004, NCEAS report A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems. 02| Historical Tsunami Event Locations, 01/29/2020, DHS.GOV DHS GII FGDC.GOV HIFLD GEOPLATFORM. 03| World Ocean Base, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), arcgis.com 04| Quakes part of the “Analyzing Our World” lessons from Esri press. Originally downloaded from the USGS earthquake search engine and filtered to be larger than 5.7 magnitude.
Pacific Rim; Routes Among Unpredictable Tides In the 20th century, maritime transport grew exponentially as changes in international trade and seaborne trade became interrelated. Maritime routes are a function of obligatory points of passage, which are strategic places, of physical constraints (coasts, winds, marine currents, depth, reefs, ice) and of political borders. As a result, maritime routes draw arcs on the earth water surface as intercontinental maritime transportation tries to follow the great circle distance. Maritime routes are linking maritime ranges representing main commercial areas between and within which maritime shipping services are established. Pacific routes inside the Ring of Fire (also known as the Rim of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) are inscribed in a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
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Chapter 4
Site Analysis
A Centralized Logic As the first country to cope with a naturally decreasing population, Japan epitomizes all the challenges that await aging megacities. Mitigating urban decline through the Compact City? 18 years of Urban Recentralization Policies in Japan. The spatial distribution of this demographic shrinkage is highly disparate. While it is expected that Tokyo’s city region might maintain slight growth until 2030 at least through positive net migration rates – both domestic and international – the rest of Japan is set to shrink, especially peripheral regions, where the number of inhabitants could fall by half.
High Density
The reason I chose a site in Japan is because of a compaction process occurring in the regional scale, a governmental effort to make cities more compact that has resulted in a disinvestment in peripheries, and in the countryside.
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Tōkaidō Belt Japan has been implementing this compact city approach for the last 18 years. During that time Japan has been densifying what is known as the Tōkaidō Belt; a region of fifty million people in the core of the country. This is a unique condition where cities keep growing but not sprawling. A giant polycentric city-regions, the first case of this urban scale in Asia. Many of the issues faced by today’s mega-conurbations were identified in Tokaido 60 years ago, but at a very different moment in world history, and with different interpretations of major challenges and possible policy responses.
Tokyo
Osaka
Nagoya
Tōkaidō, photographed by Felice Beato in 1865.
Map. Tokaido cities. Japan’s Transit Routes.
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Osaka Prefecture For two centuries Osaka served as imperial capital, and has been an important center of Japanese culture and commerce. This is a city where rivers and canals are the main areas for trade and entertainment. Osaka prefecture has lost 40% of urban agriculture during the last decade. The number of farmers in Japan is estimated to be 1.31 million in 2030 from 2.08 million in 2015 based on a recent trend.
Osaka Prefecture Density, households per acre.
Japan’s Aging population
Population changes by municipality since 2000 (%), according to the results of national censuses.
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Dotonbori is an iconic part of the city, it is a manmade canal that was built in order to extend the commercial activities to the southern area of the city, becoming an entertainment center. Today is a worldwide recognized food district.
Osaka’s rivers and canals (1883)
Dotonbori Canal, Minatomachi Theater.
Osaka Castle Built in 1585 during the unification of Japan.
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Dōtonbori Dotonbori is an iconic part of the city, it is a manmade canal that was built in order to extend the commercial activities to the southern area of the city, becoming an entertainment center. Today is a worldwide recognized food district. Osaka is known as the “kitchen of japan”. This is a city with a predominant culinary identity. The food district in the heart of the city is a huge touristic attraction.
Dotonbori Canal, Minatomachi Theater.
Dotonbori Canal, Food district promenade.
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Food District I chose the city of Osaka because it is considered the “Kitchen of Japan”, however food production has been affected by the national compaction process. Osaka has lost 40% of urban agriculture during the last decade, due to local migration of people moving from disinvested rural areas to urban centers. In this city, 61% of the food is imported, replacing what always have been a role of the periphery: a reliable source of fresh food. In the past there was a strong connection between this food district and local agriculture at the edge of the city. Downtown neighborhoods, especially if they are close to or well connected to central business districts, have benefited from the implementation of large-scale renewal projects since the early 2000s. Dotonbori Food District, main pedestrian alley.
