Opunsupesu Kudasai! | Open Space Please! Itinerary in Komagome, a neighborhood in Tokyo by Noemi Giovannetti

“Ōpunsupēsu kudasai! / Open space please!” Itinerary in Komagome, a neighborhood in Tokyo. Urban regeneration and participatory processes

Noemi Giovannetti 201893

Relatrice ° Prof.ssa Lorena Alessio Correlatrice ° Prof.ssa Francesca Governa Supervisor ° Professor Takashi Ariga Luglio 2016

GRAZIE – MERCI - THANKS ARIGATOGOZAIMASHITA Grazie di cuore a Prof.ssa Alessio per avermi permesso di vivere questa grande avventura. Grazie alla Prof.ssa Governa per la sua disponibilità. Arigatogozaimashita to the Professor Ariga Sensei for his supervision and to let me discover a fabulous country and an important method. Grazie a mamma e papà, ai quali devo tutto e ancora di più. Grazie al mio modello da seguire – mio fratellone Andrea Merci à mon amour et mon rayon soleil – Jérémy Grazie alla mia tifosa numero uno – nonna Olga Grazie alla mia metà di vita – Chiara Grazie ai miei zii e agli amici di famiglia che mi supportano da quando sono nata –Enrica, Enzo, Maria Rosa, Gemma, Mirko Grazie alla mia seconda famiglia – Aurelia, Gualtiero, Elena Grazie al mio cuore – Sofia Grazie alla mia compagna di sempre – Alessia Grazie agli amici che ho sempre nel cuore – Francesca, Mirko, Ricardo, Giulio, Luca Merci aux chers amis belges et italo-belge – Justine, Céline, Jennifer, Nicolas, Marion, Mathilde, et toute la famille de Jérémy Merci aux amis en Japon/Thanks to my friends in Japan – Romain, Rémy, Maria, Jeanne, Léa, Teckla Arigatogozaimashita/Thanks to all my Japanese friends – Miyuu, Tsubasa, Kenn, Sasaki and Ariga Lab.

PREFACE I had no expectations about what I would find in Japan. I had no imageries, prejudices or stereotypes about Japan: I have never been very cognizant of Japanese culture; therefore I had to outline a country by scratch. From the very beginning, getting into the airplane, something was different. For the first moment, I felt myself strange: my seatmate wore a mouth-mask and he had personal small slippers, as many in the plane. For twelve-hour flight we never said a word, not even a knowing look. The Japanese respect for the silence is the first cultural element I learned. Getting out from the airport, Japan impetuously slapped me: everything was different, from the drive lane, to the food, and from the fashion tendency to the body language. The image of Tokyo transmitted in Europe is completely different from the one you have living there. Thanks to the experience of participation to the professor Ariga Laboratory on Urban Planning, I discovered a dimension impossible to realize as a tourist. Behind the static and imposing skyscrapers, just at the shadows of these, Tokyo shelters a vibrant core of small traditional neighborhoods, and Komagome is part of those. Again, as in the plan, the first element that caught me was the silence. Getting out from the metro station, dipping inside the neighborhood, the calmness and the poise pervading the streets made me falling in love of this â&#x20AC;&#x153;villageâ&#x20AC;?. I started to spend as much time as I could in Komagome, discovering the habits of people, its hidden spaces, its colors and its perfumes. I was not really able to believe the human scale, the silence, the overspread plants and greens I had in front of my eyes. Especially thinking that five-minute far by metro there was Ikkebukuro, one of the neuralgic and most chaotic centers of Tokyo, and probably of the world. My task in the Ariga Laboratory experience was to study public space with the aim of their possible regeneration. I was really enthusiastic about that topic. Hence I started to analyze the topic, clearly having my European cultural background. Little by little, going deeper in the analysis of the neighborhood public spaces and trying to extrapolate

the meaning of “public spaces” from the point of view of Komagome’ people, I discovered that it was not possible to apply my background, grounded of European experiences, to a completely different model in term of way of thinking and living. The participatory processes played a fundamental role in the uprooting my background: listening to the needs expressed by the residents, taking part of the community workshops and working with my Japanese colleagues, brought me to a new and different perspective, where the Community needs were highlighted. What is a public space without a community, its value, its individual and collective needs? Is it possible to develop an idea of public space independently from the needs of the community? What the role of planners in offering a top down supply of public spaces, for instance for the main infrastructure,

and what the role of bottom-up processes based on the emerging needs of the community? Are those two dimensions linked or in contrast? What is the role of the architect in this complexity? How practically to define a guideline for planning public space in Komagome taking into consideration both the dimensions? The first one, for instance, coming by the necessity of respecting the national low on safety (top-down), and the second one rooted in the valorization of individual and community needs of the population? Therefore, my research is not only an analysis of the small neighborhood of Komagome, but it is also a personal itinerary, as individual, and especially as a future architect.

0. Introduction ... p. 12

INDEX

1. Komagome: a changing neighborhood in Tokyo a. A brief introduction: Komagome in Tokyo ... p. 29 b. Historical overview ... p. 51 c. Urban quality and safety: plot fragmentation, natural catastrophes, ageing population, risk of speculation ... p. 79

2. Discovering and thinking about public spaces - community space starting from Komagome a. Introduction: task in the working team on the public space ... p. 95 b. Getting out from the station: the memorial plaza ... p. 107 c. Crossing the street: the temples ... p. 115 d. Dipping in the neighborhood: the roads ... p. 123 e. Ending in the middle: the parks ... p. 137 f. Extra: discovering hybrid spaces ... p. 141

3. The Machizukuri: participatory design of Ariga Laboratory a. Introduction: the Ariga Labâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role ... p. 149 b. Machizukuri: participatory workshops in reshaping neighborhoods ... p. 153 c. Main Workshops report ... p. 163

4. Conclusions a. Outlined guidelines for future development of Komagome ... p. 185 b. General conclusions ... p. 203

5. Bibliography ... p. 207

CHAPTER 0 Introduction

Komagome and its high residential density

The research focuses on the traditional district of Tokyo, called Komagome, a small neighborhood placed at north-west of Tokyo, five minutes by metro from Ikkebukuro. It is finalized to present a first discussion on the possible reorganization of public space. The study is based on three-month experience in Tokyo, thanks to the hospitality of the Waseda University and especially to my work at the Professor Ariga’s laboratory that is in charge of restoring the neighborhood trough a participatory process. My main task in this planning was to design the first draft guidelines for the reorganization of public spaces of the neighborhood. The thesis moves from the approach of Machizukuri (community-building) as a type of community participation-based urban design. This approach needs a long relationship with the neighborhood community, in order to acquire the complexity of people’s needs and to build a reciprocal trust for planning a participatory renovation. The restoring needs of the neighborhood are based on the necessity of improving the safety requirements for preventing the negative effects of natural catastrophes. Komagome and its high-dense built up urban blocks are no more adapted to the standards. Therefore, there is the necessity to re-plan the urban configurations, such as widening the streets and limit the built-up gross floor

area percentage. In this context, prof. Ariga Lab is developing a Macizukuri experience. Following this experience, I progressively discovered the community of Komagome with its emerging needs and I increasingly understood the problems arising from the neighborhood: aging population and necessity of regeneration, constraints of the inheritance tax system and progressive fragmentation of property and plots, risk of urban speculation with consequent loss of traditional urban scale of the district. The research is a journey inside the small neighborhood of Komagome and during this journey I discovered not only Komagome’s open public space but also Komagome community space. Indeed, the experience in the Japanese Ariga Laboratory has allowed me to penetrate in the nowadays conditions of a small district and its main issues. To be more precise, the journey was not only the study of the public space, but the discovery of the community space where the needs of the Komagome’s community emerge. Being expression of the community needs, the community spaces are not static, but they constantly change. The research is organized in five main chapters. The first one gives a general overview of Komagome. Firstly, in this chapter the dimension of Tokyo is contextualized, showing how two diametrical metropolitan

dimensions coexist at the same time: the first one is organized around the international, chaotic, cosmopolite and neuralgic poles while the second one is still rooted on the smallness, familiar and poise human-scale neighborhoods. Secondly, based on the Ariga Laboratoryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s archives and my personal analysis, the chapter introduces a brief historical overview of the district, with the aim of explaining why and how the historical matrix is highly visible in the today context of the district of Komagome. In the second chapter, after having explain the role of professor Ariga and its participatory process of planning, the focus moves toward public space and its regeneration, explaining also my role in the Ariga Lab. This chapter collects the analysis of each Komagomeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public space, as I discovered in deepening my research on the different public use of the space by the Komagome people. This part of my investigation shows not only the neighborhood environment, but also the Japanese way of thinking about public space in the small district I examined. It emerged a variety of small and undiscovered public spaces/community space, regularly used by the population living there, unusual for a cultural approach of design not grounded on Japanese culture, and also difficult to discover. In this chapter also population gradually emerged, with its needs, often not clearly expressed, and especially a communitarian dimension of

the neighborhood has been analyzed. In the third chapter, the research tries to sound out many aspects of the complex participatory processes, the Machizukuri, from an historical and theoretical perspective. Then, the chapter describes the practical experience of Machizukuri realized by Ariga Lab. In this part, the research is mainly focused on the experimental work carried out during the year 2015-2016, with the goal of refurnish the neighborhood trough a participatory process. In this part, the chapter especially analyses the effort of Ariga Lab of combining the needs of respecting the national rules on safety with the needs of a changing population that requires maintaining a community dimension but also a human regeneration of the neighborhood. With regard to this aspects, many elements have been underlined, such as the tremendous rising of old people living alone, of youth not interesting in maintaining a private property too expensive because of the inheritance tax, the increasing interest of developers toward the neighborhood and the needs of maintainingand valorizing the community for people living there. In this context my focus was still the analysis of the role and design of pubic space facing all the challenges described. Finally, the last chapter resumes all the issues, with some practical suggestions that move from the personal analysis, the surveys, the study of the Ariga Lab materials, and the

direct participation to the participatory process of the Lab. Rooted in the recalled elements, the suggestions are draft outlines for a future development of public space in Komagome. Really often, the suggestions are based on small actions, with the aim of respecting the community and valorizing its habits and at the same time the neighborhood itself. It is also obvious that the suggestions move from the deep respect of the Japanese tradition but at the same time they are grounded in my experience of public space of western and European culture. From the continuous comparison of both cultures I was certainly enriched, but I hope also to have given a small contribution to the discussion of public/ common space to the Ariga Lab. moving from my European culture. In the end, the conclusion highlights the importance of this experience, the discovery of a community and the importance of the machizukuri processes in the evolution of the community and in the dialogue among all the different actors in the urban regeneration. In order to have the most appropriate approach, it was fundamental a deep analysis and the help of the Professor Ariga and the discussion with all my Japanese friends and colleagues. During this period, I had to sound out the Japanese way of thinking about concepts, such as the community space, discovering a different viewpoint. In order to have the most appropriate approach, it

was fundamental a deep analysis of the large amount of documents collected by Ariga Lab. Moreover, the help of the Professor Ariga and the discussion with all my Japanese friends and colleagues play an essential role for understanding and approaching the problems. During my work, I afforded in place the strong language barrier and, where possible, I translated problems and suggestions by many schematic drawings with the aim of communicate concepts: in fact, in Japan, I was not able to understand what people communicated in the participatory process, and vice-versa to communicate to them: this situation suggested me the idea of using a sort of â&#x20AC;&#x153;cartoon bubbleâ&#x20AC;?. So, following this form of communication important for me in Japan, many sketches are proposed in this work. They would help the reader in the better comprehension of the analysis and, at the same time, they are the most directly form of communication for me to the Komagome community. In addition to the sketches, all the pictures I have done are material of research, supporting the textâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contents, and therefore they have to carefully be considered. Finally, the inductive study-methodology, which starts from the particular going to the general approach, helps me not to trip in dangerous generalization, but to have a multiscalar vision striving to completeness.

CHAPTER 1 Komagome: a changing neighborhood in Tokyo

Strolling through Tokyo is never boring, you can always find unbelievable surprises. Probably, I love it because I feel it chaotic and messy as I am; you can never predict what will appear behind the corner. I think Tokyo has not yet been guzzled by the hypocrisy of the big metropolis: it is always possible to find traces of authenticity, because people are radically rooted to their traditions. Nishiwaseda Dori, Shinjuku 10 October 2015

23 author, unless stated * All the pictures and schemes are made by the

Kanto Region

tokyo prefecture Komagome

mappa grand

de japan

Kanto Region

Tokyo is a Prefecture in the Kanto Region, placed more or less in the center of Japan. Komagome is placed in the Toshima Ward, which is one of the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo.

a. A bri e f i n tro du c t i on : K om a g om e i n Tok yo

“Tokyo ‘essence’, its traditional character, is something that has lain hidden, ‘invisible’, and is represented by the city’s land […] which is to say by the chaotic nature of its development, rather than by the permanence of individual buildings. The city is better defined by events, by the flow of information, human activities, fast and continuous change, and an inclination for novelty, than by its physical entity or the material essence of its built fabric. In the final analysis, Tokyo is a city of process, as opposed to a monument or artefact. It is a huge ‘theatre’, as opposed to a ‘museum’ (Bognar, 2011, p. 5). Situated in the north-west part of Tokyo, still inside the central JR line-system, Komagome is an example in Tokyo where it is possible to find the ancient urban tissue’s structure, even after the strong change and development of the metropolis of Tokyo. Placed in the Toshima special ward, Komagome is a highly-dense neighborhood, limited by the crossing road among Hongo Street at east, Shimfuri Street at north, the Somei Cemetery at west and Someil Street in the south. Considering chaotic metropolis like

Tokyo and the image that it transmits, it seems impossible to find realities like the district of Komagome: human-scale, small house dimension and narrow streets permeated of palpable silence. However, it is not just the case of Komagome; there are other parts of the metropolis where the visitor is disoriented by the unexpected change of context, entering in a completely different dimension, a sort of “heterotopias” (Graafland, 2013). Actually, the latter is the “non-place”, namely it is a spatial representation of an utopic space. Specifically, it is a space that is detached from its surrounding context, on the point of view of architectural language and of the time passage, but, at the same time, there is a reflection of the world into it. It is like the “metatheatre”, a city inside the city. The Japanese city has neither the pattern of the European city nor a completed grid characterizing American or Chinese cities, but it’s mostly partial: “the city is particularly regarded as `additive texture’, in which preference is given to the parts (or episodes) in a network of independent places” (Arie Graafland, 2000, p.9). The urban structure of Tokyo results as a “magmatic labyrinth” (Sacchi, 2004, p. 96) in the sense that it is extremely flexible and suitable for any kind

of transformations, artificial or natural (in case of natural disasters), and for their urban extensions. The plasticity of Tokyo, less rigid in comparison to European cities, has probably supported its incredible spread and it has developed its heterogeneity and diversity of urban realities.

Following the flĂ˘nerie (strolling), the aspect of everyday life surprising appears just turning the corner: a maze of small streets generally without name, roji, unrolls this dimension of small single-story houses neighbourhood, one tangled to the other one, little artisanal shops, plants and flowers everywhere. It really seems that the time has

suddenly stopped at the original Japanese way of living: strolling around the district of Komagome, the visitor feels in a suspended atmosphere, the district is witness of the unpredictability of Japanese cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rhythm, in terms of spaces, functions, typologies and people. Situated in the metropolitan central ring and only two stops from the chaotic centre of Ikkebukuro, getting out from the JR station, the sensation entering in this neighborhood is entering in a sort of village; it is difficult to imagine still being in the central part of Tokyo. The visitor often has the impression to open invisible doors and to discover dimensions completely different one to the other.

