Tokyo Voi d
RMIT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE SEMESTER 01, 2010 STUDIO PAMPHLET
studio abs t r a c t In addition to being the world’s largest most populated space, Tokyo has one of the world’s highest urban densities. In Tokyo, the amount of open nonbuilt up space is 6% of the urban area; in Melbourne it is around 35%. In Tokyo persons have access to less than one square meter of open space on average, peak poplation density ranging to 13.650 persons per square kilometer. What are some of the consequences for (landscape) architectural design? The personal experience of urban density and the limitations of space, as well as the observation of specific strategies of addressing the lack of space are addressed in the students’ individual reflections of VOID. In the tension between dense and void, the studio explored interventions in small vacant plots of land as a medium of experience and as generator for design. Students developed, tested and implemented a culturally sensitive and site-specific design intervention on the ONDI site, a vacant lot in the historically rich and culturally diverse Yanaka precinct of Tokyo. The very brief engagement with the intensive and demanding environment of Tokyo led to understanding of design possibilities, experimental and cultural limitations, material, documentation, impact and intercultural exchange. The work is linked to Tokyo Void, a research project that is currently undertaken by researchers of The University of Tokyo, Adelaide and RMIT University.
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ONDI Studio Experimentation Site in Tokyo
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RMIT Students on Site in Tokyo
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* This Studio Pamphlet focusses on the Tokyo installation work, April 2010 RMIT Students at Tokyo University
contents Akreety Pradhan Caitrin Daly Hiroshi Yoshinaga Jenny Kim Katerina Krasteva Kelvin Lui Li Ting Khoo Matt Whitehead Natalia Lesmana Aryen Per Yuan Liaw Philip Papas Simone Ling Vonne Yang Xiang Jing
Dr. Marieluise Jonas thanks to:
Hiroshi Ota, Heike Rahmann, Kate Church, Toshiyuki Makizumi, Annie Huang, Taku Inagaki, Rochus Hinkel, Richard Black, Rosalea Monacella
inside-out s i d e [ i n ]
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Akre e t y P r a d h a n , N a t a l i a L e smana
Architecture studio 5, Interior Design Studio 3
The main concept for our intervention was to bring in a spatial quality into the site. We tried to push the idea of an interior perspective into an outdoor environment using a framed box. The box serves as a replica of a window on how we look at things in Tokyo. The strings refers to our first-hand experience throughout Yanaka and Ginza in particular. The “Inside-Outside” concept for the intervention is based on the mappings of the two sites.
In Yanaka, the experience was like a ‘Maze’; we entered into the site from an open space to a more constrained and complexed area, where it was difficult to find our way out. However, in Ginza, the journey was more about going from the outside to the inside; as we walked along the wide streets, we discovered hidden, narrows laneways.
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Caitr i n D a l y , K a t e r i n a K r a s t eva Landscape Architecture studio 3, Architecture Studio 4
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intangible V o i d
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H i r o s hi Yoshinaga, Vonne Yang Xian g J i n g , L i T i n g K h o o Landscape Architecture studio 5, Architecture studio 5, Interior Design Studio 3 Conflict of spaces require negotiations, as found in Yanaka where the cemetery is a public space formed by a number of individual private spaces, our site, ONDI where it is a private property but preferred by the owner to be utilized by the public, or even the street where a conflict is created when the vehicle gives priority to the pedestrians who walks on the road instead of the associated pathway.
Intangible boundaries that exist in between these conflicts of spaces are then compared to the intangible boundaries of personal spaces of the public people in Tokyo. Our analysis argued that the amount of people in the crowd affects intangible voids that co-exist and the sizes of these voids are then related back to the amount of people in the crowd. Our intervention on the ONDI site is a representation of our studies on different types of intangible spaces in various location situated in Tokyo.
spa ce is a f l u i d
J e n n y Kim, Aryen Per Yuan Liaw Architecture studio 4, Landscape Architecture studio 5 Floating spaces between differnt forces YANAKA Transformation of atmosphere at Yanaka. Can feel the hidden force pushing Yanaka away from the rest of the city, isolating and defining itself. GINZA Inside out, outside in. The FAKE transformation spot in the ginza laneway.
Does not feel fully inside nor outside although it is obvious to see that it is a part of a building. It is like a floating space in the middle of nowhere which rises yourself a question. CONCEPT OF OUR DESIGN INSTALLATION ‘Space is a Fluid’ it is always floating in between forces like a Parachute
Y = (G + E x ) + R
K e l v i n Lui, Simone Ling Landscape Architecture studio 5, Interior Design Studio 3 Emergence of the organism and equation Yanaka was found to be a heavily built environment. Further research led to the discovery that Yanaka’s houses and temples by law, are to be torn down and replaced. This meant a constant shift in void space within Yanaka where void spaces will temporarily appear and disappear as according to when buildings are to be destroyed and renewed. Furthermore, mappings of site revealed the idea of geomancy governing the town planning where types of buildings or programs
are grouped together within a district. Therefore, Yanaka has been likened to an organism structure. A structure that too germinates, grows, decay and diminish. This Yanaka organism is thus represented by the following equation: Y = (G + Ex ) + R [Yanaka = (Geomancy+Existing Built Environment to the power of Local/Micro use od space)+Renewal cycle]
M a t t Whitehead, Philip Papas Landscape Architecture studio 3, Architecture studio 5 Our aim was to create a space which acted as a shelter as well as be interactive. We proposed to do this by putting up string lines across the site and asking people to bring their umbrellas, hanging them on the string lines when they arrive at the site. Testing the concept led to realising the unstable nature of the umbrellas with wind so we also looked at ways to quickly fasten them to the string line.
The concept worked with variying levels of success, it kept us drier then the tent, but was voilitle when it came to the wind.