61%
Of the food is imported
2,6
Million Tons per year
Food Produced Locally 1 person needs 0,66 Tons per year 2.644.414 Tons
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Case Study: Satoyama, at the urban edge In Japan, peri-urban agriculture is called Satoyama, it literally means Village near the forest. This particular case study is located in between Kyoto and Osaka. A unique landscape aesthetic inspired by close proximity to wild nature in peripheral areas; a landscape of rice fields, streams, and forest was designed and managed for centuries at village level. Like most developed countries, Japan went through several periods of exploitative forestry that abandoned the balanced approach of Satoyama. As more people moved from the country to the city; more products like fertilizer, rice and timber were imported rather than produced in Satoyama.
Shinto temple as the entrance to the forest.
A mix of housing, agriculture and forest.
Satoyama
Kyoto
Osaka
One of the largest Satoyama areas in Japan.
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Areas of Environmental Conflict in Osaka
24,978 Acres at risk
Peripheral patches (Former Native Forest) Geospatial Data. https://japancrops.com/en/prefectures/osaka/ JapanGovernment statics (e-Stat)
After world war two this phenomenon increased with the development of reclaimed land in the waterfront and the construction of a freeway network to serve the port activities. The relation between downtown and periphery is no longer a strong, localized feedback loop. Today it’s easy to recognize the detrimental effects of collective human behavior on ecology. In orange, this map is showing areas at ecological risk, not as consequence of urban growth but because of poor management of abandoned houses and dry fields at the edge of the city.
In orange, Native Forest at risk.
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“Suponjika” Because of the compaction of Osaka, vacant houses and dry fields are “perforating” urban fabrics in peripheral areas, and shops or services are forced to close due to a lack of customers. This phenomenon is called Suponjika, and is affecting life in suburban Osaka.
In Osaka, peri-urban decline is deepening, vacant houses and brownfields haphazardly “perforating” urban fabrics, and shops or services are forced to close owing to a lack of customers, especially in commercial arteries offering a range of retail stores.
Higashi Foot of Hill Periphery
In Red, total number of households per acre.
15,6
Million People
Population 15,566,000 Inhabitants
13%
Of Houses are
Vacant
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Chapter 5
Ideas for Periphery
Higashi
My intent here is to recognize an interesting set of values, human activities and urban typologies that are still present in this former Satoyama. Higashi preserves a vibrant street life near the train station, but vacant houses and dry fields are starting to perforate the urban fabric within the area.
Higashi Train Line
Japan’s latest Housing and Land Survey has found that a record 8.46 million homes were unoccupied in 2018, an increase of 3.2% on the level five years ago. This represents 13.6% of all homes (up from 13.5%).
Train line in Red, Freeways in White.
Market, in Higashi.
Small restaurants in Higashi.
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Abandoned Houses & Local Migration
Here are one hundred and seventy acres of Abandon houses and underused agricultural patches with deteriorated soils. The current condition is highly hazardous to the native forest, while an aging population living in this area takes care about only a small fraction of the available land and young people are not interested in agriculture.
Abandoned or underused
13%
Of Houses are
Vacant
40%
Train Station
Of Urban Farming has been lost during the last 10 years 5 min.
Dry fields Abandon Houses PV Panels
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Abandon houses are a direct consequence of a disinvested periphery People move to urban centers where they can find education, health and jobs.
Abandoned houses are a direct result of the disinvestment on peripheral suburbs, people move to urban centers where they can find education, health and jobs. Abandon House at Osaka’s edge. Abandon Houses at Osaka’s edge.
Dry fields and farms in between fragmented forest.