For example, some parts of the Waseda University Campus in Tokyo are deeply extended in a small-scale residential area, where it is possible to see the everyday life of the neighborhood. The same happens, in Tokyo again, also in the frenzied districts of Shibuya and Shinjuku: here, distancing a little from the busy points and turning the corner allows feasting the eyes on the explosion of the Japanese everyday life with its original and traditional habits. In other words, when living in the Japanese cities it is easy to wind up in heterogenic situations, which are truly â&#x20AC;&#x153;episodesâ&#x20AC;? to experiment. In order to better specify the concept, walking through Japanese cities, in particular if they

are metropolis like Tokyo, the visitor has the impression of entering in different “urbanrooms”, which are often architecturally, morphologically and socially different from each other. Alternatively, it is possible to find some urban places, such as shopping streets or red-light districts, which are delimited and demarcated by recognizable elements like arches or symbolic gates. Here, the street or the district literally becomes a sort of dynamic plaza mainly surrounded by several aligned boutiques or erotic shops, feeling the idea of being in a heterotopia. The urban space in its diversification leaves the foreign visitor continuously surprised. In Komagome one of the first characteristic that strikes visitors is the silence, the peace in walking in small streets and the human scale dimension of the buildings, of the everyday activities and the familiar public spaces. Komagome strongly maintains the ancient characters and features of original Japanese lifestyle and getting inside, the perception is drastically different considering the neuralgic and neurotic metropolitan pole. The houses are single detached houses of one or two stories high, generally in wood; every dwelling is differently decorated by a small independent access or by a narrow private street of entrance, shared by four or five houses. The individual character of the family is

expressed both in the limiting borders of the property, enriched by flowers, plants, tiny ornamental objects, and also in the external façade of the building, customized in every elements, such as the windows or the doors. In fact, thanks to the evident human scaledimension and the lack of car passing, the use of the streets is completely different; here the streets are used as public spaces, where children are accustomed to play, old women stop and talk in the middle and families make the plants growing. In this way, since the invisible limit of the street is overpassed, even the concept of “private border” is astonishingly flexible: for example, it is flexibilized in order to create a sort of common space to gardening or to hang out the laundry. In other words, the inhabitants appropriate the surrounding urban spaces, slightly overpassing the hierarchic relation between private and public. Thus, the urban and the architectonical languages are highly customized by the inhabitants, because they feel free to add a “personal touch”, enhancing the authenticity and the originality of the neighbourhood. The “customization of the city”, is not only visible in neighbourhood like Komagome, but it is reflected also all over in Tokyo. Since there are not specific laws concerning the external architectural language and the

The strong contrast between the everyday life of the small neighborhood and the international image of Tokyo is possible to see strolling through the Metropolis

shmifuri

aesthetical feature of the buildings, Tokyo overall shows a “disordered mask”. In other words, each building has a unique shape, showing a figure or form completely different from the typologies of the surrounding ones. The effect created by the different appearance contributes to the feeling rising, for the observer, of a sort of “disordynamic”, namely related to the entropy in the façades of the buildings. However, probing in the building rules defined by the disaster prevention, there are some architectural directions and “specific legal corroborations” to follow, and they have been rigidly followed, that justify the certain stylistic choices and the “haphazardness” (Yoshimura, 2015, p.188). This context is very particular if compared for example to the Central-North Europe: here, in the majority of cases, the architectonic aspect of the buildings follows the surrounding context, where all the houses are slice-houses and the main changes among them are just the decorations. This is evident, for example, in Belgium or Netherland. In Europe, the laws, ruling the “aesthetic” of the city, are stricter in comparison to Japan. However, the latter aspect of flexibility helps to give a particular expressive configuration of the metropolis, indicative of Japanese city: in fact, the architect’s freedom in composition strongly enhances the unique character not only of Tokyo, but also of many Japanese cities. Someone coming from the western shoppin g street

MEES

The element’s customization of the building, in particular in small neighborhood such as Komagome, generates an eclectic effect, a sort of “disordynamic”, stimulating the observation

part of the world and culture could find this peculiarity bad for the Tokyoite architectural wholeness; however, it creates the identity of the city (even if it is not the historical one) and produces its dynamism. In other words, the great diversity and heterogeneity of the built environment stimulate the visitor to the flĂ˘nerie and the careful observation of the metropolis. Therefore, the metropolis contains two souls in itself. One strives towards an international image, by means of vast and great architectural projects; the other one is the everyday life of people, visible behind the first one. Tokyo swallows in itself different cities, developing the main poles: it counts focal points like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikkebukuro, Nihonbashi, Asakusa and Ueno, adducing the most important examples, but also traditional districts as Komagome. The connotation â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tokyoâ&#x20AC;? de facto is just the name of a railway station. In fact, before getting there, the idea of Tokyo, in reality, refers to a metropolitan prefecture. In the specific, Tokyo metropolitan government (TMG) administers twenty-three Special Wards of Tokyo, namely the municipalities, twentysix cities, five towns and eight villages, and each of them has also a local government. The most common image of Tokyo reminds the big neuralgic points, such as Shuibuya or Shinjuku. Chaotic crossings, nightlife pictures, big screens and majestic skyscrapers

are the first images appeared taping the word “Tokyo” on internet. Partially, those are true images of Tokyo. However, as Arie Gralaand writes (Graafland, 2013), it also exists another Tokyo behind the shadow of the great international poles: it is the Tokyo represented by the everyday life district and neighbourhood. Those two dimensions are named also Yamanote, the economic and international area, and Shitamachi, which represents what remains from the ancient urban stratification of Edo1 city. The latter embodies the “under city”, with its small houses and human scale dimension, to whom Komagome takes part, while the first is the emblem of the international Tokyo, the most worldwide image of the metropolis with its economic and business centres. “Often overshadowed by the high-rise buildings or sometimes literally roofed over by an expressway it is possible to find small houses, sometimes made of wood, small restaurants, a yakitori-under-thetrack, a playground or a couple of small stores. Behind and under the new large-scale

urban buildings the fine-meshed network of another Tokyo continues to exist. The Japanese are real experts in making use of every possible spaceâ&#x20AC;? (Graafland, 2000, p.140). The current situation of Komagome is very charming from the point of view of external visitors, but it is instead very critical for the community living: the houses and building plots are unable to prevent the negative effects of a natural disaster or fire explosion. In Tokyo this situation is shared also by other districts like Komagome, requiring some adaptation measures. The project of the revitalization of Komagome starts in 2008 under the governmental decision of the Toshima prefecture in order to solve the problem of density. One problem is the excessive density of population, which lives in obsolete dwellings no more acceptable on a legislative point of view. According to the building law, in fact, the maximum buildable in an area is the 60% of the GFA (Gross Floor Area); however, for the

currentsituation, one plot is almost built for the 100%, leaving just a small passage for entering in the houses. Linked to the problem of the plot is the fragmentation of the one property-plot in multiple properties for renting, due to the inheritance tax, which augments the density of the houses without leaving sufficient space for people, air and sun circulation. Specifically, due to the very expensive inheritance tax, the heirs split the area in many building lots, trying to gain money in renting the area. The described phenomenon dismantles the urban fabric and creates the mentioned situation, where people do not directly face on the principal street, transforming the entire building lot as a trap in case of disaster emergency. The City of Toshima, to whom Komagome belongs, helped by Waseda University, is trying to collaborate with the community by means of participative workshop, in order to reclaim the most critical areas. In particular, they inform the population about the new laws and explain that they are obsolete according to the novel rules. They also present and discuss with the community innovative projects, regarding the construction of new dwellings and building typology, such as cohousing, able to respect the legal constraints of less than 60% and always facing the principal street. Where it is not possible rebuild by scratch, they propose a re-elaboration of the lot, for

example moving the borders of the built up backward or in a way that allows a sufficient large passage for every house in the plot. The other serious problem is the building speculation which pops up and progresses in the neighborhood. In particular, another critical issue in Komagome is the ageing of the population. The majority of the population in fact is old, having their children far from the familiar nuclear, becoming perfect subjects for speculative investors. In most of cases, the heirs have already created their life far from Komagome and they are no more interested in inherit the familiar property, principally due to the expensive inheritance tax; as a consequence, the lot is sold to the investors who, generally, are not interested in maintaining the ancient residential scale since it is not profitable. For example, in Komagome central core, surrounding the Warehouse Park, there is the presence of two big housing complexes, presumably dated back to the described problem of selling and speculation, which are in a complete disharmony with the adjacent context. For this last reason, the work that the University, in synergy with the community, is trying to progress is the reconstruction and the restoration of Komagome, but always considering the special human scale dimension of the building, the everyday activities and the familiar connotation of outdoor spaces.

1. Edo city (1603-1868) was the ancient name to define Tokyo-city, under the power administration of the Tokugawa Shogunate, who brought the city to one of the largest in the former world.

toshima komagome ikkebukuro

ueno akihabara

shinjuku tokyo

shibuya

meguro

yamanote line

Komagome is in the Toshima Ward which is placed in the north-west part of Tokyo, at thirty minutes by metro from Tokyo Station

site area sugamo

komagome otsuka

ikkebukuro

mejiro

5 min by metro

from ikkebukuro

yamanote line

Komagome is placed along the Yamamote line, at two metro-stops from Ikebukkuro, in the Toshima Ward

Komagome and its high residential density. From the aerial view it is still possible to see the historical urban matrix: the vast built up volumes testify the past Daimyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s houses

edited from Google Maps

edited from Ariga Lab archive

The historical traces of neighborhood are still visible in many cases, it is necessary to look carefully!

b . H i s t or i c a l ov er v i ew

At the first glance, Tokyo seems having lost its historical urban matrix and its historical urban traces, in particular because it has been afflicted by many natural disasters, such as Great Kanto Earthquake (1923), and also by human destruction during the World Wars. However, as Hidenobu Jinnai affirms (Jinnai, 1995), Tokyo only apparently has lost its historical identity, while, looking carefully at the conformation of its urban topography, it is possible to discover the ancient traces of the old Edo city . During the Edo period (1603 – 1868), Komagome was in the outskirt of the Edo city realm and, together with the Sugamo area, it was the largest agricultural and horticultural area of the nearby territory. Here, the most powerful feudal lords, Daimyo, lived in their vast land holdings. These historical features can still be seen looking at the urban conformation of Komagome: the nowadays large public facilities were basically the land properties of the Daimyos. Indeed, after the Meiji restoration and the adoption of the prefecture system in 1871, the private domain became public and the prefecture system established in its place the public functions and facilities. Looking carefully to the map of Komagome district, in fact, there are four undergraduate

schools and an institute of nutrition: these were all part of Daimyo’s properties. Thus, the new approach “spatial anthropology” is able to read the complexity of Tokyo city which, even with the rapid development, does not lose its original urban character. In particular, thanks to the mentioned method, it is possible to dig the metropolis up from its multi-layer development. In fact, despite its prodigious progress, the city does not miss its original roots, which are hidden in the nowadays urban morphology. In respect to the urban topography, the new approach carefully studies the use of the space and its anthropological use, the traditional position of some inborn elements, such as temples and shrines, and the historical importance in the meaning of that space. In this way, the old Edo comes to light, even if it shows completely different appearance: “Tokyo, a city that was believed to have lost its history. It was paradoxical and even exiting to have as a research aim to bring out this lost history. What encouraged me was the Muratori’ thought according to which, when completed the formation of the urban structure, this should not easily get lost” (Jinnai, 2010) In Komagome, it is rather easy to identify

1922

source: Ariga Lab archive

From the historical maps, we notice the high residential densification that the area of Komagome undergone. Form the vast properties of the Daimyos to the fragmentation of the land

1947

source: Ariga Lab archive

Daimyo domain

temple

plantation

gardener

Daimyo domain

forest reserve

temple

plantation

gardener

tree plantation

public facilities

temple

residential

Edo Period (1603 - 1868)

1880s residential

Today

Historical passage of the functionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; stratification. From the schema we observe that where there were the Daimyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s properties (in the upper position), today are replaced by institutional facilities, while the religious function remain unchanged. Finally, the rest has been converted in residential areas: this explains why the high density of residential units

farmland temples

Daimyo properties

Edo Period (1603 - 1868)

farmland temples

public facilities

1880s

residential areas temples

public facilities

Today

the ancient Daimyos’ properties, because today they generate the majority part of the facilities, orientated in the southern and northern part of Komagome, which are the upper part of the district. In fact, looking at its topographical conformation, the city is developed along a 4 meters-inclined slope, feature quiet rare in Tokyo. Thanks to the district orientation, it is possible to give a reason of the nowadays large facilities upper position. In fact, the upper part of Komagome has the best exposition from the point of view of sun and ventilation; here it is possible to dating back to the position of the Daimyos’ properties. In general, during the Edo period, the 60 % of the land property was owned by the Samurais, or Daimyos, the 20 % by commoners, 15-20% for the farmland and the 2% by religious. In other words, the social stratification of this area also determined the urban fabric stratification of Komagome, which was basically organized having in the upper part the feudal lords, because it was the best dominating and orientation position; then, in the slope, oriented towards north, there was positioned the temple. On the opposite part, in the plateau land, there were the farming fields and the farmers’ dwellings, close to the river essential for the cultivation. Finally, climbing on the other side of the slope, it was possible to find,

In Komagome, during Edo period, the percentage of land’s property was possessed by the Daimyo’s, after the change of governance in Meji period, the land passes to the public facilities together with the residential areas; and today the highest percentage is represented by residential areas

N The Komagomeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s land use is linked to the topography level of the site: for example, the Daimyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s properties were at the highest point, while the farmland in the lowest

Source: edited from Ariga Lab archive

A Edo Map of Somei Street in Komagome. It is interesting to notice the difference of the Japanese cartography: bidimensional and tridimensional element dialogues together.

Schematic representation of the Komagomeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s land use and streetconnections

Yato River farmland

Somei Cimitery

temples

Hongo

Som

ei S

Street

Daimyo Properties

tree

t towards Nikko

again in the upper position, the feudal lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s property, while in the slope there were the houses of the gardeners, at the service of Daimyo. This socio-historical progress influences the nowadays Komagome, which is characterized by the presence of vast parks and facilities in the upper part and a high-dense residential area in the lowest part of the district and in the north-oriented slope zone. Komagome was located in the northern outskirt of the Edo city, in the way to peregrination towards Nikko, which was an important destination for its temples, built in protection of the north part of Edo city.

Hongo Street, which delimitates the site area on the east part of Komagome, was created for the pilgrims in order to reach Nikko, becoming over time more and more important and nowadays is one significant aorta in this part of the city. The fact that Komagome was in a natural environment of the countryside together with a great presence of commoners allows the proliferation of many religious spaces; more precisely, it is possible to count at least eight temples and shrines. It is important to remember, as mentioned before, that in Japan those areas do not have simply a religious role, but they are also an important meeting point for commoners. Still

60 Tohoku line

river

Nakasendo

1969

1880

Ishigami River

Today

1907

nowadays, the temples and shrines are an important reference point for the community.

ć?ą

ĺ&#x152;&#x2014;

çˇ&#x161;

1939

edited from Ariga Lab archive

Sugamo Station

Yamamote line

From the point of view of the development of the urban frame, infrastructures in particular, the abovementioned Hongo Street was the main aorta connecting Komagome with the Edo city. Specifically, the first period of XIX century, Komagome was characterized by many fields, and the

The development of the urban matrix considering the street matrix. The highest development is after the Second World War, when all the metro connection and the public transportation system have been established. During the Edo period the principal connection was Hongo Street, going towards the popular temple of Nikko, and the Somei Street entering inside Komagome neighborhood towards the Cemetery

principal connection between the Daimyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s properties and the major aorta Hongo Street, was represented the current Somei Street. The latter crosses from east to west, from Hongo Street to Somei cemetery, the southern part of Komagome: still today is one of the main road of the district. At that time, around 1820â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1830, this area was characterized by high presence of water which moistened the land. For example, there was the presence of the Yato River, which delimitated the northern part of Komagome and was an important river for the irrigation, since it was situated in the plateau area very important for cultivation. In Meiji period, a great urbanization begins and the conformation of the district starts to change. A great demographic boom and the progressive establishment of many industries influence this period. Concerning Komagome, for examples, many rice fields are converted in tea fields, in order to fulfill the demand of exportations of this good. In addition, the growth of the population determines also the increment of many commercial activities, in order to satisfy the everyday life needs of people living in this district. Studying the ancient maps, it is possible to see the presence of some shops: in 1880, the progress of urbanization begins along the main streets, Hongo and Somei. When, in 1883, the private company of

transport opens the metro-line Yamamote, the connection within the Edo city and its outskirts becomes easier. Thanks to the insertion of the public transport, the north part of Komagome district sees the second progress in urbanization. Progressively, also some secondary transversal streets are created, from west to east and from north to south, densifying the district in its interior part with new built spaces. However, Komagome sees its real densification after the Second World War: in all sites of the district dwellings and street system are created. Probably, this rapid growth is due to the naissance of the Komagome station, which directly connects the district with the Tokyo center city. In addition, all the ancient big Daimyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; properties are converted in large facilities, such as educational or sport institutions, or in parks, as in the cases of Otani Art museum Park or Rikugien Park. In other words, the creation of schools, gardens, hospitals, commercial activities and the central position of Komagome, which is at the same time very quiet, transforms Komagome in a perfect district where to live and growth a family. Already, after the Great Kanto Earthquake, in the 1923, little by little, the real estate value of the Komagome land grows, since it is in a very strategic position: not in the center of the Edo city, but at the same time still in the center ring of Yamanote

1880

1880 main roadďź&#x161;1909

Development of the edited from Ariga Lab archive

land in the history of Komagome. The

maps show that the activities start along Hongo Street, which was the main street and the Somei street, the principal street inside Komagome

1880 年 1909 年道：190 9 年

1880 年 1909 年 1937 年道：190 9 年道：193 7 年

edited from Ariga Lab archive

line, the principal line ring. Furthermore, the birth and the progressive growth of the industries push people to concentrate closer to the city. With these transformations, the ideal single detached house with its personal garden becomes the living style myth of the Japanese dream, following the United States model. The sum of all the described aspects causes Komagome exponential growth. In the most of cases, since there were

no precise urban regulations, the high densification was only directed by the need of dwellings, engendering the great part of the problems mentioned before, such as the agglomeration of the houses and the creation of “secondary private streets”. In fact, as it is possible to see from the map, all the commercials are situated along Hongo Street, while inside the plots there is almost only the residential function, without a precise urban matrix. It is curious to see that

1947

historical map edited from Ariga Lab archive hongo street

komagome station

somei cemetery

samurai park warehouse

chocolate factory

somei street

sakura park

elementary school

kagawa educational institute yato river shimfuri shopping street

Development of the same areas land use over time. From the after WWII until today, from a vast farmland to high density residential fragmentation. Notice that where today there is the Kagawa Nutritional Institute, after the WWII it was a land

1981

historical map edited from Ariga Lab archive hongo street

komagome station

somei cemetery

samurai park warehouse

chocolate factory

somei street

sakura park

elementary school

Development of the same areas land use over time. Notice that the Sakura Park in 1980s was occupied by built-up blocks. Then, for the willingness of the population and the municipality it became a fire-park

kagawa educational institute yato river shimfuri shopping street

Today

hongo street

komagome station

somei cemetery

chocolate factory

somei street

Development of the same areas land use over time.

samurai park warehouse

sakura park

elementary school

kagawa educational institute yato river shimfuri shopping street

in these districts the presence of offices and working place are rare. This area has been transformed from a farmland to residential neighborhood because of its location, inside the Yamanote Line and close to the commercial and offices poles areas such as Shinjuku, Shibuya or Ikkebukuro. Only everyday small commerce is present in Shimofuri Street and even the big chains of supermarkets are less frequent. The small commerce is mainly born after the First World War. Specifically, in order to increment the business in Komagome and economically revitalize the district, the municipality in 1931 decides to culvert the Yato River, ending the work in 1940. Therefore, some small shops arise and, nowadays, the street is a focal point for the community everyday life meeting and shopping. In this way, Somei Street, which once was the most important transversal street, now is less important, used more for the car passing. In the new land-section, the houses of Daimyos are substituted, first by the forest stations or cultivations fields, while the temples and the dwellings of the gardeners rest untouched. Secondly, nowadays, all those land use are replaced by residential functions; in the north plateau there is a more ancient residential stratification, while

in the southern ones there are the more recent constructions. In 1993, also the Nanboku metro line is established, incrementing the flux of people coming in this area of the metropolis for living. The latter is also one of the reasons why the municipality of Toshima city decides to spend energy in order to re-manage the site: high demand of new residents in this area due of its very lucky position. Looking the typologiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; map, it is evident that the detached houses and only residential function is the most popular condition in the ancient part of Komagome, the west area considering Hongo Street. On the contrary, in the east side of the district, more mixed functions are present. From the point of view of functions distribution and architectural style, it is possible to divide Komagome in two different areas, which change according to the east or west side of Hongo Street. Specifically, on the west part, according to the latter main street, the typology of houses is mainly detached and only one or two stories-high buildings exist. The houses have a small independent entrance, or a narrow private street of entrance shared by four or five houses. In addition, along the Somei Street, apart from large facilities, such as Hongo High school and Komagome Junior High school or a golf terrain, newer imposing

residential building complexes are present. Towards the north part, it is possible to find a core, composed by the Sakura bigger park of the neighborhood, Komagome Elementary school, a religious center with the park and the Kagawa Nutrition Educational Center, which creates a large urban fabric, contrasting with the rest of Komagome. In fact, apart this area of the neighborhood, the rest of Komagome has a high dense urban matrix. On the contrary, on the east side, taking as a reference point the Hongo Street, the urban matrix is more regular, thanks to the dimension and shape of the built up. Namely, there are less small private streets, those are larger and used by cars. The building typology has higher stores and in the case of smaller detached houses the quality of the residential building is better than on the west side of Komagome. Generally the buildings are built in wood, apart from the newest ones which are in concrete, and this wooden dense residential area has the role to make the city really unique and charming. However, at the

same time, this part of the district is in great danger because of the fire and earthquake risk. In fact, the high fragmentation of the building lots produces the fascinating narrow streets, which, as it is deeply described in the second chapter, are fundamental on the point of view of community relations, dismantling the net division private-public and playing a fundamental the role in the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customization of space. On the other hand, those spaces become seriously dangerous in case of emergency, blocking a fluid passage in case of need. In the new developments, by law, the streets has to be at least four meters wide and the building lot has to be built at 60% maximum; however, the widening of the streets allows the passage of the cars with the consequential annihilation of the just human-oriented street configuration. In addition, always by law, in Tokyo the citizen has to demonstrate to have a parking space for a car to have the right to own it and this bring, inevitably, the consequence that the new dwellings have often the front space occupied by the car, losing the opportunity to create a â&#x20AC;&#x153;relation-spaceâ&#x20AC;?.

PRINCIPAL AORTA PRINCIPAL STREET PEDESTRIAN SHOPPING STREET SECONDARY STREET PRIVATE STREET - ROJI CUL-DE-SAC STREET

N hierarchy of roads edited from Ariga Lab archive

RESIDENTIAL PUBLIC FACILITY (schools, temples, sport center etc.) ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES (shops, commercials, officies etc.) PARK

land use edited from Ariga Lab archive

old house

old house with extension single two-stories detached house

new house

house and shop

mini house

design house

tenement apartment block

tenement apartments

condominium

high-rise building

studio apartement

commercial and residential

threestories high building

commercial and office

all commerce

ďź&#x; other

temples public facilities

building typology and function edited from Ariga Lab archive

the human scale of Komagome. One of the first element I felt in love of Komagome

was its uniqueness in the use of the public space. Everywhere there was the invasion of plants, overpassing the strict border private/public

the streets of Komagome. In Komagome, the streets are used as a community space. Thanks to the pedestrian orientation, they become a gathering point for the residents.

c. U rba n qu a l i ty a n d s a f e t y: p l ot f r a g m en t a tio n , n atural catas t r op h e s , a g e i n g p op u l a t i on , r i s k of s p e c u l a t i on As abovementioned, the first critical problem, representing a serious risk of damage for the neighborhood, is the security of the residents who live in houses and building plots unable to prevent the possible negative effects of natural disasters or fire explosions. Looking at the historical maps, from the post-war situation and the 80s, the urban plots of Komagome has undergone an incredible fragmentation, from a field-majority to a dense network of dwellings. This historical and progressive fragmentation of the building plot, due in part to the very high inheritance tax established after the Second World War, causes an hyper-densification of residential units in a very few square meters. For example, there are many situations in Komagome, where the house does not directly face on the street. Evidently, in case of disaster emergency, some plots could become a real and dramatic people trap, since there is not the physical space for escaping or gathering safely. This critical situation is one of the reasons which push the Toshima Municipality to open the discussion on the renovation and revitalization of the entire neighborhood of Komagome.

In order to have a general overview of the problem of inheritance tax, it is necessary to go back to the inheritance legislation and tax for the ground property. At present, the tax for the inheritance of the parents land property it is really high: obviously, it varies depending from the different situation of the estate, but generally the most common inheritance has to pay approximately 50.000.000 yen, corresponding to around 400.000 â&#x201A;Ź at the current change. From the 1st of January 2015, the exemption decreases up to 30.000.000 yen, so the cost for a most common heritage is now equivalent to roughly 250.000 â&#x201A;Ź. The exception is for the two-generation homes, which means that the heir is exempted from the inheritance tax in case he currently lives in the same house of parents. For this reason, the parents try to build typology of housing allowing their children to save money after they die (Brasor, Tsubuku,2014, Japantimes). The heirs, who have not enough money to pay the lot, are forced to divide the lot in different parts and to rent (or sell) it to other people. In this way, the lot is fragmented and then the area is highly densified. The historical maps, from 1947 and

1981 shows the exponential fragmentation of Komagome land and the growth of a multiplicity of small dwellings units and lots. The problem of security is evident because there is no space of circulation in case of emergencies. For the residents living in this unfavorable position, a sort of “secondary and private” narrow street is created in order to reach the house; usually this narrow street, roji, is 1 m or 1.5 m, the dimension of a corridor. In other words, in an emergency situation, the people living in that position are

extremely in danger, since they cannot easily get out from their house. Thus a negative consequence of the described fragmentation is, firstly, the growth of the density because of the increase of many dwellings units in one single lot; secondly, the disorder in the hierarchy of streets progressively rises due to the intensification of the “private streets”, demolishing the urban fabric, and making the situation dangerous for people living there. The second dramatic problem is the

Komagome and the rojii.

Komagome physical barrier. In the neighborhood is mainly composed by elderly people and urban configurations of it present various physical barrier

new nuclear family

agening population

building speculation

the ageing population, building speculation, inheritance tax and plot fragmentation schema. The family composition`s change

could produce a pauperization of Komagome urban matrix. In fact, the elderly people have a property that they could not handle, since the heir moved away, risking to sell the land to a building speculator. Otherwise, the heir has to pay the very high inheritance tax, choosing instead to sell it to others, creating then the plot fragmentation and the consequentially problem of emergency security.

agening population

inheritance tax

building speculation

loss of human scale

plot fragmentation

inheritance tax

loss of traditional urban tissue

natural catastropies prevention

elderly stratification of Komagome population, encouraging the progressive impoverishment of the urban context and the building speculation. Generally speaking, the Japanese population, as the Italian one, has undergone to a demographic decrease in birth-rates of -0.17% and with an augmentation of 3.45% of ageing population (http://www.stat.go.jp/english/ data/jinsui/2014np/index.htm#a15k26-a). The latter is also reflected in the ageing of the Komagome population, with an ageing of 15.8% (Ariga Lab Archive), Toshima Ward reaches the highest ratio. Due to this phenomenon, the difficulty to hand down the ancient properties, together with the transformation of the family dynamics in the nowadays Tokyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic lifestyle jeopardize the current livability and human-scale environment of Komagome. The social stratification of Komagome is mainly composed by elderly people living alone, being their heirs far from the parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; house. Given this social organization of the families, at the moment of the inheritance the offspring have already a new family unit in other parts, not being interested in living any more in the area of Komagome. Selling the inheritance to some investors is much more convenient for them rather than taking care of it, because of the cost of inheritance. As a consequence, the neighborhood is

facing the progressive risk of the building speculation, in order to maximize the profit of the urban residential dwellings. Specifically, in the majority of cases, the speculation occurs when the public actor is weaker than the private developers. In Tokyo, the big Japanese Building Companies have a strong decision-making power in matters of urban planning, as it possible to see in the vast urban developments, such as Roppongi Hills or Tokyo Midtown. Obviously, for its lucky geographical position, Komagome risks to fall prey of speculative interests for building construction companies. This serious problem of passing the heritage to further generations negatively influences the new approaches and developments for Komagome. In fact, elderly people well know that their offspring do not have interest to acquire the property, with the consequence of losing motivation to invest for re-qualifying or re-managing their house and, more in general, the neighborhood. As always happens in this situation, there are investors, who speculate on the above described situation: in effect, they buy the property with the aim of maximizing their own profit, often by the construction of noncontextualized residential blocks, causing the loss of the preexisting historical urban fabric. The process of transformation, and also

damage, of the district not only concerns the residential areas, but also the commercial structures. In fact, in Komagome there is the presence of a small commercial “boulevard”, the Shimofuri Ginza Street, which is characterized by small traditional commercial or artisanal activities, such as yakitori (skewer) shops, tea shops, tofu producing or also kimono tailors. Charm and tradition apart, these activities appears obsolete to the new generations and investors, considering them non-coherent with the spasmodic life of Tokyo. The effect is the progressive and dramatic destruction of the commercial core of Komagome neighborhood. The final result is, in one hand, the impoverishment of the traditional activities for the new profitable ones, losing in variety, quality and uniqueness of the products; on the other hand, we look at the creation of new arguable functions in the commercial center of Komagome, such as high-stores residential blocks, which dismantle the attraction of this boulevard. Finally, even if there were an interest coming from the old residents to invest in new activities or to requalify certain areas of Komagome, there are no investors ready to support this kind of purposes from Komagome’s population. For examples, there is the skepticism of the banks about a regeneration not considered enough

profitable, having as a result, the progressive population’s disinterest in spending energy for revitalizing the district. This process of “destruction” of the ancient urban fabric has already started with the construction of some large scale blockbuildings in the core of Komagome district, transforming the dense and complex system of houses in something tasteless. The investors do not consider the small architectural and historical scale of the surroundings, buying a large property plot and making six-seven or more floor buildings; this change of scale, of course, produces many alterations in the surrounding context. One example is the vast complex besides the Sakura Park, which is seven-floor building positioned in the south part of this area, hence projecting a great shadow on the park. Another example, concerning the same building, is the sidewalk underlying it: its project does not consider the urban language of the context, completely changing the design of the adjacent sidewalk and producing heterogeneity, perceived as confused and disagreeable by the people living there. That’s why, during the workshops, the community strongly expresses its need of implementing a strong and unified urban language. In this critical situation, there are some unused or abandoned building and non-

the plot fragmentation. The

inheritance tax produces the plot fragmentation because the heir is obliged to partially rent the plot. However, this produces an increment of built-up density, with the consequential lack in emergency prevention. In fact, there are some dwellings that do not directly face the main street, limiting the escape for the inhabitants

visitor disorientation - lack of signalization

maintained spaces which make some areas unpleasant to pass or stay, and where there is the menace of speculative destruction. Finally, since the everyday life mainly occurs at the street level, the creation of the high-rise macro block could impoverish the current strong community relation, still existing now: the rupture of the old urban context could cause also the detachment from the daily life activities and contacts, determining the dead of the community. Saving this community is considered by the inhabitants very important for their life, being old and alone people, needing interpersonal not easy relations. The district is specially frequented by the residents, while there are not many visitors coming from outside the neighborhood. The only exception is the Sakura festival, when a greater number of people come in this part of the city, but during the rest of the year, Komagome rests a calm residential area, since there are not many activity of interest for other persons. However, given the dynamic of population previously described, this part of the city needs to attract new generations for living there, in order to preserve this area with its historical urban matrix and frame. Hence, when the current very old generation passes out, the neighborhood needs a new

inhospitality and aridity of open spaces

lack in cozy furnitures of open spaces

lack in good public illumination

blockage of different types of human flows

residential demand by people interested in maintaining the traditional life-style of the community. However, there is an evident contradiction between saving and renewing: in fact, in order to attract young people, it is necessary to develop the area with new functions and activities, such as commercial shops with traditional and new goods, restaurants, bars and offices. In this way, Komagome has the possibility to revitalize itself. In the complex context above described, the Toshima Ward asked the support of Waseda University in order to regenerate Komagome, avoiding the district from the dismantling of the traditional urban tissue. Professor Takashi Ariga and his laboratory

(Ariga Lab) in Waseda University are helping the municipality in the problematic task of the renovation of Komagome, by means of a new urban development approach: the participatory way of design process with the neighborhood community, the Machizukuri. Hence, the University of Waseda has the fundamental role of being the mediator between the population and the governmental institutions. In other words, thanks to workshops and meetings, the Ariga Lab is able to understand the needs and the requirements of the community; at the same time, the Lab team takes care of informing the residents about the new legislation and the essential rules for safety and wellness. The dialogue between the two parts has the

loss of human scale and consequentially human relationship. the establishment of high-rise residential blocks

risks to damage the Komagome context, in which the human scale brings a high rate of human relationships

aim to modernize Komagome, keeping the traditional and historical urban frame and, in particular, taking into consideration the community’s needs. Finally, the workshops conducted by Ariga Lab also show a third problem: the quality of urban public space in Komagome. The relevance of the last aspect is evident for the quality of life of persons living in the neighborhood and it has been outlined, among others, by the urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg (1989), who coined the concept of third place to designate “a place other than home –first place – or work –second– where a person can go to relax and feel part of the community. (cit. Oldenburg, in Caballero, Tsukamoto, 2006, p.301). In addition to security and hygienic problem expressed by community, due to the narrowness of some roji, the community has found the needs of revitalizing the public space, now lacking in equipment or sufficient charm to spend time. To this regard, and generally speaking, from one side Komagome has a strong urban identity and potentiality, thanks to its compactness due to the surrounding urban delimitation by wide streets, such as Hongo Street, or the railways; however, from the other side, the general impression is that urban public space results non-coherent,

as a sort of a chaotic maze where visitors could easily lose themselves. In fact, the urban language, such as the sidewalks or the orientation panels, lack of global image and attractiveness. The majority of pocket-space dedicated to the community appears rather dark and non-appealing, not-equipped for spending time outside. On the point of view of their position, some of those spaces are in strategic points of Komagome, but their perception is of unused, dark and not-lively spaces. The described shortages deplete the identity of Komagome and reduce its traditional neighborhood perception. For example, even if there is a sort of central public core represented by the biggest park Sakura, the Samurai Park besides and the elementary school, this space is not really perceived in its centrality or as a focal point for the community. In addition, the ageing of the community arises the problem of taking into consideration the specific needs of this population: for example, elderly people need relaxing spaces, such as benches, scattered around the district. In addition, the natural configuration of Komagome, which has a four meters slope in height, needs some resting space for elderly people in the steeper parts. As outlined in previous pages, even the roads are a major public space for the community, not only for transit but also

for the development and maintenance of social relations. However, the design of the street in relation to the pedestrian passage is complicate. Specifically, the majority of the streets allows the passage of cars, even if they are not wide enough to allow a quiet fluidity between pedestrians, cars and bicycles, giving a sense of insecurity for people walking, especially for elderly. About pedestrian roads, the Shimofuri pedestrian shopping street is a strong point for the community that comes together in this axial space. However, here there are not

resting spaces or furniture for the community and, again, there are no clear directions to reach the area. From the simple last considerations, the public space plays a relevant role in shaping the neighborhood representation and the perception of its quality of life. Howsoever, the issue of the public space is sounded out in the second chapter, considering also a more complex and deeper analysis about the meaning of â&#x20AC;&#x153;public spaceâ&#x20AC;? in Japan, having as a starting point the diagnosis of Komagomeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spaces.