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Higashi Foot of Hill Periphery Reactivating urban agriculture, but especially forestry, fertilizer and timber production in the peripheral areas can improve the local economy. A reforestation can be done using the dry fields and vacant plots left behind by the suponjika perforations to preserve this suburb sustainable and productive. This process of reforestation is scalable to the regional scale, let’s take a look to the numbers.
Reforestation
Restore Native Forest
Restore Wood production Abandoned or underused
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Regional Reforestation Osaka region has a Carbon Footprint of 59 million tons of CO2 per year, I did the math to translate this into the number of acres that would be needed to reforest in order absorb that amount of CO2. That number is around 2000 Acres of native forest. This can be done while contaminant industries are transiting to more sustainable operations, without affecting the economy. This thesis project will explore the idea of relocating farming and food production to downtown, releasing thousands of acres for reforestation at the edge of the city. And by doing it, reduce the carbon footprint to zero.
58.9
MT/CO2 Per year
Carbon Footprint Global Ranking N°35 Domestic N°02
Dataset was created by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in collaboration with Shinshu University, Yale, and Lund University.
24,978 Acres
Peripheral patches (Former Native Forest)
Geospatial Data. https://japancrops.com/en/prefectures/osaka/ pan Government statics (e-Stat)
Ja-
0
MT/CO2 Per year
Carbon Footprint
2,250 Acres of
Reforestation
A total of 2,250 Acres in 2050 EPA: Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator)
In orange, Native Forest at risk.
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Chapter 6
Project in Downtown
Downtown Osaka In Osaka 6.8 Million tons of food are consumed per year but only 2.6 Tons are produced within the region, importing 61% of the food. Importing food is importing a carbon footprint. I did the math to calculate how much traditional farming land will be needed to fulfill that demand, the answer is around one million acres. That is practically impossible to accomplish without depleting more native forest. But only 1,7% of that land is needed if farming goes vertical. Osaka’s food district.
2.6
Million Tons per year
Food Produced Locally
6.8
Million Tons per year
Food Consumption
1 person needs 0,66 Tons per year 1 person needs 0,66 Tons per year 6.780.549,6 Tons 2.644.414 Tons
61%
Of the food is
Imported
1.000.000
Acres of traditional farming
To fill the gap
1 person needs 0,66 Tons per year 2.644.414 Tons
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Vertical Farming Block So, I designed a block typology that mixes greenhouse vertical farming and enclosed aquaponics representing 40% of the block. Housing, retail, and PDR spaces represent the 60% in different configurations. These can be wooden buildings that have a programed life, with small dwelling units, including vertical farming on the rooftop, and PDR Space in the street level.
VF Building
DU Building
Farming
Housing
Farming
Housing
Farming
Housing
PDR
Retail
Building Typologies.
Green House - Vertical Farming.
Enclosed - Vertical Farming.
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This block combines Housing, Vertical Farming, PDR & Retail. It can produce the same as 170 Acres of traditional farming.
This block represents the equivalent of 170 acres of traditional farming. Meaning that each of these blocks has the potential to release 170 acres for reforestation at the edge of the city, same area as the Suponjika in Higashi.
VF Block
60% Housing+Retail+PDR. 40% VF and Aquaponics. 30 Dwelling Units per Acre. 170 Acres of traditional farming.
VF Block
Abandoned or underused
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Osaka Prefecture: Freeway Loop
New Freeway Loop To be finished on 2022
Abandoned or underused
Meanwhile the native forest has been endangered on the edge of Osaka, Downtown has its own problems. As imports, and trading grew during the 20th century, more and more freeways were built at the core of Osaka to serve the port activities. The divorce between Dotonbori and Higashi has jeopardized urban life in both areas. The good news is that a project led by the ministry of infrastructure is finishing a freeway loop on the perimeter of the city core.
Obsolete Freeways in Downtown New freeway loop
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Urban Analysis: Downtown Osaka The freeways that currently are dividing the city will not be as necessary as they were in the past. Actually, some fragments of this freeway system have already been planned to be transformed into boulevards.