CHAPTER 3 Discovering and thinking about public spaces starting from Komagome

I love the contrast of this country: torn about its strong technological advancement and its rather strong relation with its loved traditions. The contradictions and the richness of this country make me feel at home. In certain way, the contradictions, as in the human being, produce at the same time the richness of a country, as much as in the human being. Tamakatsu, November 2015

La Kagu. It is a new project of Kengo Kuma. The space behind the building is used a public space, sort of plaza and meeting point

a. I n tro d ucti o n : t a s k i n t h e w or ki n g t e a m on the public space According to the division of duty inside the professor Ariga Lab, the principal task I was uncharged to solve in Komagome district was to study its public space in order to develop a general schema to improve it. However, as anticipated, in the first visit of the neighborhood and strolling around, I realised that there are few spaces accessible for the leisure of the community, but my impression was that existing spaces were inhospitable. In fact, the majority of them is not really equipped for spending time and, according to our western habit, they seem a sort of quiet sterile and unfriendly environment. Later, making a revision with Professor Ariga, I expressed my doubts about the previous visit of Komagome and he explained me that, actually, Japanese people do not use public spaces; in their habits, they do not have this tradition. In particular, before the 1868, in the feudal period, the concept of public spaces did not exist at all. In fact, the only open-spaces were the gardens of the emperor administrators or of the high and noble warriors. There were also the parks of the Shrine temples, but in this case, the conception of the park was always linked to the divinity of religious functions

and not to the idea of spending time. The concept of “public space” arises after the 1868, during the Meiji Era. In fact, in this period, many reformations transform several traditional everyday life customs and habits. For example, concerning the public space, many warriors’ gardens are opened to the public and become more “people parks”; in this period, also the image of landscape and garden architecture start to arise. However, for the reformation, it is necessary to wait until the Taisho Era (1912-1926) and Showa Era (1926-1989), which completely reform the urban way of designing. In fact, these periods see two important and dramatic events: the Big Earthquake of the 1923 and the Second World War in 1945, during which some parts of the city of Tokyo has been almost completely destroyed. These two catastrophic happenings are, at the same time, the “propelling” for the creation of legislations and norms about the future design of private and public spaces, according to both the needs of controlling fire and earthquake damages and the growing up of a new image of Tokyo as a metropolis: the recalled needs play a relevant role in the new expansion of public streets, in the blocks reform and in the

anti-fire building design for the residential districts and for urban development of the neuralgic poles of Tokyo. Hence, generally speaking, Japanese people start to know the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;public spaceâ&#x20AC;? rather recently, on the contrary of western culture, whose cities are planned according to the Latin and Renaissance period, where the public space is the heart and the cornerstone of the city. The different historical tradition is highly perceivable in the everyday life of Tokyo, which basically does not have public space as practiced in western culture: people are not used to have meetings in the public space and live

it. The immediate perception for a European observer is that the inhabitants do not really have the tradition of public space; probably this is one of the reasons that bring the western visitor disoriented in the evaluation of the spaces devoted to the community, very often perceived as arid and not attractive, even in the new designed areas. On the contrary, there are some Japanese spaces which are extremely lively and intensely used by the community, for example the streets. Specifically, in Komagome, the already mentioned Shimofuri Ginza Street, beforehand the Yato River and culvert in a paved street in 1940, is a neuralgic axis

for the entire neighborhood, used as an important meeting point for the community, especially elderly people. In general, walking around Komagome, the narrow streets connecting the dwellings are transformed in a dynamic public space where people do many free-time activities. Everything is protected by the dimension of the street: the narrowness does not allow the passage of the cars; hence the small streets maintain a human scale and a safety characterization. Changing typology of space, another example is the Sakura Park, in the core of the district. The park has been created after the 80s as fire-park, namely a space for the gathering people in case of prevention from damages of a natural disaster. With the passing of time, the park has been equipped of children playground, benches and vegetation, and nowadays it plays a fundamental role in the strengthening the community’s interactions.

However, in Japan does not exist the “public space” concept with the feature that a European visitor could expect. The sensation of confusion and disorientation linked to the difficult task of working on public space requalification in Komagome brought me to dig up and deeply investigate what this concept really means in Japanese culture. This preparatory inquiry responds to the abovementioned impact coming by the self-evident perception of difference between cultures and to the consequent need to enrich my final project with an increasing awareness of such diversity: the research undoubtedly could avoid transplanting “European model” in a completely different cultural framework that, obviously, could not interact, or badly relate, with the preexisting context. Thus, despite all the difficulties of the cultural and linguistic barrier, I tried to deepen and fathom the concept in order to better understand the surrounding reality. As often happens, the difference of cultures can only enrich the dialogue and bring out issues that could be considered as common interest.

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Shimofuri Shopping Street

c somei cimitery kagawa nutrition institution community house

sakura park chocolate factory komagome elementary school myogi temple and park samurai park

yoshino memorial plaza

daikoku shrine

the map of my pathway nb . the letters correspond to the thesis paragraphs

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e c e c f

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perceptive map of the itinerary :

i tried to represent my pathway inside Komagome and at the same time the feeling strolling around the neighborhood. The perception of the map is deliberately confused. In fact, due to the lack of signalization, it is the perception i had visiting Komagome. The letters represented correspond to the paragraph describing the area.

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b c

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Yoshino Cherry tree commemorative park

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Yoshino Cherry tree commemorative park

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b. Gettin g o ut fro m the s t a t i on : t h e m e m or i a l p l a z a

Getting out from Komagome railway station, besides the north gate, there is an unnoticeable and not particularly inviting plaza delimited by cherry trees. A small panel explains that this space is a commemorative place devoted to the most popular cherry tree of the entire Japan: the Yoshino Cherry Tree, hybrid that has been grafted by the gardener Ito Ihei during the 17th century, hailing from Komagome. The space lacks in appealing and attracting the passing visitors and it also lacks in urban furniture; there are just some small benches at the border of the plaza. The pattern created on the pavement suggests a parkour traced among the cherry

the front plaza of takadanobaba station

trees: it is evident that the area has been conceived in order to admire the blossom of the cherry trees, however, during the rest of the year the plaza turns out to be unattractive and arid without its main feature. In addition, the area is completely detached from the principal street (Hongo Street) and hidden by the police station and by the metro gate; generally speaking, this area is not enhanced even if it should be the entrance gate of the district and a commemorative space which highlights its history. The commemorative space, and in particular those connected to the railway

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yoshino cherry tree commemorative plaza. the presence of built up volume on the front of Hongo Street hides the visual connection with the plaza. In addition, the information point regarding the park is too discrete. Finally, the existing urban furniture is not cozy and inviting

stations, as in the case of the example just described got a foothold after the Meiji era, when Japanese cities were “transformed from a ‘city on water’ to a ‘city on land’” (Jinnai, 2001), visible also in the culverting of the Yato River in Komagome. During this period the space for train station increased its relevance, becoming a fundamental node for the flow of people and replacing the space of the riverside. In this occasion, the idea of the railway station as the gate of the city acquires a significant importance. In short time, the station space became a neuralgic point of the city, stimulating an increasing location of economic and commercials activities in its surroundings.

As a consequence, the specific function of train station space changed: while before it was for just a place for waiting or for departure and arrival of the trains, later it became an increasingly flexible urban public space, where people can go and spend time “without any particular purpose” (Jinnai, 2015). In this way, the train station becomes progressively elaborated, bearing a witness to the grandeur of the city or of the district. Also in Europe it is easy to find this tendency of giving a great importance to the train station as the city’s gate. For example, the very-famous architect Santiago Calatrava has recently conceived the great stations for the high-speed trains in Liège, the impressive dome of Kanazawa front station

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Belgium, but also in Reggio-Emilia, Italy, re-transforming and re-managing the entire area with the goal of giving magnificence to those structures, and trough them to the cities. One good Japanese example is the train station of Kanazawa, a small town in the north-west of Japan, facing on the East Sea of Japan. Here, a great ‘Motenashi (welcome) Dome’ provides a shelter for visitors and the technique used to erect this majestic arch is modeled after the Japanese drums used in Kaga-Hoshou, the traditional Noh performance in this region (Hirose, 2015). Even in this case, the traditional element mixed to the architectural virtuosity provides to the city a new image, with the

the creation of a front space of the station

help of a public space accessible to everyone. Hence, it is possible to observe that the railway station, first, and the metro hubs, then, play the role to open the Japanese cities to a sort of “Western” style of urban public space: the previous mention rigidity of the urban space, devoted just to one single-function, is a little dismantling towards a more flexible multi-functions characters, more typical of the European spaces. If the hub-aspect linked to the railways station is rooted in the end of 1800, a new sensibility on the idea of “memory” and “identity”, in particular related to the heritage loss, arises at the beginning of the

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next century, especially after the periodic urban heritage devastations, due to Great Kanto earthquake (1923) and then to the World Wars Second. Therefore, the railway station became a focal point for reshaping a new identity, since the station is the city “entrance” and welcomes a notable flow of people. Following the recalled tradition and going back to Komagome, even if it is a quite small district, the idea of the railway station as city’s gate and of the district itself “identity” are expressed in the small commemorative place devoted to the native place of the well-known Yoshino Cherry Tree, now spread out in the country. In many other cases, memory and traditional heritage of the neighborhood

new focal point

play a fundamental role in the reconstruction process. Probably one of the most famous in Tokyo is the little statue of the Hachiko dog at Shibuya station; the statue represents the remarkable loyalty of the dog to his owner dead: the little pet awaited the master for nine years at the train station of Shibuya. The statue has been established at the begging of the 19th century and nowadays it generates a landmark for people meeting point. The latter, in the past was especially for the foreigners, while today has the same function even for Japanese people. Of course, on their turn, it became popular also thanks to its grateful spatial position that is a neuralgic pole of Tokyo with a large presence of offices and commercials stores. Another example is offered by the Main Campus of Waseda University. Here, around the little

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statue of Mr. Waseda, the space is conceived for hosting the break and the meeting of students, transforming the surrounding space in a pivotal point. At the end, a mix of reasons contributes to transform those spaces in gathering public space: the traditional identity, the proximity with focal point and the presence of architectural resting space play certainly a fundamental role to this purpose. An increasing number of reference points for Japanese people are spread out and spontaneously organized around little statues, memorial parks, such as the Hiroshima Park, or monumental architecture, such as certain museums, which become a monument in itself. For instance, the Edo-Tokyo museum in Tokyo is an example of public magnificent monument

Kyoto tower

whose architecture is conceived for gathering many people, shaping a vast space below the museum. Other examples are the emblematic towers, as the Tokyo and Kyoto Towers, both symbols of the city as much as the Tower Eiffel for Paris. In this sense, the memorial plaza of Yoshino Cherry Tree represents the effort of the district in highlighting its history and tradition. However the way it has been designed and conceived produces a limited result: no visitors know the existence of this space and least of all they know that Komagome is the origin-place of the Japanese most popular cherry tree.

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c. Cros s i n g t h e s t r eet : t h e t em p l es

Hongo Street creates a substantial division between the metro station and the interested area of Komagome: getting out from the station, the visitor has to cross the vast street and penetrate one of the small streets adjacent to Hongo Street. In fact, the recent urbanization along the main aorta (Hongo) with high-rise buildings hides the traditional nature of the district; therefore the visitor does not understand immediately the human-scale configuration characterizing Komagome. On the other side of the main street, a small temple, shrine Okuni (1783), occupies the corner. In general, in Komagome there is a vast presence of shrines and temples because of its position, at the outskirts of Edo city and in the direction towards the important pilgrim destination of Nikko. Considering all the religious functions, Komagome counts at least ten areas, considering also the big Somei Cemetery and a small one in front of Sakura Park. As in western tradition, the religious function and, more precisely, its adjacent space has always been an area of congregation not only for the spiritual activities, but also for leisure gathering point of the community.

In the Japanese tradition religious areas show an attitude similar to that above described for western culture and still nowadays those spiritual sites are fundamental meeting points: considering their function of gathering point, they entirely play the role of public space. However, recalling the author Jinnai, the space could be divided in “dynamic and static” spaces (Jinnai), characterizing the functional significance that the space transmits. Specifically, the dynamic spaces are more represented by streets or crossroads, while the static spaces are considered spaces like the garden or the area besides of temples, which suggest the idea of relaxing space, with some ancient-stone benches. In other words, the concept of space is specifically associated to its functional significance for the individuals spending time together and which kind of action the space could instigate. In other words, a more “fluid”, or dynamic, action inspired by the axial space of the street, or a more static and relaxing action encouraged by the circumscribed space of a temple. For example, in Komagome, not considering the cemeteries, the temple having the biggest outdoor space is Myogi Shrine, positioned in the east part of the neighborhood. The adjacent space is, in

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fact, a small park provided of some plays for children and benches, underlying the “static” aspect of the site. Otherwise, inside the big Somei cemetery, the visitor is in the complete quiet of the location, deepened in the nature, and, at the same time, far away it is possible to see the chaotic life of the metropolis since the position of the site is in an upper level in comparison of the Tokyo’s skyline. The vegetation absorbing the noise of the city and the smell of the grave’s incense transform the walk in a sensorial experience. In Komagome, the area of the temple, although narrow, is always well delimitated,

surrounded by fences or vegetation, in order to inspire the idea of gathering and shelter. Probably, often the Japanese temples provides an open-air space, hence it is important to delimitate the “religious space” in order to create a specific space. On the contrary, in the western church, the delimitation of the religious space is given by the walls of the building itself. In both cases, churches or temples are meeting points for believers but the organization of the space is different with a greater importance of the surrounding areas in the Japanese tradition, while in the western tradition the gathering point is specially the building itself.

asakusa temple

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However, it is necessary to make a precision, about the fact that the adjacent premises of temple and shrine are more concerned for specific events or rituals and, for this reason, they provide activities and roles completely different from the socalled “permanent public space” (Odonera, 2015). In the specific, this adjacent space is mainly linked to a special event, such as festivals for the Japanese culture, or the Sunday-Mass for western conception. In fact, in everyday situations, those spaces are transitional, or associated to a spiritual act, and then to individual practice specifically linked to the religious or

ritual events, while they barely envisage use different from the expected function. Even if, there are of course exceptions: for example, one significant case which unifies the different conceptions of space (religious and gathering point) and function (religious and commerce) is the area of Asakusa Temple, which faces to a short street connecting the temple with the main road. Along the short axe, there are many stores and little food shops and during the day people gather and stroll there, beyond the religious function.

the temples and the surrounding space : the temples are defined by Jinnai as “static spaces”. The context of a temple is often enclosed, equipped with furniture, giving the sense of stop and rest. In many cases, it is also deepened in the nature, inviting the visitor to sit and take a stop

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Komagome roji allows using the street as a community space

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shimofuri ginza shopping street

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d . D i p p i n g i n t h e n e i g h b or h ood : t h e s p a c e of t h e r oa d s Furthermore, the other concept distinguished by Jinnai (Jinnai, 2015) for public space is the “dynamic” space, such as the crossroads and the streets. In particular, the commercial streets or the connection ways of landmarks still nowadays are important gathering place and crucial reference-points in the city (Jinnai, 2015). Generally, as mention before, the streets and the intersections hold the important role of naturally collecting people, thanks to their physical conformation. Of course, their shapes and spatial forms, do not foresee the concept of “stop” and “rest”. Nevertheless,

the streets not only used to be places where people stay and chat, children played together, especially before the arrivals of the cars, but still today, in some neighborhood such as Komagome district, are spaces where the human-scale dimension is maintained. In particular, aiming towards the north part of Komagome, the visitor arrives in the core of the neighborhood activities: the Shimofuri Ginza shopping street. According to the on field workshop made with the community, this street is the “public relation street”, thanks to its pedestrian-orientation: it is not a case that elderly people spend