Osaka Castle
CBD
Food District
New Freeway Loop To be finished on 2022
Obsolete Freeways in Downtown New freeway loop
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Urban Analysis: Dōtonbori
CBD
In 2022 this Junction in Dotonbori will no longer be necessary. Freeway End
Dotonbori Canal Food District Obsolete Junction
Freeway End
Obsolete Freeways in Downtown
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Dotonbori is the area chosen by local migrants to come working. An area traditionally related to the peripheral Higashi, where families came to trade food, and often had a small restaurant. This is an ideal site of redevelopment because of connectivity; there are three important transit hubs, and a diversity of jobs. 5 min.
Minatomachi Station
5 min.
Namba Station
5 min.
Nankai Station
Transit hubs in the site.
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But it has a poor environmental performance; the highway is dividing neighborhoods and polluting the whole area, while the noise is ruining all sensorial experience of the canal. By removing the freeway junction, enough open space will now be available to redevelopment.
An Obsolete Infrastructure
Aerial view, Minatomachi Theater.
Obsolete Junction
Aerial view, freeway junction.
Aerial view, Dotonbori canal.
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Chapter 7
Dotonbori: Downtown Site
Urban Repair Preliminary Concept My project in Dotonbori is about using a range of building typologies to infill vertical farms and Food production near to consumption spaces in an Urban repair proposal. This is an initial concept showing how the canal may look.
Canal re-development initial concept.
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Urban Repair Preliminary Concept Also, I realized that maybe I can reuse parts of the freeway to connect buildings with an elevated plaza.
Freeway re-use initial concept.
37
Urban Design Framework
Figure Ground
1KM2
Existing Condition
1KM2
Masterplan
1KM2
38
Urban Design Framework
In order to achieve this infill, the first thing is to remove the freeway junction, In pink you can see the proposed new streets, the freeway would be replaced with a boulevard.
Freeway Removal
1KM2
Street Network
1KM2
39
Urban Design Framework
These new buildings will be used to repair the disrupted block continuity, and to downsize the presence of high-rises. Since the majority of the project is developed on public open space, this should be a governmental initiative, in which the city can sell the new plots to private owners to be developed under certain rules. This is the current situation of Land use; the presence of retail is really strong when compared to industrial PDR spaces. The idea is to increase Production and Distribution of food using my block typology. I’m proposing basically two land-uses: Housing, and vertical farming, that can be considered as PDR. The existing greenery is very little, just one small plaza in the north. The proposal considers greenery as a continuity between the neighborhoods that were previously separated.
1KM2
Proposed Land Use
Proposed Greenery
1KM2
+9% 49%
retail
33%
business
18%
housing
+16% 9%
industrial
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Proposal Bird’s-eye view
VF Urban Room PV Panel Canopy
Urban Forest
Freeway Re-use
VF Building
DU Building
Freeway Re-use
At the core of the plan is an Urban-Ecotone: A Transitional space that will re-connect areas that were separated by the freeway. A sort of urban Satoyama.
The project redevelops 9,8 Acres near Osaka’s food district, using vertical farming typologies in an urban repair proposal. Where Dwelling units and working spaces are integrated in the farming activities. Wooden buildings that have a programmed life and small dwelling units near an urban forest.
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4. Vertical Farming on Roofs
Exploded Axon The new food production district can produce the same as 17 hundred Acres of traditional farming, feeding more than 600 thousand people with locally produced Food.
3. Affordable Housing
2. PV panel Canopy
1. Freeway Fragments Re-use 0. Vertical Farming Blocks
420,000 Tons per year
Food Produced Locally 1 person needs 0,66 Tons per year. Feed 636,363 people.
The project redevelops 9,8 Acres. It can produce the same as 1,666 Acres of traditional farming.
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Proposal Transept
VF VF VF VF VF VF Aquaponics
Housing Housing Housing Housing Office Retail
VF VF VF VF VF PDR
Office Retail PDR Retail SUB
Parking
Office VF VF Retail SUB
SUB
Parking
Housing Housing VF VF VF PDR Aquaponics
In the canal, the amount and quality of the water is controlled by the city. The redevelopment of the canal is not only to create amenity and a resemblance of Satoyama, but also an opportunity to irrigate all the vertical farming of the project.