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time and frequently meet there their friends (often the shopkeepers). Perhaps, its role of community meeting point dates back to the times of when the road was still the Yato River. In fact, the riverside is another space traditionally considered as public space, even today recognized as such. During the Edo period (1600 – 1867), rivers and canals were the main forms of transportation (“Edo” means “river doors”); for this reason “the majority of Edo’s focal points for active street life were around the waterfront […] The approaches to the bridges, as mentioned before, were at least equally as important

public places as the crossroads, for currents of both people and goods, in the waterway and on the road, met here to create a bustling exchange of goods and information” (Jinnai, 2001, p). Hence, the riversides of Japanese cities played a fundamental role as gathering place having a multiplicity of practical functions, such as space for exchanging goods, docks of the ships, main transportation system. At the same time, they were also place of promenade, where Japanese people could escape from the chaotic everyday routine, for watching and enjoying the nature and its mutability during the seasons: “These

125 “Oku”. The Oku concept is linked to the sense of deepness inside the house. The series of the house`s elements give the sense of depth. In a certain way, also the street gives the sense of depth thanks to the urban element and the connection of a point/A to a point/B the concept of

riverside locations also fitted well the Japanese mentality that enjoys observing the cycle of changes in nature” (ibidem). One great example is the riverside along Kamo River in Kyoto; here, all along the river, there is a long bike and pedestrian path and running along there is a gap space before the water which is used by people for reading, working, playing and for any kind of public space activities. Nevertheless, perhaps Yato River, now Shimofuri, was more used for agricultural function, rather than social function. Anyhow, this area (Shimofuri Ginza) is the most effervescent part of the neighborhood, because of the mixité of its functions and the livability of the space. Here, it is possible to find any kind of activities, but mainly small commercials shops, such as supermarkets, tiny typical Japanese food shop, market-shops, cozy charming cafés, traditional shops of pottery and clothes. Definitely, walking through the street, the impression is to discover the every-day life of Tokyo, at least the most familiar one. Generally speaking, even if missing a possible access to the resting facilities, the commercial streets, or “commercial corridors” (Hamby, 2012), play a fundamental role in the interaction between people. In particular, in small neighborhood, such as Komagome, the main the concept of “MA”: following the explanation of E.T. Hall, the concept of MA is the space in-between the objects/elements. Hence, the street could be interpreted as the space among the urban elements

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shopping street is often a pedestrian oriented street, allowing stopping along its axe. Hence, even if there is the completely lack of urban furniture where to sit and relax, thanks to the human-scale urban condition, people stop and chat even in the middle of the street, which plays in this case the same function of a “dynamic” public space. The dynamic element, suggested by the axial geometrical shape of the street, is probably linked to two important Japanese concepts: the Oku, the “profundity”, and the Ma, the “negative space” or the “gap”. Both concepts contain the idea of movement and dynamism: the Oku is the sequence of space which creates the sense of depth; while the

Ma represents the void space among the objects. In other words, a street could be a good representation of those two concepts since it is a “void” in-between objects, namely the buildings, and it gives a sense of profoundness, being a connecting axe for different points. Thus, Shimofuri Ginza Street could be considered the core and the fulcrum of the whole Komagome, as it could be a main plaza for an Italian city. However, the interesting different characteristic is that the street is an axe-line and the adjacent system of streets does not converge into it, as for example often happens in Italy. Getting inside Komagome, the visitor does not have any perception of

Japanese: the Onion organization and the center void

Japanese: community space adjacent to the great flow

EU: focal point in the middle, street towards it

EU: community point in the convergence of the flow

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Human scale dimension

the existence of this street, cornerstone of the neighborhood, until hazardously he stumbled into it. In other words, generally speaking, in Europe, especially Italy, the streets tend to converge towards a focal point, very recognizable because of the crescendo surrounding environment, usually characterized by impressive architecture (Jinnai, 2015): the gradual climax of the urban space generally ends in the key point, which usually is the meeting point. Thanks to the structure of the city the rhythm of it is easily readable; in particular walking in the historical center, the visitor has a general premonition and a gradual approach to the key focal space. On the contrary, the structure of Japanese city is “centrifuge” (Sacchi, 2004, p.78), disorienting the western visitor who searches a unique center, while the city offers a poly-spatial structure. Specifically, the “Japanese cities prefer a structure comprised of old town blocks, enveloped in multilayers levels, like a sort of onion skin. This is deeply rooted in the Japanese cultural view of space” (Odonera, 2015, p.147). Hence, while the European cities and space mainly have an iconic element as a central focus, as a church or a major plaza, the Japanese mentality gives more importance to the street itself. In fact, in Tokyo, it exists a center, the imperial

Strong neighborhood relationships due to the smallness of scale

Customization with the green. Undefined border private/public

Pedestrian orientation of the street

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palace, however, it is inaccessible: a “void” (Barthes, 1984) that has to be protected by a continuous “deviation” of the circulation (Barthes, 1984). Nevertheless, if in Europe it is often observable the people attitude to meet each other in some strategic point of the city, also Japanese people meet each other in significant spaces, such as Shimofuri Street; however, the main difference between the European and Japanese style is that those dynamic meeting areas are in Japan less noticeable and visible. As in the case of

Komagome, Japanese people meet each other in significant public space adjacent to “a flow node of people who are moving within urban space and forming lively atmosphere” (Jinnai, 2015, p.39). In other words, commercial streets, intersections, junctions and crossroads become evocatively important for the establishment of popular public spaces. Considering one of the most famous, and chaotic, example is the crossroad of Shibuya, known as one of the biggest in the entire world. Shibuya crossing is a strategic and focal point and at the adjacent space of the crossing there are meeting

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places: little rest area with some benches, where people meet each other, surrounded by an incredible nodal flux of people. At different scale of proportion with respect to the neuralgic pole of Shibuya, Shimofuri Street is an important focal point for the entire Komagome community. The consequence of the different way of thinking and conceiving the concept of “public space”, as in the previous example of Shimofuri Street, is a source of disorientation for an Italian, and western, observer. According to Hamby, it’s prevailing a sort of Manichaeism in conceiving the concept of public Japanese space, that in most cases is linked to all those spaces not belonging to the private scope: “Even beginning with the question ‘What is public space in Japan?’ seems convoluted and misdirected because of the simple fact that public space in Japan is all space that is not private” (Chris Hamby, 2012, p.3). In other words, what is outside of the private property is considered public. According to the same author, in order to understand the concept of open public space, it is necessary consider mainly the functional aspect, going beyond the urban physical configuration of the space. In fact, the public space is not strongly linked to a specific

urban arrangement, as generally speaking it is in the European vision, and specifically in the Italian one: for example a plaza is an open wider space (no fences) surrounded by architecture, which creates an encompassed space, with specific urban furniture and use of green. All those elements generate a discernible interpretation for the visitor. In this way, the spatial and urban configuration of a public space is fundamental for the acknowledgement of it. On the contrary, the Japanese spatial structure of public space, at least in Tokyo, is not always recognizable. For this reason, in order to understand the latter, it is necessary to analyze what public space means, considering its functional aspect, rather than its spatial configuration. Basically, the concept of public space is especially linked to the idea of a space where people may congregate (Jinnai, 2015). Thus, the process of recognition of public space has a different starting point if compare to the European one: it is necessary to look at the meaning of a public space, rather than at its formal characterization, breaking down the Western style framework. In other words, classifying the public space by function and role, rather than by form, shape and style, makes possible to recognize public spaces also in Japan. An example is represented by the commercial street of Shimofuri Street, but

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also by the roji, which are very narrow streets (1,5m/1,8m wide!) connecting the private dwellings units, characterizing all over the entire district. As above mentioned, also the streets are crucial spaces for the community, in particular for human-scale neighborhood as Komagome. Here, as already underlined in the previous pages, thanks to their narrowness the cars do not pass and the tiny space is transformed in place for children to play, gardening, or a meeting point for chatting. Definitely, the roji play a fundamental role in the livability

of the Komagome and in its picturesque charm. However, as already mentioned, according to the new laws, the characterizing streets are out of the building regulation; therefore the municipality is trying to revitalize them, widening and retransforming them. However, the widening of the streets could allow the car passage and the steadily loss of the human-scale and the autonomous appropriation of this space.

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Komagome. Sakura park

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Komagome.Samurai park

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the creation of the fire - parks .

During the 1980s, the TMG decides to invest in the conception of those parks helpful, since they are vast area, in the emergency prevention. Nowadays, these areas are recognized by the community as a community space as a gathering space

Edited from Hamby (2012) Conceptual Diagram of the Shirahige-Higashi Desaster Prevention Aptartment Complex Source: Association of Mukojima Studies

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e . E n d i n g i n t h e m i d d l e: t h e p a r ks In the core of Komagome there is a high presence of small parks. In particular, looking at the historical maps, it is possible to see that there is an internal part forming a one-domain vast green space which during the 80s has been fragmented, establishing the Komagome Primary school, the Kagawa Institution, a religious school and just two small parts of the green area have been conserved: the abovementioned premises of the Shinto Shrine Myogi and the little park of the Samurai Gate and Warehouse. As the name suggests, the latter is a trace of the Komagome history of feudal territory during Edo period preserving the traces of an ancient gate and warehouse of the Samurai domain, perfectly conserved. The park is quite-known for the cherry trees blossom, located around the perimeter. On one side of the little park, there are some large benches and tables, like a pick-nick area. However, during the day, the park is not really exploited giving a sense of transition. Even the children, coming out

from the school besides, do not partially use the space, since they prefer play in the Sakura Park, most suitable for them because of the vaster space and the playgrounds equipment. Hence, the park is mainly used by the parents waiting their children (there is the Komagome elementary school just besides), and by elderly people thanks to the enclosing and cozy conformation of the park. As well-known, even if the concept of park and garden belongs to the Japanese culture, the parks are been considered private, owned by the lords Daimyo or by the warriors Samurai, for all the long Japanese feudal period, lasting up to 1800. The idea of public garden arises only during the Meiji period (1868 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1912), when the vast properties of those powerful subjects are confiscated and converted into institutional facilities, such as schools or hospitals, as in the case of Komagome schools and large facilities, or left as paid admission or closed historical parks or gardens, such as the Rikugien Park. Without

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considering the historical parks, the concept of pocket urban parks for the everyday life is quite new; as a consequence it is rare to find those kind of park in Tokyo. Given this lack, Komagome with its preexisting space holds a great potentiality. Moreover, due to the natural strong risk of Japan for the natural cataclysms, and especially after many natural disasters occurred in the second half of the 19th century, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) was pushed to reshape urban context with the aim of prevention against the urban negative effects of possible natural disasters, such as fire effects. The consequence was the increasing presence of some public space, even is not built with the specific aim of gathering people or offering public amenities. With the passing of time, from just a prevention function, those spaces truly become areas perfectly integrated in the neighborhood, lived and appreciated by people.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Other more practical initiatives in fire prevention, like acquiring property in roji (little residential street) neighborhood to widen streets and create numerous firebreaks parks. These parks creates space between buildings to prevent fire from spreading and now serve as new public spaces within densely populated alleyway neighborhoods. Typically these spaces match the footprint of the removed building, contain one or two public amenities i.e. a bench or a tree, and are used as community gardens or sites for rojison (public rainwater reuse pumps)â&#x20AC;? (Chris Hamby, 2012, p.9). In the case of Komagome, Sakura Park is particular significant example of the new way of intervention through dialogue with population: thanks to the machizukuri process (participatory process), a different negotiation process started among community, experts and local government, in order to plan urban activity to prevent the negative effects of disasters and, at the same time, to implement

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new useful and functional spaces for people everyday life. Everything is done respecting the human scale of the district, maintaining the identity and the memory of the people living there. In fact, Sakura Park, located just beside the Samurai Park, reports this history. As it is possible to see in 1981-map, before being converted in firepark, the project for this area considered the establishment of a large residential complex. Thanks to the support of the TMG’s support and Toshima Municipality, the citizens of Komagome fought for the creation of Sakura Park and now the park is daily used by the community. The park has a large void in the middle, suitable for the gathering of people in case of disaster, normally used by children as a play area. The corners are equipped by playgrounds and some benches, even if those are few. In addition, besides the park, there is a plantation field for new plants and cherry trees, the symbol of the district. One of the Komagome’s potentialities really consists

in its richness of pocket open spaces for the community existing in its core. Those areas play a fundamental role, strengthening the community and establishing focal and critical role for meeting of population, reinforcing and developing human contacts and interactions among people. In addition, they are fully contextualized in the neighborhood, adapt for the everyday life use, maintaining the small human scale: “Firebreak parks are invaluable community assets and local machizukuri (N.A. bottom up and community processes and association) […] association support these activities by working to educate about fire prevention, preserving the charming scale and characteristics of their neighborhood, and reporting and archiving progress” (Chris Hamby, 2012, p.9-10). They are small scale spaces, integrated to the surrounding, with urban furniture in order to provide resting and gathering facilities, they steadily become focal points for the interactions among people.

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urban heterotopias. Spaces that let feel the visitor mystified

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f. E xtr a : d i s c ov e r i n g h yb r i d s p a c es

Generally speaking, as previously underlined, a part from the parks, the Japanese public areas are often spaces of transition and passage, such as the streets or crossroads. Living in cities like Tokyo, and even in small district like Komagome, it is easier to feel the sensation of “going” rather than that of “staying”. By way of

explanation, walking through Japanese cities, the occasions to stop and rest at open air are rare, it is even difficult to see people sit or stop. For a western observer, the perception of the city could be that of a constant fluid permanently on move: in particular in big metropolis, this feeling is so strong that it is possible to perceive a visual and physical

Komagome. Sakura park

vending machine. they are popular in Japan and represent a gathering space

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division between the two senses of the ways, where everyone as a part of a great mass respects his own path. Time is money? Maybe this is the reason why this continuous flow does not break off. However, walking around Komagome, and generally in Tokyo, the visitor chances upon some “hybrid” spaces, and those must enter in the reflection about the meaning of public space. For example, all around Japan, even in the most remote area, there are the extremely popular vending machines, which are positioned alone, or in group, and they create a sort of gathering space in front of them. Another example could be the smoking area (because in Japan is forbidden smoking outside),

which are strongly spatially-delimitated, sometimes even with some opaque barriers. Here people stop, relax and chat, becoming a mini gathering point along the street. In Komagome, the vending machines are discretely positioned in some lateral streets and people stop having a break, even if there are not sitting places. Those very-narrow “interstitial” areas are interesting on the point of delineation of public space, is it possible to consider them as public space? According to the meaning given by Jinnai of gathering space, they could be considered as such and they could become an interesting starting point to revitalize some parts of the district.

smoking area. in japan smoking outside is illegal. there are delimited areas for smokers which become sometimes meeting point

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new spaces .

What kind of space is it? the space in-between two vending machine could become a community space?

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CHAPTER 3 The Machizukuri: participatory design of Ariga Laboratory

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Komagome Machizukuri. The 6th residents workshop with Ariga Lab in the community house of Komagome

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a . I n tro d u c t i on : t h e A r i g a L a b â&#x20AC;&#x2122; s r ol e The research of the Ariga Lab in Komagome dated since 2008 and represents a very interesting experience for at least two reasons: the first one is the interest arising from the specificity of Komagome, already described in the previous pages. Secondly, it represents an extraordinary experiment of participation process in design planning; following the difficult process of participation in Komagome allows to familiarize with the Japanese culture, for a western observer completely disorienting but incredibly charming. In this process, following the suggestion of Professor Takashi Arigaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, one of the main issue for renovation and modernization of Komagome, preserving also the community life, was associated to the design of public space in the site area, in order to enhance the quality of life in the district.

security and catastrophe prevention. In particular, starting from 2003, a policy of development and revitalization of the area of Komagome begins. This policy tries to include also the population by means of workshops and activities, managed by the Waseda University (in particular by Ariga Lab), which allows to put in contact the residents wills and needs with the higher level of governmental institutions. During these workshops, in fact, the University has the task to make the population aware about the risks of their everyday situation, updating them about the new legislations and forms of development.

Precisely, in the followings paragraphs I will explain the previous work of the Komagome workshops (2014-2015) and in a more detailed way the process carried out in the months I have been in the Lab, with a precise focus on the workshop 5th and 6th, to which I personally participated.

In 2005, established town development NPO organization, Komagomeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s town planning is carried out by means of initiatives about the issues of wooden dense urban areas and their revitalization. The NPO regards and tries to allow the participation to every kind of population, including households and commercial activities. The common factor which permits to gather all the participants is the importance of a shared idea for the urban development, among all the stakeholders and shareholders.