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Phasing The first phase of development is this central piece in between high rises, to reduce the scale.
Phase 02
Phase 01
Phase 01
The second Phase will be the re-development of the canal area,
44
Phasing The third phase would be the re-use of another fragment of the freeway to develop a highline connecting new buildings.
Phase 04
Phase 02
Phase 03 Phase 03
And finally phase four will be the northern area.
45
Phase 01 Section. Freeway Reuse
Reconnect the urban fabric at the street level reusing a fragment of the freeway, introduce retail and PDR activities in the ground floor. The new boulevard will be covered by a tall canopy of PV Panels providing a clean source of energy for the new development. The re-use of a fragment of the highway as an Elevated plaza. 46
Phase 01 Vignette. Freeway reuse
Where all kinds of street vendors, and street markets can finally have a place downtown under a hanging garden.
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Canal Buildings
Using local building typologies, and adapting them to be productive.
48
Canal Park
Transforming the canal into an urban forest in between Namba theater and this urban room of vertical farming, to create a unique space where inhabitants of this busy area can abstract from their routines, and be aware of the reforestation occurring at the edge of the city.
49
Phase 02 Vignette. Urban Room
This urban room is an educational center where vertical farming techniques can be exposed in a sensorial environment.
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Conclusion By updating and adapting the Social-ecological production model, it is possible to revitalize a failing food system in downtown, and the habitat system in the periphery. The project redevelops 9,8 Acres. It can produce the same as 1,666 Acres of traditional farming.
636,636
People can be feed with
Food Produced Locally
1 person needs 0,66 Tons per year.
By reforesting 17 hundred Acres, Osaka’s Carbon Footprint can be reduced in a 74%. Going from 59 to 15 Million Tons of CO2 per year, Osaka´s Carbon Footprint will be similar to cities like Rome (IT) or Austin (TX).
58.9
MT/CO2 Per year
Carbon Footprint Global Ranking N°35 Domestic N°02
Dataset was created by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in collaboration with Shinshu University, Yale, and Lund University.
15.3% MT/CO2 Per year
Carbon Footprint Global Ranking N°156
By the reforestation of 1,666 Acres. Osaka’s Carbon Footprint can be reduced in a 74%. Similar to Rome or Austin. 51
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
01. Koolhaas, Rem. “Whatever Happened to Urbanism”. 1995. Originally published in ‘S, M, L, XL’. Type. Scholarly disciplinary writing Two crisis: Accelerated urbanization (Factual), and urbanism failing to conceptualize urban dynamics (theoretical) The author points out that a “new urbanism” will be staging uncertainty. Urbanism will never again be about the “new”, only about the “more” and the “modified”. Koolhaas concludes asking: What if we simply declare that there is no crisis – redefine our relationship with the city not as its makers but as its mere subjects, as its supporters? More than ever, the city is all we have. 02. Jencks, Charles. “Meaning in Architecture”. 1969. Type. Scholarly interdisciplinary writing: SEMIOLOGY & ARCHITECTURE In order to conceptualize complex urban dynamics design can be an exceptional tool. One cannot separate the method from the purpose, they need to grow together and become linked through a process of continual feedback. The author consider the successful metaphors Archigram have introduced into architecture: Cities which look like computer nets, robots, pneumatic tubes, bowels, telescopes, soap bubbles, comic books, space capsules, oil refineries, molehills and even the flexing tentacles of the Octopus. 03. Herzog, Werner. “Fitzcarraldo”. 1982. Type. Film. West German adventure-drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog. Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who is determined to transport a steamship over a steep hill in order to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon Basin. Herzog forced his crew to manually haul the 320-ton steamship up a steep hill. The steamship on the movie represents to me a foundational act, with the ship crossing the jungle a place is born, urbanity begins with a celebration. The ship represents an epic act: to cross. The method is the purpose.
04. Grahame, David. “Recombinant Urbanism. Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design, and City Theory”. 2005. Type. Scholarly disciplinary writing. The author describes New Urbanist have perfected this systemic approach and applied it on a vast scale to the American suburbs. The dark side of this collagist approach is evident on the postcolonial “third world” cities that become unplanned attractor where, patch by patch, urban immigrants built their houses without any overall control or masterplan. Encourage retro styling, reintroduce the street corridor, or preserve a historic district or community territory, responding demands of local actors. New Urbanism works, as a patch in the city. Local ecologies of actors’ relationships can link patches into a larger system—a network, constellation, or archipelago. 05. Krieger, Alex. “Where and how does Urban Design Happen”. 1956. Type. Scholarly disciplinary writing The participants seemed to concur that the widening mid-century intellectual split between the “art of building” and the “systemic nature of planning” was not helpful to city building or the rebuilding that the post-World War II era still demanded. Urban design is less a technical discipline than a mindset among those of varying disciplinary foundations seeking, sharing, and advocating insights about forms of community. Embracing Urbanity. 06. Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha. “Neither Wilderness nor Home: The Indian Maidan”. 1999. Type. Scholarly disciplinary writing In Calcutta these open spaces that constitute at least 150 acres of open ground: Maidans. Examples of engagement and negotiation between claimed ground and shifting fluxed ground. The nomad and the sedentary, the collective and the individual. Spaces that resist popular prescriptions of use. Can we still accommodate and value the anonymity of the nomadic and the aspiration of the collective spirit within a constructed landscape?
07. Krauss, Sibella. “CA Small Farm Conference”. 2011. Type. Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi38c2Ylaqo Where does our food comes from? Preservation and enhancement of rural areas within metropolitan regions as places that are indispensable for the economic, environmental, and cultural vitality of theses regions and the cities within them. Creating a bridge between smart growth, sustainable communities, sustainable agriculture and local food systems. The goal is to make regional agriculture and local food systems integral elements in the development of sustainable metropolitan regions. Industrialized agriculture and suburban sprawl are very similar in their disregard of cultural and environmental values. Urban place types: City center with high density and intensive mixed use, to suburban centers, there could be an agricultural place type: intensive agriculture, less intensive, agricultural areas organized around a rural town. 08. Metro Politiques. “Mitigating urban decline through the compact city? Reflections on 15 years of urban recentralization policies in Japan. 2017. Type. Article: https://www.metropolitiques.eu/Mitigatingurban-decline-through-the-compact-city-Reflections-on-15years-of.html At a time when a process of nationwide depopulation is progressing, maximizing urban functions is our most pressing issue. The keyword for this is ‘compact city’”. This sentence is an excerpt from an article published by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper on November 12, 2016, commenting a new set of measures implemented by the city of Akita. It is one of the countless examples of the success that the terms “compact city” currently enjoy in Japan, a country whose population might decrease to less than 100 million inhabitants by 2050 (from 126.5 million according to the 2015 census). The spatial distribution of this demographic shrinkage is highly disparate. While it is expected that Tokyo’s city region might maintain slight growth until 2030 at least through positive net migration rates – both domestic and international – the rest of Japan is
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set to shrink, especially peripheral regions, where the number of inhabitants could fall by half. The long-term goal is to see Japanese cities evolve into “rightsized,” tightly defined polycentric settlements. The goal is also to bring back inhabitants to areas near shopping streets, whose economic and social role was considerably weakened by malls in the 1990s. 09. The Guardian. “Osaka - the world’s greatest food city”. 2009. Type. Article: h t t p s : / / w w w. t h e g u a r d i a n . c o m / l i f e a n d s t y l e / wordofmouth/2009/jul/13/osaka-japan-best-food-city This is a city entirely at ease with its culinary identity but open to foreign influences. The city has indigenous fast foods: okonomiyaki, and let’s not forget that kaitensushi (dishes are placed on a belt) and instant ramen noodles were both invented in the city in 1958. This is also where you’ll find the world’s largest, most expensive, best equipped, cooking school and a fish and produce market. 10. Japan Times. “Japan’s falling food self-sufficiency”. 2019. Type. Article: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2019/08/20/editorials/japans-falling-food-self-sufficiency/#.Xn_H5Ij0lPa The long-term decline of Japan’s self-sufficiency in food continues. Last year, the food self-sufficiency in calorie terms fell to a record-low 37 percent — meaning the nation covered less than 40 percent of the food it consumes with domestic output — and the government’s target of boosting the ratio to 45 percent seems as distant as ever. The steep gap, coupled with the reality of the nation’s farming, raises the question of whether it’s adequate to keep food self-sufficiency as a key yardstick in agricultural policy.