For the reasons explained before, Komagome is the focus of many transformations due to the problem of

The important questions that drive the Ariga Lab researches are those that usually each architect addresses when

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restructuring a neighborhood, especially when the intervention requires a significant transformation of the space and its use. In other words, what is an urban planning and what kind of urban planning is more convenient for a district like Komagome? What kind of district is it? The interesting

focus in Komagome is due to many factors, the most part of them already underlined in the previous paragraphs. First of all, its position, still in the central ring of the Yamanote Line, considered the â&#x20AC;&#x153;centerâ&#x20AC;? of Tokyo; secondly, the livability of the neighborhood due to its very human scale, a , with narrow and

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familiar streets, little pocket parks, large facilities like as schools, sport centers and even a thermal center. Finally, as already mentioned, the role of Ariga Lab is not only important to inform citizens, dialogue with them and intermediate

with Toshima municipality, but it is also essential to stem and control the problem of building speculation, reinforcing the public actor. Thanks to the principal guidelines and the machizukuri design approach, the traditional urban plot and configuration is respected, enhanced and revitalized.

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b . M achi z u k uri : p a r t i c i p a t or y w or k s h op s i n r es h a p i n g n ei g h b or h ood s As abovementioned, by means of workshops with population, Ariga Lab is playing the fundamental role to inform Komagome community about the new urban regulations and building laws and the natural disaster prevention; at the same time, it collects the community’s needs concerning its neighborhood. The task carried out by Ariga Lab supports the necessities of Toshima Ward in re-managing the district for prevention and, at the same time, it wards off the risk of building speculation due to the strong role of the private developers in Japan. Literally “Community-Making” (Watanabe, 2012) or “Neighborhood Building” (Sorensen, Funck, 2007), Machizukuri is in Japan a participatory process of planning and urban designing based on dialogue between residents and specialists, both collaborating for the district revitalization. Specifically, this kind of process spread throughout Japan during the 1990s (Sorensen, Koizumi, Miyamoto, 2008), even if already in the 60s citizens movements against the bubble economy and pollution are considered the pioneers of the movement of Machizukuri. Nowadays, a great abundance of machizukuri processes

are nationally spread around Japan, having the goal of “achieve more bottom-up input into local place management in which local citizens play an active role in environmental improvement and management process” (Sorensen, Funck, 2007, p.1). Effectively, the term “machizukuri” appears, in 1952, in the paper of the Professor Shiro Masuda, when, in the 1951, a group of residents in Kunitachi (30 km West from central Tokyo) fought against of some adult entertainment business, such as brothels, love hotel and bars established by Americans soldiers (Watanabe, 2012). This episode is the witness of the first movement act organized by citizens and not by the central government. In addition, at the beginning the community’s association began with an urgent campaign in order to protect residents’ life from the evident risk that soon shifted to more abstract and conceptual goal: from the children protection against the adult entertainment business to general educational issues (Watanabe, 2012). First of all, it is important to understand the origin of the term “Machizukuri” and, to better understand it, it could be

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useful to separate the two words “machi” and “zukuri”. “Machi” literally means “community”, however the word shelters also the deeper concept of “small area”, in the sense of restricted (small-scale) physical area, comparable to a neighborhood area or a residential district, namely areas for the daily urban life (Watanabe, 2007). In addition to the physical aspect, the term contains also social and political aspects linked to a territory, such as the community welfare, regulations and the relation with the municipality. Looking at the Chinese character composing the word “machi”, one sign (町) means “town” and the overall, linked abstract meanings, while the second sign (街) means “street”, concerning the physical aspects; in other words, the physical and the abstract features are intimately interconnected (Watanabe, 2007). “Zukuri” relates to the method use to reach a final goal; the term concerns a continuous process, or activity, that strives to a common good by means of a common effort. In addition, the process to reach the object is much more important than the final object itself in the sense that it is a result that involves a public participation acting again a process imposed by the top (Watanabe, 2007). In this way, the machizukuri is important for the meaning it contains,

taking into consideration a mature process of assimilation of the emerging issues by the community living in the “machi” (in the town). Precisely, during the feudal period, self-assistance neighborhood associations (NA) already existed, even if they had a very limited services (Sorensen, 2007), namely they mainly were responsible for the community’s need management (cit. Smith, 1978, in Sorensen 2007). Only in 1938, the NA legally obtained an official status and organization by Tokyo City (Braibanti, 1948), legitimating a self-governance and collective activities. However, it was mandatory a meeting each month for each level of organization, in order to facilitate the communication and the demand downward (Braibanti, 1948). The neighborhood associations were often linked to conservative politicians, otherwise they were supported by “local bosses” who exploited the NA for their private interests (cit. Dore 1958:218; Steiner 1965: 220, in Sorensen, 2007, p.64). Specifically, these associations played a fundamental role in “securing compliance with a variety of requests for cooperation from above” (Sorensen, 2007, p.64), hardly to refuse because of the strong administrative hierarchy. Consequentially they were the intermediary and a permanent liaison with

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the local government, which exploited them to facilitate the administrative processes. During the post war period, Japan underwent significant structural administrative changes. In particular, Sorensen (2007, p.65) distinguishes five main changes: “the central Governance, the division of roles between the central and local government in matter of urban governance; the establishment of the official City Planning System (Toshi Keikaku), the recognized civil society actors in urban governance processes; and newly emerging civil society roles in managing space”. According to Watanabe (2007) the Toshi Keikaku started in 1888 and it had the full responsibility in the management of open facilities such as parks and roads. However, the old rules, establishing the city planning, considered the city as a whole block, not considering the small districts whom the city is composed; namely the small area considered by the machizukuri (Watanabe, 2007) did not exists for the old laws. During the postwar American-led occupation (1945 – 1952), there were radical reforms to the central governance processes and after the Second World War, Japan formulated new policies in order to reshape the entire country by scratch. For this reason, in 1956 the National Capital Regional

Development Plan was established, in order to implement the national metropolitan policies for the future Japanese investments and improvement. Today, the current policy is the Fifth National Capital Regional Development Plan (MLIT – Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, 2015). Because of its disadvantageous geographical position, Tokyo had to supply in terms of communications, technologies and international transportation, all strongly influencing its image and its development policies (Machimura, 1992). According to Machimura (1992), Japan effectively opened its doors towards a more international level during the economic boom of the 1980s, already begun during 50s – 70s with foreign exports of textile and electronics. Clearly, during the 80s Japanese economy had mainly a strong interaction with the United States, creating a “transnationalization” of the economic power. The progressive contact with the international dimension fortifies and enhances the monocentric structure of Japanese urban system. The role of Tokyo is emphasized, and the major Japanese business companies reclaim the necessity of a refresh and of a new scheme for the urban planning development, starting from the construction of many offices and business districts. The support of the central government to the private developers for new urban

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planning increases this impetus in “urban renovation”, by means of partnerships public – private: the resulting choice of the developer member is decided according to the common interests between the private and public actors. Hence, the general procedure applied for the Japanese radical change is based on the detection of possible central and focal locations; then, the “old and unnecessary functions” are cleaned up; finally, new functions are established according to the brand emerging needs, mainly the economic ones, appropriate for a World City (Machimura, 1992). In 1963 with the abolishment of the restrictions on high construction (Dimmer, 2013) and later in 1969, the Urban Redevelopment Act also marks an important step for the future Tokyo’s developments. In fact, the New Law, based on top-down vast developers’ investment (Toshi Keikaku), had a small concern about the neighborhood area and the conservation of their everyday life’s environment (Watanabe, 2007). The Act promotes many innovative urban projects, such as plazas, planning land for intensive use and fireproofing; especially one important point of the act is to densify the use and the functions on the land. In substance, on one hand, the developers have the right to “floor” the space as much as

they need for the intensification of their new activities; on the other hands, the remaining space is offered to a third party who covers the costs of construction, and it is dedicated to mix-used functions, such as hotels, leisure spaces, common facilities and shopping areas (Suzuki, MLIT, 2015). In other terms, following those assistance measures, the majority of developers are incentivized to invest themselves in new vast urban planning projects. However, new developments often lack of dialogue in the urban planning, lose the ancient urban matrix and separate the new buildings with the surrounding. In fact, the conception of vast and majestic projects brings the perish of human scale, the small scale. In fact, the small scale of everyday life, the scale of shitamachi harshly diverges with the hedonistic idea of “global Tokyo”, since considered not up to the internationality vision of the metropolis. The result is a standardized space, “predictable sameness” (Radovic, 2012, p. 106), which has lost any local taste. In the majority of cases, in fact, the projects that are supposed to have an international resonance are often conceived in order to have a great impact on the pre-existing urban context. Especially, not only they have an economic impact, but also a visual impact by means of vast and impressing architectural interventions, losing completely the familiar small scale.

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However, the citizen’s awareness about the territory and place management has played a fundamental role: especially, during the environmental crisis (late 1960s – early 1970s), the citizen’s consciousness brought significant massive organizing and protest against national territorial and urban development policies at the level of neighborhood associations (Sorensen, 2007), in which the voice of the “small areas” (Watanabe, 2007) was very limited. Therefore, in late 1960s, local residents’ movements fought against the local government and their top-down city planning policies (Ito, 2007). In particular, the local government had weak power and authority in the regulations against the environmental degradation, with the results of urban sprawl producing bad quality suburbs completely lacking of basic public goods (cit. Hebbert, in Sorensen, 2007). In addition to the governmental policies, the resident’s protests were against the sensible environmental crisis, especially the rapid growth of the chemical industries. The described period played a fundamental role in the awareness of Japanese people related to the importance of their residential environment and the force of their movements. Consequentially, the important result was the change in their

attitude regarding the governmental policies and in their opinion about the acceptable power and behavior of the Japanese state linked to the governance urban processes (Sorensen, 2007). Thus, the role of the public voice and actions steadily grew during 1970s – 1980s (Sorensen, 2007), and, in particularly, after the 1980, when a District Planning (chiku keikaku) was established (Watanabe, 2007). The latter detailed a precise urban planning and “land use controls in a comparatively small area as a unit” (Watanabe, 2007, p. 51), aiming the maintenance and the conservation of a good everyday life living environment. It is important to recall the fundamental role played by the universities researches: they formed “‘machizukuri school’” consisting in lectures, workshops in order to aware and develop the residents’ sensibility and to attain their support (Sorensen, 2007, p. 76). Thanks to the technical skills, the urban planning consultant, the capacity of urban planning has been generated “outside of the central government, in civil society and local government” (Sorensen, 2007, p.77). In other words, the Ariga Lab, supported by the municipality and the NPOs, helped in the development of the urban planning importance and the related sense of community. Fundamentally important were the Laws of 1998 and 1999, which affirmed the right of the citizen access to public

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information, instead of being sheltered by the bureaucrats and the government and not the public (Sorensen, 2007). These two rules have been important for citizens’ initiative and in strengthening of civil society, testifying the importance gave by Ostrom (2006) in the sustainable management of common resources. In other words, having the free access of public information, people had the tools to participate to the decisions on new urban planning, about the restrictions concerning their living environment. Therefore, the movements of machizukuri grew exponentially during the 1990s, catching the attention of the central government and in particular the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) started to support the residents’ movements (Kusakabe, 2013). In parallel to the awareness against the impoverishment of the small neighborhood environment due to the central government policies and the building speculation, there is the forced reconstruction after an earthquake disaster. In fact, the earthquake is seen as a “community disaster”, in the sense that “community disaster is the opportunity to think about community itself again, and it is also the opportunity to strengthen the structure of it” (cit. Yamashita, 1996, p. 71, in Ito, 2007, p. 161). In other words, the

machizukuri process has been fundamental also in building the community and the sense of common goods, different from open public goods, starting from the community shaping for better daily lives (Ito, 2007) Precisely, the residents highlighted their right of living in the community, in the terms of the “humanity in the daily living environment” and the ontological value it has (Ito, 2007, p. 158). Moreover, the attachment of residents to common spaces helps in the building up the sense of community, for example landscaping everyday life small spaces, the “Machikadohiroba (corner-parks)” (Ito, 2007, p.167). Therefore, the “community-making” has a different approach from the Toshi Keikaku, which takes more in consideration the modern interventionist approach, since it tends to preserve the traditional urban form with the collaboration of the residents (Hein, 2001). Generally speaking, the processes of machizukuri are used to address a wide range and nuances of local issues in a variety of ways (Woodend, 2013). However, they have three strategies in common. The first one is the households’ sensitization to participate at the community meeting and, especially, not to sell the property to building speculator, but instead to respect the building rules of the district. Secondly, the community has to draft a general consensus in matter of

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building regulation in order to avoid the risk of building speculation. Finally, the residents have to synergistically dialogue with the local government for improving the local environment with parks, facilities, play areas and streets’ improvement (Sorensen, Koizumi, Miyamoto, 2008). Komagome and its processes of machizukuri aim exactly at this kind of goals. In other words, one of the major occupations is to avoid dramatic changes in the environment of the neighborhood and its urban tissue, due in particular to the building speculation and the pervasive construction of condominium. On the contrary, they strive to create and revitalize the new or the preexisting “locally designed and managed community space” (Sorensen, Koizumi, Miyamoto, 2008, p.48). In fact, as Tuan (2004, cit. in Sorensen, Koizumi, Miyamoto, 2008) sustains the importance of human needs in the stability and continuity of their urban and familiar environment that solidifies and support the social identity and the civic spaces. However, the machizukuri, since it is based on participatory processes, also contains some difficult aspects. One, and the most evident, is sometimes the lack in the representative numbers of residents participating at the activities. Even in Komagome, in some workshop, sometimes

the number of people present at the reunion is very few and this absenteeism produces a partial overview of the current situation. From the data of Cabinet Office on human relationships 2004 (Hashimoto, 2007), it is impressively evident that in the high-rise building area, the percentage of relationship among residents is reduced; this strongly influences the participation at the community events and consequentially at the machizukuri processes. Fortunately, the current lifestyle in Komagome is still a human scale, bringing higher interactions among residents. Secondly, one important question is, hence, “who participates?” (Sorensen, Funck, 2007, p.18). Always looking at the Cabinet Offices sources, the highest rate of participation is the productive age range (20 – 50 years old), “swamped by work” (Hashimoto, 2007, p. 231), hence the major motivation to participate in local activities is social imposition rather than personal interests (Hashimoto, 2007). On the contrary, in the 70 year old age group, the major motives are personal interests and needs. The same attitude is possible to notice also for Komagome, where the elderly people have strongly expressed their wants. Linked to these elements, another evident issue emerges: the choice of participants among the members of the family. Precisely, the assemblies employ a household-based participation system in which just one member

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per family represents the decision. In other words, in many cases, due to the strong hierarchical structure of the Japanese family, the assemblies “fall under the domination of aged males” (Hashimoto, 2007, p. 230), considered the head of the family. Hence, there is the lack in participation by woman and younger people, in this way the results extrapolated from the assemblies have to be considered taking into considerations those aspects. In particular, the role of the women in the participatory processes should be incentivized and sustained because “‘it’s the women who live there all the day’” (Funck, 2007, p. 155), referring to the high number of housewife women in the Japanese society. Finally, another identified problem is the assembly-based procedure of participation. Specifically, assembly-procedure assumes the explanation of personal needs in front of people audience, therefore, in some cases,

the individual does not freely feel to express their weaknesses, for fear of appearing weak or shame in front of others (Zivieri, 2016). Despite all the problematics brought by the machizukuri, the community living in the neighborhood has a strong interest in improving their immediate environment, contrary to the high-centralized decision power and the large-scale planning. The importance of the University and technical figures support to the “local people’s Knowledge”, in order to avoid “tyranny of decision-making and control […] that privilege the most powerful or even the results that no one wants” (Sorensen, Funck, 2007, p.20). Therefore, by means of participatory processes residents could contribute to environmental improvement, in order to achieve a more livable and sustainable district, as it is happening in Komagome.

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c . M a i n W or k s h op s r ep or t

The process of the 2015-2016 year starts the end of Mars 2015, during the cherry blossom trees. During this event a maximum of gathering people visit Komagome, place of birth of Somei-Yoshino cherry tree. In

particular, in this particular occasion, the population of Komagome meet each other and love to stroll themselves around their neighborhood.

1st workshop: pre-meeting in order to discover the issues, problematics, potentialities and needs of Komagome population.

2nd workshop: Explanation of the past workshops results. Interactive activities with activity playing cards positioned on Komagome map, in order to understand the people everyday life activities.

3rd workshop: Collection and explanation of the new design propositions for Komagome according to the previous workshops results. Elucidation on the timing and difficulty of the different propositions.

4th workshop: Explanation of the new laws and rules about the dwellings construction build. Propositions about some critical open public spaces according to the explained needs of the population.

5th workshop: By means of a physical model, propositions about dwellingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; modifications in the slope area in order to find a solution for the natural disaster prevention.

6th workshop: Presentation of a proposition in the slope area dwelling lot, in particular of a common open space. Presentation of my design project for this area.

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1s t W or k s h op The Ariga lab exploits this occurrence for establishing at Waseda University a stand for the population. Specifically, the population is invited to mark their opinion on a plan of Komagome outlying which places

Bad quality environment

are considered good or bad with respect to quality of space. In this way, this practice permits also to understand which places are more or less frequented in the neighborhood.