11. Our World (UN). “Toward a Sustainable Japan: Challenges and Changes in Society and Population”. 2015. Type. Article: https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/toward-a-sustainable-japan-challenges-and-changes-in-society-and-population Japanese history already has a model case with a steady-state economy. During the Edo Period, from 1603 to 1867, we had almost no exchange of goods and services with other countries, yet we were self-sufficient and also had a very peaceful time, with almost no domestic conflicts. We had a stable population at some 30 million people. Economists have estimated the annual growth rate during that period to have been about 0.4%. There were various problems at that time, but still, you could say that in that era, Japan had a sustainable, steadystate, happy society. 12. Economic History Association. “Japanese Industrialization and Economic Growth”. 2018. Type. Article: https://eh.net/encyclopedia/japanese-industrialization-and-economic-growth/ Concentration of industrial production first in Osaka and subsequently throughout the Tōkaidō belt fostered powerful geographic scale economies (the ability to reduce per unit costs as output levels increase), reducing the costs of securing energy, raw materials and access to global markets for enterprises located in the great harbor metropolises stretching from the massive Osaka/Kobe complex northward to the teeming Tokyo/Yokohama conurbation. Between 1904 and 1911, electrification mainly due to the proliferation of intercity electrical railroads created economies of scale in the nascent industrial belt facing outward onto the Pacific. The consolidation of two huge hydroelectric power grids during the 1920s — one servicing Tokyo/Yokohama, the other Osaka and Kobe — further solidified the comparative advantage of the Tōkaidō industrial belt in factory production. Finally, the widening and paving during the 1920s of roads that could handle buses and trucks was also pioneered by the great metropolises of the Tōkaidō, which further bolstered their relative advantage in per capita infrastructure.
13. The Guardian. “The three-degree world: the cities that will be drowned by global warming”. 2017. Type. Article: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2017/nov/03/three-degree-world-cities-drowned-globalwarming Flood maps were created using sea-level rise estimates from Climate Central and digital elevation data. Population estimates refer to urban agglomerations, which comprise the built-up area of a city and the suburbs linked with it. Maps include OpenStreetMap data. Temperature projections are based on University of Washington emissions modeling and UN warming estimates. Trajectories have been updated to match latest temperatures as recorded by the Met Office Hadley Centre. 14. UN News. “UN calls for shipping ‘propulsion revolution’ to avoid ‘environmental disaster”. 2019. Type. Article: https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1050251 Will a push to getting to zero emissions impact trade & thus the #maritime industry? Our deputy Secretary-General told the Global Maritime Forum summit today that while 80% of global goods trade uses maritime transport, something needs to be done. 15. CNBC. “A global shipping revolution is weeks away — Here are the likely winners and losers”. 2019. Type. Article: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/30/imo-2020the-winners-and-losers-of-a-global-shipping-revolution.html A global shipping revolution. On January 1, 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will impose new emissions standards designed to significantly curb pollution produced by the world’s ships. For some of the world’s biggest oil producers, the new rules coming into force represent a source of great concern. Maritime transport is critical to the global economy, with more than 90% of the world’s trade carried by sea, according to the United Nations (UN).
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DATASETS
16. The Climate Reality Project. “How the Climate Crisis Impacts Japan”. 2019. Type. Article: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/ how-climate-crisis-impacts-japan This disconnect between food systems and the urban population has led to a lack of awareness in the natural resources essential to life which are now in a state of depletion. In order to combat this, farming needs to be reintegrated into dense metropolitan environments. Urban agriculture has the potential to improve public health, community engagement, and environmental quality. climate change is hindering the production of rice throughout Japan. the combination of hotter temperatures and higher CO2 concentrations can decrease the actual quality of the grain, making it increasingly fragile and less nutritious than before. Fish, one of Japan’s favorite proteins, is also being threatened by climate change. Japan may face a substantial decline in some fish catches over the 21st century.” Along with those two staples, important fruits like apples, mandarins, strawberries, and cherries, along with a variety of vegetables, are also being threatened by the climate crisis. As the sea level continues to rise, japan start to relay more in the global food system. Over the past decade, Japan has experienced a variety of record-breaking extreme weather events that only confirm what we know: that the climate crisis is not some far-away event 17. Council on Foreign Relations. “Down the Hunger Spiral: Pathways to the Disintegration of the Global Food System”. 2019. Type. Article: https://www.cfr.org/blog/down-hunger-spiral-pathways-disintegration-global-food-system Civilization has steered itself into a seeming paradox: cropping, fishing, and livestock farming must continue to expand and intensify to meet the nutritional security requirements of a growing global population, yet such expansion will only accelerate the exploitation of Earth’s arable lands, potable water, forests, marine ecosystems, and fisheries, as well as global warming.
18. James Beard. “Chef Action Summit”. 2019 Type. Article: https://www.jamesbeard.org/foodsummit This Summit is invitation-only and open to special guests, alumnae of James Beard Foundation Impact programs, and partners in the fight for positive policy change that supports people, communities, and the planet. 19.The Wall-street Journal. “Why Farmed Fish Are Taking Over Our Dinner Plates”.2014. Type. Article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-farmed-fishare-taking-over-our-dinner-plates-1415984616 With a decades long global consumption boom depleting natural fish populations of all kinds, demand is increasingly being met by farm-grown seafood. In 2012, farmed fish accounted for a record 42.2% of global output, compared with 13.4% in 1990 and 25.7% in 2000. A full 56% of global shrimp consumption now comes from farms, mostly in Southeast Asia and China. Oysters are started in hatcheries and then seeded in ocean beds. Atlantic salmon farming, which only started in earnest in the mid-1980s, now accounts for 99% of worldwide production—so much so that it has drawn criticism for polluting local water systems and spreading diseases to wild fish. 20. AGB Asia. “Citizens groups oppose Yumeshima development”. 2019. Type. Article: https://agbrief.com/headline/citizens-groups-oppose-yumeshima-development/ About twenty local citizens groups have come together as “The Roundtable Conference by Citizens Concerned about Changing Town Planning of Yumeshima Island” to call for the plans to develop Yumeshima to be halted. They have written a letter in English and Japanese which they have sent to various national embassies in Tokyo as well as to the Bureau International Expositions, which awarded the 2025 World Expo to Osaka last November.
Cumulative commercial shipping activity in the twelve months beginning October 2004, NCEAS report A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems. World Ocean Base, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), arcgis.com Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue ISC (2015), ISC-GEM (1900–2009), Version 2.0, International Seismological Centre Vacant Houses and plots in Osaka https://resources.realestate.co.jp/news/akiya-bank-japan-vacant-house-database-to-now-include-govt-public-assets-ministry-of-land/ https://www.businessinsider.com/japans-vacant-and-abandoned-houses-visions-of-detroit-2013-5 Osaka’s Urban Employment Area. Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo. Retrieved August 13, 2016. Osaka City Roads and Transit, City Planning Bureau (data. city.osaka.lg.jp). Polygonal Representation of Osaka Rivers, City Planning Bureau (data.city.osaka.lg.jp). Osaka city, Japan, 1956, Nihon Shoin, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Japan - South. Pergamon World Atlas, 1967, Polish Army Topography Service, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.
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