Auxiliary Street Area

Good quality environment Somei Street Area

Komagome shopping street area

Komagome residential area

Komagome train station

plan done by the community about the good and bad environment places in Komagome

source: Ariga Lab archive

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After the collection of these data, they have a meeting with the neighborhood population, in order to dialogue about the issues and problems of the district, making comments about the plan composed during

the cherry trees event. After the meeting, Komagome is divided in five different issuezones, according to the most-used spaces, based on people frequency distribution in different places:

A. Komagome slope residential area as explain before, the main problem of this area is the negative effects of natural catastrophes prevention. In fact, this area is highly dense inhabited and the emergency space in-between the houses is really narrow. This area is an example of the previous described situation of fragmentation of the building plot. In this area there is also the major concentration of open public spaces, such as little parks in front of the Moiji Kindergarten, the Warehouse Park and the Somei Park.

B. Somei street area Somei street is the second, after the Hongo street and Shimofuri street, neuralgic way for Komagome neighborhood. The main problem of this space is the confusion of flows among cars, pedestrians and bikes. In fact, the street is, in one hand, too narrow to host all these fluxes, and, on the other hand, it is not equipped to have a safe distinction among the three categories of users. For all these reasons, people passing on this area feel themselves unsafe. In addition, in the latest part of the street, nearby the Somei cemetery, the space is really perceived as dangerous and inhospitable, due to the big parking lot, and the absence or low illumination.

C. Komagome train station area The area is not well-maintained. In particular in front of the train station there is the commemorative park for the historical birth of the Somei-Yoshino cherry tree, which at the present time shows a poor feature and it is den of homeless. E. Auxiliary street area This part is the border part of Komagome district. There are many vacant areas and lots ruining down, which damage the image of the district and become trash spaces.

D. Komagome shopping street area This area is a highly-frequented area. It gathers all the shops and commercial activities of the district. It is also a meeting place for the elderly people. By the way, the problems of this area are the lack of sitting or relaxing places and the absence of bike parking lots; moreover there is a lack of connection between the north part and the south part of Komagome.

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2n d a n d 3r d W or k s h op s

During the second workshop, the Ariga lab provides some playing cards for each participant, regarding different possible activities. The game not only helps to discover which activities have to be done and in which area of Komagome, but also to understand the uses and the everyday life habits of people living there. In addition to these activities, it regards also the urban and architectural concerns in order to develop the neighborhood quality of life. According 商店街ににぎわいを誘う

公園

私道の先は行き止まり

陰がないい

to the information collected on this topic, the number of participants was restricted at more or less ten people; hence, the low rate of participation is very low considering the high number of the inhabitants. In this case, the consequence is a partial result obtained, given the low representativeness of the population needs. However, even if the underlined limits, one of the most important outcome of the activities was to set physically the emerging needs in the Komagome map.

新たな防災公園

車をおく場所が無い

防災の重要性建替えは仕方が無い

整備された道が延びてきていない

駐車場を持てない

狭い私道の両脇に建つ家々の軒先がぶつかり合っている

住宅街に入ると緑が全くない

散歩道が欲しい小さい公園が有効に活用されていない

人の集まる場所が少なく、マンションばかりで寂しい場所

駒込ブランドを利用したマンション

私道の先は行き止まり

舗装されていない道が魅力的

協議会や役員会で利用

染井

銀座

狭い路地は防災時が心配である

駒込の外からも多くの人が桜の風景を見にくる

道が広がってきている

道がだいぶ狭い

道の中心に電柱

染井霊園は散歩道のコースの一つになっている霊園が暗い

見通しが良い昔は飛鳥山が見えた

一方通行で狭いが非常に多くの車が通る

渋滞が多く危ない

坂は駒込の代名詞坂が辛い

行列は風物詩

センター

子供の遊び場ができた。

地形がはっきり見える分離性が高い

塀が高く、閉鎖的で視界も悪い

染井稲荷神社建て直しが必要

昔は坂下が一望できた染井吉野の並木が魅力的。

女子栄養大学大正時代までは屋敷だった。

歩行者が多く自転車が通りづらい

駒込小学校

4 年に一度の大きな祭りの会場

村の鎮守

今上天皇誕生の時に設置されたプール

トイレがなくて不便

門と蔵のある公園

一方通行で狭いが車通りが多い

近所の方が作ったお面を展示している江戸、明治時代は梅谷園があった

200 9 年 5 月 6 日に火事があった４m ぎりぎりで消防車が通れない昔から学校の先生の通学路

火事になったら大変

息苦しくてしょうがない

地権者の多い所ではない

道路の拡幅の始まりは、公営住宅の建設時における工事車両の出入りのため

秘密の小道がある

川島銀蔵ゆかりの場所

(1 マイル )

ブースカフェのオーナーが桜を移植した染井吉野マラソン大会を企画している

車通りが多い

10 人ぐらいで自主的に活動している組織が管理している

火事で燃えてしまった江戸時代、武家屋敷の人が使う商店が並んでいた

駒中学校

プラウド駒込

昔は土手だった

土手滑りでよく遊んだ

開発の話があって対立している

歴史雰囲気のある神社なんとか残したい

昔、銀座からもらってきた

能舞台があった、

駒込図書館

染井吉野桜記念公園

染井桜をつくったと言われる

江戸時代には一直線の軍事通り

産業発展を考えると、ステーションビルが建った方が良い

あらゆる世代が利用している

通学路

通り

消防車が入れず消火ヘリから消火した

駒込のシンボルに

緑を残して公園にし、子供・老人のための施設にしたい

として使われ、「先生坂」と呼ばれる

消火栓なし私道

染井

to be improved (action correspond to location) already good (action correspond to location)本郷中学校 to be improved仰高小学校 (action not correspond to location) to be improved (action not correspond to location)

区境によって途中で止まっ血液センターは広いすべきサイレンが五月蝿い

子供の遊び場親子の交流の場として道路の拡幅が途中までしか行われていない (2009 年当時 )

今上天皇誕生の時に豊島区

点字ブロ埋め込みほしい明かりが

地域の防災公園。下に貯水槽がある

殺風景な広場。管理は商店会

戦後は青空教室だった

が設置したプール

コミュニティの範囲で境界ができた

敷地の細分化によるミニ戸建て。木造密集の深刻化

かつての私道、現在はつぎはぎになっている

60 年前からある暗い階段

周れ

女子聖学院の通学路なのに車が多くて危険

緊急車両が通れない

妙義神社

坂上は風通しがよく、夏でも涼しい

あまり使われていない児童公園

歩道が狭くて２人並んで歩けない

高いビルは、防音壁と防火壁の役割を果たしている。表は騒がしいが裏は静かで住みやすい

元々は布団工場

もみじ幼稚園

source: Ariga Lab archive

店がもっと充実しているといい

り

染井温泉

町会の集会所として利用。

防災がまちづくりのキーワードに。水の確保、井戸の整備。

交通量多くて危険

夜になると暗い

密すぎてもう家を建てることは出来ない

本郷通

東京スイミング

地下水が豊富

開発の止まったマンション用地

染井よしの桜の里公園

芥川製菓工場

井戸水が良い

シャッターが下りると暗くなって人通りもなくなる

夜になっても明るい通り

買い物帰りも坂がきつい

江戸から残る、道の形売りに出されている

昔ほどの賑わいはなくなった

細い道は魅力的

隅田の花火が見えた

道が狭い

昔ながらの雰囲気が残っている

散歩コースとして適している

最近医療関係の店舗・施設が増えた

一軒の土地だったところが二軒へ

下り坂で車にスピードがついて危険

桜並木に連続性が無い

昔は製紙産業が発達していた場所

狭い道、塀に囲われている家が多く、空き巣が多い

区境で商店街の組合が違うため、共同できない

地主がなかなか動かないため建て替えが難しい

工場跡地がミニ分譲住宅

道が狭いのに車が多く通る

染井霊園

坂が大変なので行かなくなりつつある

銭湯はかつてのにぎわいは失われている

消防車は曲がれない。

車の通りが危険

きれいに整備されている反面、温かみがなくなった

昔からあるコーヒー豆屋

木造住宅はここ１０年でほとんどなくなった

私道の先は行き止まり

道が狭い

余り使われていない公園

歩道整備が悪い車の往来が激しい、恐い

細分化されてごちゃごちゃしている

春は桜の花夏は桜の緑が魅力的

霊園には多くの桜がある

街坂上にスーパーができてシャッター街が増えた

鍵は町会長が管理借りるときは区に申請しないと行けない

良く散歩をする（古河庭園の先まで）

夜は暗く、人通りも少ない

商店

セットバックが進んでいる。区立染井まちづくりセンター

得るが、イント時以外は門が閉まっていてこちらから入れない

昔程の賑わいはなくなった

車通りが激しい

ガス灯が残っている

豊島不法駐

町会会館されてい

駒込駅商業的には上手く成功している ( 駅ビルホテル )

共同建て替えすれ増やせる商業的に有効活用

北区コミュニティバス停留利用者は北区の方が 90 %

map showing where and how people use the space of their neighborhood

167

4t h W or ks h op

The role of this workshop was to discuss about the possibilities of new public spaces, conceived according to the community needs, taking into consideration especially the necessity of some stop-spaces and relax spaces for the majority of the old population. Moreover, the main aim of this step was the identification of the most critical zones in Komagome, lacking in open space equipment such as benches, and the less accessible spaces because of their physical barriers for elderly people, as specifically in the case of the slope area. In particular in front of Komagome Elementary school there it is the highest level of the slope that has to be implemented with urban furniture responding to different needs: to offer seats for elderly people wearied by the slope and for the parents waiting their children from school. The general scheme of Ariga team is to exploit the pocket-spaces vacant or rather unused, revitalizing them by means of minimal and precise interventions, as a sort of “acupuncture” interventions. They divided the interventions on the basis of the work effort, the timing and the construction engagement. The majority of cases, they are just light modifications of the preexisting context. For example, in some narrow streets,

the presence of plenty-brick walls could create a claustrophobic sensation: hence it is sufficient to open the wall, using more open techniques. In some cases, the team wants to exploit the presence of low wall to construct some sitting places for elderly people or built a more interactive space. Another example of possible “acupuncture intervention” could exploit the community’s information panels scattered around the neighborhood, informing the community about the organized activities: the idea is to create meeting place around some of those information panels in order to develop new meeting points. The green spaces are another important necessity expressed by the community, in both the directions of increasing them or revitalizing the preexisting ones. In fact, some green pocket-parks are too dark, or not very well-maintained or missing urban furniture, or the existing one does not suggest a conviviality. In other words, given the above described situation, often those are not particularly attractive to spend time. The idea is to make small interventions able to change the perception of people, in order to invite them to the preexisting public space. In general, the inhabitants would like a greener

168

district, instead of vast new developments, and for responding at this need it is sufficient to valorize the public green area scattered around and already existing in the neighborhood, improving their context: all around Komagome, people love gardening, spread on the street and cut out tiny spaces for the plants. Another interesting point is the creation of a neighborhood central core, exploiting the preexisting context that has already important gathering places: Sakura Park, Samurai Park, Momiji Park, Komagome Elementary school, the Someiinari Shrine and the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house. Hence the potentiality is linked to its centrality, that could become a strong identity of Komagome, enhancing the relations among people. For example, Sakura Park needs a better implementation of equipment because

the existing one is not sufficient; moreover it could be important to build a connection with the adjacent Samurai Park, allowing a safer flow for children. The connection of the different functions such as leisure, green, education and religious, could be able to create a focal point recognized by the entire community, such as Shimofuri Street, which is socially accepted as meeting point. However, the strength of Shimofuri Street as gathering space is also done to the variety of its functions, well connected by the pedestrian street itself, showing a strong vitality and energy. On the contrary, in the central part of Komagome the abovementioned functions, even if closed each other, are perceived as disconnected due to the non-uniformity and global vision of the spaces, . Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why this part needs to have a strong global action plan, despite the richness of public functions.

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170

5t h W or ks h op

The 5th workshopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main issue deals with the problem of the slope-residential area. According to the population needs, the latter area presents three specific problems: in one hand, there is the problem of security against the natural disaster combined with

the lack of hygienic condition; on the other hand, there is the problematic of the slope, because of the gap of more or less four meter high, which makes the passage from north to south difficult for elderly people. In particular, two precise areas are taken

A B

com

mun

D 4m

ity h

ouse

C D

Somei shrine

F G

Saifukuji temple

edited from Ariga Lab archive

Cemetery

4.5 m

Sakura Park

Komagome Elementary schooL + SAMURAI PARK

Plan scheme of the site presented during the workshop

171

+ 1 floor

+ common open space 60%

40%

into account: Since the building law has changed, limiting the building area to 60 % of the gross floor area, the idea presented by Ariga Lab for the first area is to merge the A, B, C, D dwellings in one single bigger building, thought a cohousing. In this

way, it is possible to create a common open space in front of the new building. The new volume would be three-stories high instead of twos, occupying less floor area, the 40% of GFA, less than the 60% admitted. This improvement allows the population to have

open

space

cohousing edited from Ariga Lab archive

Plan scheme of the site presented during the workshop

172

a relaxing space, and also to have a second alternative passage which is less lean in comparison to the direct street, linking with the secondary private street besides to the other one. Theoretically, this idea is gladly liked by the population participating to the workshop. However, among those participants nobody was living in this part of Komagome and this limits the workshop outcomes. For this reason, the main problem of this idea is reaching a consensus for the development of a common area, that goes to the detriment of the individual owners of the existing housing. In particular, according to the Ariga Lab students, the most difficult aspect of this design concept is the difficulty in suggesting a shared house and shared spaces. In fact, the Japanese culture has rarely examples of sharing goods. The other area faced up during the 5th workshop is the one besides directly on the slope.

The main issues of this part are especially the GFA of the houses A, B, D, E, F which are bigger than the limited allowed by the law; secondly the sense of claustrophobia arises, due to the narrowness of the street and to the presence of three-meter high brick wall. The goal of Ariga Lab is to follow the example of the C-house. The latter already follow the laws of GFA less than 60% and, in addition, it is rearward in comparison to the other mentioned houses, allowing lighter and air circulation in the adjacent street. For this scenario Ariga Lab proposes two different solutions, having in common the idea to renovate the houses in a way to rearward and to re-align them according to the C-house, and to make the street wider. The first proposition is to rebuild all the houses one by one aligned to the C-house, but not for all the cases the law of GFA is respected; the other solution is to integrate the D, F, and E-houses in one single house-block, eliminating the claustrophobic wall and respecting the GFA ratio.

ousi coh

edited from Ariga Lab archive

Plan scheme of the site presented during the workshop

174

Urban physical barrier

Rest equipped spaces

6t h W or ks h op

The 6th workshop is the continuation of the 5th workshop, in particular focusing on the slope area. During this meeting the idea is to re-manage the first area (presented in the previous paragraph) in order to create a bigger outdoor space. This intervention allows designing both an alternative passage from the steep slope adjacent street and an outdoor public space, exploitable by everyone.

schemes presented to teh community at the 6th workshop

During this workshop, the colleagues of Ariga lab asked to introduce a design idea for this small area, reflecting all the needs and the wills of the surrounding community. Then, the residents seek for open door facilities and equipped spaces where they could relax themselves or meet other people from the community. The design conceived envisages two different flux passages, one semi-private, just for the residences, the other one public

Contact with the surrounding context

for all the community, in order to distinguish the two functions and not having problem of privacy. In between, the masterplan sees the construction of a small â&#x20AC;&#x153;green-benchâ&#x20AC;? area, which helps to separate the two elements, public and private, thanks to its volume and the high vegetation; at the same time it gives the possibility to sit or gather with people. The concept of the design was really accepted by the members of the participating community during the workshop. The principal remarks were concerning the costs of the project and, even more, the maintenance of the green space. In fact, according the community, it has been underlined the advantage for the community in taking care of the space, in case of lack of willingness by the municipality: for example implementing actions allowing to actively enjoy the gardening, such as making gardening competitions or vegetable gardening for the consumption.

Equipment to feel deepened in the green

175

edited from Ariga Lab archive

Plan scheme of the site presented during the workshop

176 schemes presented to teh community at the 6th workshop

Green + organized space + urban furniture

Generation of new open space/community space

Developing the sense of the community

Generate a meeting point

Collective gardening

individual activities

Plants, historical heritage of Komagome

Design plan of the site presented during the workshop

Needs of green

Community urban green

Insertion of green in the design project

Design rendering of the site plan presented during the workshop

community space

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CHAPTER 4 Conclusions: outlined guidelines for future development of Komagome

179

180

181

182

183

184

the residentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passion for the green, plants and flowers

185

a. Ou tl i n e d gu i d e l i n es f or f u t u r e d ev e l op m e n t of K om a g om e Considering my task in Ariga Lab, some interesting useful action guidelines for the project have come up from the consistent research about the public space in Komagome, the deeper reflection about Japanese public spaces and the Machizukuriâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s results. The project, at this step, is focused on preparing a hypothetical reflection scheme and some action guidelines in order to strengthen Komagome. In particular, the guidelines would like to strive towards a regeneration of the district, enhancing three main aspects: first, to increase the quality of the current conditions, secondly to push younger generation to live in the neighborhood; finally, to valorize the heritage framework

The concept of acupuncturing interventions

of Komagome, encouraging young people to take the challenge of maintaining their traditional culture. In other words, the new design actions would not just be elderlyoriented, following a line of development which could be inadequate within a short period of time; instead, the new urban planning should take into consideration the new generations needs and life-style, always respecting the Komagome human scale and tradition. Following the suggestions coming by the meetings with population, the most part of the actions are rather minimal (what we called acupuncture intervention) but able

186

to contribute in building a comprehensive vision and design of the full neighborhood. In planning those areas, I took into consideration the theoretical results about public space concept in the Japanese culture, in the effort of respecting this tradition and not overpassing it using my western approach and vision. After the general zoom-out on public space in Japan, I find out that Japanese public space is more characterized by “dynamic” spaces; in particular in an urban case such as Komagome, the role of the street is rather more important than that of the enclosed spaces. In other words, at the beginning of my research, following my Italian cultural background and western model, I was more oriented toward implementation of scattered plaza or square spaces, namely “static” spaces, as the more advisable solution for revitalizing the neighborhood. On the contrary, studying the Japanese habits, I understood the relevance of the axial space for gathering, such as narrow streets or commercial corridors; then, looking at Komagome and at its community, I definitely changed my mind. I moved from the basic starting point of preserving Komagome human-scale, including built up and streets morphology. Therefore, the aim of the project is to preserve Komagome special atmosphere,

“not static” space, but “dynamic” design space

Acupuncturing interventions creating community spaces and good quality of urban language

More visible access to Komagome enhancing its heritage and preexistent potentialities

187

Key points for komagome guidelines

Komagome more visible acess and gate of the district

More visibility for external visitors

based on narrow streets, but also respecting the crucial issues concerning the prevention rules. Generally speaking, the project is focused in an axial public space according to several issues emerged from the personal research and from the Machizukuri’s workshops. For example, starting from the train station, the project wants to revitalize and enhance the memorial plaza of Yoshino Cherry Tree, heritage of the neighborhood. In addition to the abovementioned issue of the “welcoming gate” of the district, a more “manifest entrance” into Komagome is conceived, acting on Hongo Street that faces the district. In this way, also the external visitors could be attracted and motivated to explore Komagome. Starting from the memorial plaza, they could discover the history of the neighborhood and enjoy its urban dimension and its functions. Hence, better signals are necessary in order to orientate people in the district and discover

Connection north-south Komagome

Stronger centrality

New green and green care

Urban furniture and illumination, global urban language

Orientation and signalization

Better orientation inside the neighborhood

New activities for all generations

188

189

190

the activities inside: they have to point out and inform not only about the swimming pool, or the thermal baths, but also about the parks, Shimofuri Street, namely the everyday life spaces arising a possible interest for tourists, certainly curious to discover a very traditional Japanese neighborhood. In this sense, a revitalized axial public space unrolls from north to south Komagome, in order to better connect the two parts and to generate fluid flow from them. Furthermore,

the preexisting functions in the core of Komagome are integrated in an over-all design, a new compact centrality is designed to improve the already-existing potentiality of the district and generate a focal point for the community. Minimal actions through the axial space are provided, by means of a remanagement of urban furniture which gives also a unified urban scheme for Komagome, useful for everybody since point of gathering adequate for all. For example, the widespread

yoshino plaza could become the entering gate of the district

Komagome Komagome metro station

191

more visible access for komagome

komagome

komagome metro station

yoshino memorial plaza

new attracting activities

somei street

regeneration of urban quality starting from the existent potentialities

somei street

192

habits of plants gardening could be improved and become a strong identity for the neighborhood, linked to “static” facilities, such as benches and sitting places. Finally, thanks to Machizukuri’s workshops opinions, needs and food for thoughts come out for the future action plan. In fact, the importance of taking part of Ariga Lab has been crucial for the consecutive planning of the project: without the active participation in the team, who has explained the current situation and the real needs of Komagome, combined with a later personal in-depth analysis of Japanese public space, it would impossible to understand the Japanese framework and to beget the project. Specifically, the most likely risk would transplant a European model in a completely different urban and cultural dimension, which would surely reject it. In conclusion, the most useful guidelines extrapolated from the Machizukuri workshops, from the personal research and sensibility arisen after different surveys are schematically the following. •

Create an entrance gate

Exploiting the presence of YoshinoCherry Tree memorial square is an important issue and at this aim the exit from

Komagome station could be transformed in a welcoming gate, inviting visitors to discover the history of Komagome. The position of the small plaza, just besides the train station, is rather strategic since it is the only enclosed public space in the Hongo Street closed to Komagome. The combination of entering gate and a more visible access to Komagome could be important to attract external people, such as tourists. For example, Komagome’s north exit faces to a small pedestrian street, eliminating the gradient between “insideoutside”, between this small street and the main street Hongo, could be possible to make the entrance in Komagome more visible. The presence of two brownfields in this small street could become the potential to create new functions, such as commercials or green relaxing space. The idea is to recreate a second shorter Shimofuri Street (the commercial street on the north part of Komagome). In this part is due to the presence of the metro station and consequentially the railways, besides the small street, the residential density is lower, allowing the existence of small commerce, such as frame-shop, thermal bath, vending machine, a small hotel and coffee shop. Finally, facing Hongo Street, there is the Daikoku Shrine, which today is enclosed in a narrow fenced space: the project could open the space in order to better interact with the surrounding elements.

fluid access to all part and activities of Komagome

sakura park

komagome elementary school

194 urban furniture and language allowing more fluidity and orientation inside the neighborhood

Towards the Samurai Park and Elementary School •

“Axial public space”

According to the result of the public study, it could be important to create a fluid “axial public space”: a unifying walk-path generating a public space for the inhabitants, enhancing by means of new design activities the role of gathering. This revitalized path-way exploits a preexisting system of streets, revitalizing them through urban furniture, green and small activities, such as playground for children. The New Axial also wants to better orientate the visitor from one part to the other of the district by means of the self-evident design thorough the way and informative panels. The axial space has to be pedestrian-oriented in order to maintain the sensation of safety and to permit people to meet in the street, elderly people to sit, children to play etc. Situated in the Axial, there are situated also the

community information panels about the activities of the community; however, the design scheme provides to those space an equipped area creating small meeting point scattered around, with the goal of improving the interactions among people (even starting from the programmed activities happening in the neighborhood, developing a social interest for their own district) and acupuncturist revitalized interventions. Furthermore, the Axial project wants to satisfy these points: o NorthKomagome

south

connection

Since the metro station is located in the north part of Komagome, it is necessary to connect the neighborhood from north to south. In fact, the maze of narrow streets makes the orientation inside the district

195 clear paths reaching the various parts of komagome thanks to a global vision of urban furniture

Sakura Park and Elementary School

orientation inside the neighborhood, connection north - south

Komagome Elementary School

Shimofuri Shopping Street

Sakura Park

196 useful urban furniture to rest and create meeting space; considering all generations

komagome elemetary school

Towards the Shimofuri Shopping Street new community spaces

english school

Towards the Shimofuri Shopping Street

chocolate factory

197 regeneration of dismiss area of Komagome in order to conceive new activities

sakura park

Towards shimofuri street

198

rather difficult for external visitors, not only because of the lack of signalization, but also because there are is not a real fluidity, in the sense of a clear path, connecting the north part with the south and vice-versa. The more connectivity could help people to easily reach the interesting point of the district and have a clearer over-all view of Komagome. In addition, this axial path could be a guideway in case of dangerous situation to escape from the district. In general, one important point is the

natural feature of Komagome: the big slope between north and south, particularly, the south area is higher than the north. This peculiarity is a specific problem for the population living in Komagome, since the majority of it is elderly people and they cannot afford the steep slope between the two main areas. For this reason, they avoid moving, or even they used the car for very short distances. For this reason, one important need expressed by the community is the importance on having some spaces all along the way in order to make a break during

revitalization of green areas, implementing the existent

Towards Elementary school

Towards Sakura Park

199

the walk. At the present moment, there is completely lack in urban furniture which could help elderly people to sit down and take a rest. The slope is even not provided of handrails. The challenge for the new design is to integrate this exigence in the project, which, maybe, could become a common language in all the part of Komagome where there slope is present. In other words, in order to create a cohesive and coherent urban project for the community, the new project should try to figure out a solution which always takes care, first of all, the

needs of the population, but also to have a global vision of the neighborhood, taking into consideration the already existing potentialities. o

invite people to walk and not use the

car One important point is the idea of a more walkable neighborhood. In other terms, what could the streets communicate? What could they transmit? The project wants to push people to re-find the pleasure to stroll in the entire quarter by means of a sensorial

revitalization of green areas, developing new ones

Sakura Park Playground

Chocolate factory

200

walk and the quality amelioration of the preexisting public space, or the creation of a new one where the district lacks. The high presence of elderly people and the lack in urban furniture that provides resting area produce an increment of car passing in the district, with the consequential deterioration of pedestrian public life in the streets. However, the sitting furniture could improve in the goal of pushing people to walk, or at least live the urbanity of their neighborhood, instead of using cars, hence they could stop and rest themselves in almost any part of the Axial project, with the general benefit of a decrease of danger and pollution brought by the vehicles. In fact, the least common multiple of the project should be the revitalization of Komagome by means of the managing or creation of a new kind of urban planning, specifically for the public spaces and the street: the aim is to have a global planning vision able to make cohesive and stronger the Komagome urban fabric. In general, one of the goals is to change the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception about the existing situation. o have a global scheme and urban language Generally speaking, according to the relation with the streets, the importance of a new project and urban design is the creation

of a new compact and cohesive network system all the entire Komagome. This complex has to start from the clarification in a more immediate way the orientation in the neighborhood. In other words, by means of signs, urban furniture, clarified paths, indications about the different local landmarks, both the residents and the new visitors should be able to appreciate all the aspects and different spaces in Komagome. The focus is the importance of the public space. In other words, Komagome has many public spaces, a part from the streets, which have a great potentiality, but at the present moment they do not really communicate a strong urban and architectural peculiarity. Concerning this aspect, the lack an urban strength is probably the consequence in the lack of dialogue between these spaces and the surrounding context, and, in general, a lack urbanistic global design project. The importance to create a Komagome more walkable is due to the will in make people revalue the importance of walking, in particular for elderly people. Doing that, a series of sensation could be called to help in this aim. For example, the project sees the interaction of all the senses, smell, hearing, touching and sight. Everything considering the pleasantness during all the seasons, for example during summer, the new design

201

should take into consideration a protection from the sun and the warm, generally, taking into consideration the natural environment all around and the changing the seasons. According to the latter, in fact, the new design and project should take into account the particularity of Japan: here, the seasons are very articulated; hence each one has its one peculiarity and attractiveness to show and exploit. In making more walkable Komagome by means of discover of the senses, the new project will consider also the last aspect mentioned. For example, exploiting the force of the natural elements, such as the cherry trees, symbol of japan, or flowers or fruit trees etc., the visitors, like as the resident, see Komagome under another perspective. Moreover, it is fundamental that the global vision of the project has as effort the creation of visual/perceptive continuity all the entire neighborhood: even very small, but precisely punctual interventions, linked by a common and global vision, could try to revitalize the entire Komagome. This common language is the urban design. The latter should be planned in a practical way, for example placed to rest for elderly people, but also in a pleasing and amusing way, for the youngest users; the importance is to eliminate the physical barrier, such as the slope for the elderly people, make people rediscover the pleasure to walk in a

more sensorial and equipped neighborhood in order to minimize the car using. â&#x20AC;˘

Centrality of Komagome

As abovementioned, the core of Komagome shelters a great potentiality to create a strong central identity of the district. The concentration of functions, leisure with parks, social with the community-house and religious with the Someiinari Shrine, already generates a focal point for the inhabitants. However, it is important to create a solider design scheme that synergistically put in relation those functions and create a dialogue among them. â&#x20AC;˘ regenerate the preexisting green for a greener district One of the first characteristics striking the visitor is the number of plant-gardening, vases and flowers present in Komagome. From the workshops emerges is the gardening passion of people and their love for green areas. In fact, an important need is the revitalization of the preexisting green areas, which in some case today are unpleasant space to use, and to reinforce the necessity of gardening. The project wants to enhance this special feature and transform it as a potential architectural and urban language for the overall vision of Komagome.

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203

b . G en er a l C on c l u s i on s

In this research I moved from a general overview and outline of the district of Komagome, contextualized in the dimension of Tokyo, showing the two coexisting, and diametrical opposite, dimensions of the metropolis: the international, chaotic and cosmopolite neuralgic poles and the small, familiar and poise human-scale neighborhoods as Komagome. Through a brief historical overview of Komagome, and the documents I analyzed in the Ariga Laboratory’s archives, I showed how the historical matrix is highly visible in the today context of the district, affecting the structure and organization of the district and imposing limits, for instance about national regulation on safety. After the description of the general feature of the district inside Tokyo and the analysis of its specificity, I moved toward the main focus of my research, regarding public space and its regeneration. Through an itinerary and a deep diagnosis of each Komagome’s public space, I gradually discovered the Japanese, and Komagome, way of thinking about public space and especially the community space of the district, often invented around small areas originally dedicated to other aims. The community needs about public space have been deepened trough the complex organization of the participatory processes, the Machizukuri. All those steps have allow me to define a draft outlines for a future development of public space in Komagome, based on very small, and hopefully appropriate, intervention that I

defined acupuncture point of action. At the end of my research, the study has many conclusions. The first one is the discovery of a community in a small neighborhood in Tokyo and the exploration of a public space as defined by the residents themselves: in other words, I progressively moved toward the idea of community-space in designing my draft guidelines for public space. Thus, I investigated about the urban context of this area, starting from the critical issues and the needs of the community living there. Moving from those prerequisites, I clarified also that the community is not a static element, but it continuously evolves, and hence even the relationship between public and community space has to be dynamic and to develop according to the evolution of the needs. Actually, in my guidelines it is not considered the “’beautification’: in Japan aesthetic concerns have never been a major preoccupation” (Hein, 2001, p. 224). In other words, in Japanese urban planning the aesthetic value of the planning is considered the less important than other factors. In particular, the most suitable concepts, describing the Japanese urban planning guidelines, are “Anzen [safe], sumiyasui [easy to live in], miryokuteki [charming]” (Hein, 2001, p.224). Anzen refers principally to the disaster prevention and then the security of living inside the neighborhood; sumiyasui denotes the quality of human resident’s relationships;

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finally miryokuteki shelters the idea of unique element characterizing the area (Hein, 2001). All those features perfectly fit with the analysis I made. In fact, thanks to my participation of Machizukuri workshops, I realized that there were two principal and critical issues. The first one linked to quality of life of an elderly community and the consequential exigence of the urban planning regeneration to repopulate the neighborhood with younger generations. The second one is the necessity to redevelop the district that it could prevent a natural disaster catastrophe. Sumiyasui, miryokuteki, and anzen. In the final guidelines all those aspects are taken into consideration. Thus, I tried to outline an axial public space trying to improve the particular human-scale context characterizing Komagome, enhancing the community passion and needs for green areas (miryokuteki). The re-management of Yoshino Cherry Tree memorial park is an example to highlight the history and the unique tradition of the district. Moreover, the very small interventions (acupuncture) spread all over the neighborhood, have the aim of supporting and developing also the human relationship, together with the implementation of the urban quality of the public/community space (sumiyasui). By means of this itinerary I wanted to increment the fluidity and create a connection north-south and east-west, not only for the residents in their everyday life and in case of emergency situation (anzen), but also

for hypothetical tourist, visiting a traditional neighborhood of Tokyo, revitalizing the area and improving also its attractiveness for youth. Thanks to the participation processes, I discovered the meaning of community needs, which are tangled inside the Machizukuri processes and the many actors involved. I tried to follow the importance of those needs through the community workshops, increasing the quality of the community spaces. However, at the same time, I also realized, as technical figure as I am, the necessity of Komagome, as of many other neighborhoods in Tokyo, of repopulating the district with new generations, by means of a urban regeneration planning, starting from the disaster preventionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s law requirement. Here, the importance of the Machizukuri: informing the residents in order that they could be aware and understand the current situation and be protagonist of the change. Finally, the process plays the fundamental role to put in contact and create a dialogue between the two differing actors, residents and developers, in order to preserve and safeguard the identity of a community. In addition, it is difficult to ignore the importance of Machizukuri, since it is significant to avoid the exacerbation of the two contrasting dimension in Tokyo, the international one (of the neuralgic poles) and the more traditional one, such as Komagome, respecting both and allowing them cohabiting.

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