Tokyo diary by Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design

TOKYO diary

Mapping the Megacity

Studio Generale workshop Educational programme 2011 / 2012 Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design 14, bldg. 5A, Bersenevskaya Embankment, Moscow, 119072, Russia www.strelka.com

Tokyo Diary: Mapping the Megacity / 5 Sunday Yokohama: Tokyo’s Front Porch / Anastasia Sheveleva / 12 Yokohama Pier: a difficult birth / Filippo Bazzoni / 14 Yokohama Pier: a successful life / Elena Bykova / 16 Teaching how to create the future / Irina Rudnichenko / 18 Reading Tokyo with Koh Kitayama / Aleхander Novikov / 20 Tokyo Metabolizing / Silvia Franceschini / 22 Room with a view / Marina Antsiperova / 24 Monday Aoyama / Elena Dendiberya / 29 Living in the midst of luxury / Blazej Czuba / 30 Omotesando-dori / Valeriya Chubara / 32 Harajuku / Ricardo Pinho / 34 A fashion brand that turns the city into a theatre / Alexandra Smagina / 36 Kazuyo Sejima. Modest architecture / Victor Ruben / 40 Shibaura House / Marina Laba / 42 Tuesday Hidden Layers : Exploring the many facets of Tokyo University / Tatyana Polyakova / 49 Smart Shrink: A Lecture by Hidetoshi Ohno / Gustavo Cabañez / 51 A Lonely Society: An interview with Hidetoshi Ohno / Lam Le Nguyen / 53 The Labyrinth: Exploring the Maze of Shibuya / Philipp Kats / 55 A Human Anthill: An adventure through Shibuya / Anna Siprikova / 57 Down the Rabbit Hole: Digging Deeper in Shinjuku and Kabuki-Cho / Ruslan Sabirov / 59 The Twilight Zone: Tasting Tokyo Concentrate / Nat Chamayeva / 60 Taking Art to the City: A lecture by Masato Nakamura / Maria Semenenko / 63 Wednesday The best guide in Tokyo is an Australian architect / Elena Arkhipova / 68 Roppongi & Midtown / Ekaterina Pavlenko & Tihana Vucic / 72 An Objective Record of an Exhibition at the Mori Art Museum / Natalia Kopeikina / 76 Atelier Bow-Wow / Daliya Safiullina / 78 Tokyo Screen Culture / Alena Zaytseva / 80 Thursday Tokyo West / Matiss Groskaufmanis / 86 Yoyogi Park / Ekaterina Varionchik / 88 Nakano. Part One: Station / Ekaterina Izmestieva / 90 Nakano. Part Two: Broadway / Mikhail Kozlov / 92 Thoughts in Transit: interview with Junya Ishigami / Carlos Medellin / 94 Friday Architecture without originality: interview with Toyo Ito / Dace Gurecka / 100 Ito School. New type of Education / Tatiana Mamaeva / 102 Saturday Mirrored City / Roman Kuchukov / 106 How to build a metabolizing city? / Adeola Enigbokan / 107 Tokyo Backwater / Maria Kosareva / 110 Broadcast Architecture / Olga Sarapulova / 114 Radio Activity / Anton Kalgaev / 118

contents

Introduction

Tokyo Diary: Mapping the Megacity Strelka Institute offers a nine-month post-graduate educational programme in English with a special focus on the city. The programme relies on a holistic approach to architecture, media and design, cross-disciplinarity and creative research to offer new solutions to urban challenges. Each year students go for a field trip as a part of their curriculum, and in 2011 they went to Tokyo. This trip was part of a workshop that aimed to explore Tokyo as a living organism, a composite of diverse districts that each have their own identity. During the course of the workshop students explored Tokyo’s public spaces and contemporary housing, and met with visionary architects who see the future for Tokyo in spontaneous change. Upon return to Moscow the last week of the autumn term was devoted to the production of Tokyo Diary, a Strelka publication – this time modelled on a magazine – that documents student experiences and research findings during the field trip. Each student was assigned a section of the Tokyo programme to produce one double-page spread of the booklet, and was responsible for writing an essay to describe the assigned portion of the program, along with other material (photographs, graphs, etc). As a result, Tokyo Diary is divided into seven chapters, each one dedicated to a certain day in the program. Students responsible for certain days in the trip teamed up and worked together on designing their own chapter. This explains the extreme diversity of design and structure across the publication. There is no doubt that the production of Tokyo Diary proved to be a valuable part of the educational process, helping the students not only to reflect on their experiences but also to learn to collaborate with each other.

Sunday November

Monday November

Tuesday November

Wednesday November

Thursday December

Friday December

Saturday December

9:00 – 10:30

11:30 – 18:00

10:00 – 12:00

10:30 – 12:00

9:30 – 18:00

9:30 – 13:00

11:00

Transfer to Youth Hostel

Aoyama / Omote-sando /

Lecture

Atelier Bow-Wow studio /

Tokyo’s West part

Preparation for afternoon

Transfer to

11:00 – 12:00

Harajuku fashion areas

Designing for Shrinkage

house (Yotsuya)

Semi-suburban sprawl

session with Julian

Day Nice Hotel

19:00 – 19:30

by Hidetoshi Ohno

12:00 – 12:30

with vernacular

Worrall as tutor

Address: 1-1, Kiba,

Lecture

Tokyo University

Lunch

urban cultures,

Students are asked to

Koto-ku, Tokyo

Lunch

Kazuyo Sejima

12:00 – 12:30

14:00 – 16:00

from Kichijoji to

present their

13:00 – 17:00

11:30 – 18:30

Shibaura House

Lunch

Lecture

Nakano to

observations

Optional

Train to Yokohama

schedule

12:00 – 13:00

Lecture

13:30 – 16:30

Metabolism Exhibit Walk

Koenji towns along

to Prof. Kitayama and

Tokyo’s East

Koh Kitayama and

Shibuya

with Hajime Yatsuka &

the Chuo line;

moderators

part Old

Moderators Y-GSA

16:30 – 19:30

Shohei Imamura

Shimokitazawa

downtown

Mori Art Museum

18:00 – 20:00

13:00 – 14:00

Shinjuku

Lunch

Asakusa area /

17:30 – 18:30

20:00 – 21:30

16:00 – 18:00

Lecture

14:00 – 17:00

Sky Tree tower /

19:00 – 20:30

Masato Nakamura

Roppongi Hills and

Junya Ishigami

Discussion

Sumida

Dinner in Yokohama

Arts Chiyoda

Midtown

Yoyogi Youth Center

Visit Yokohama Pier by FOA

20:30 – 21:30 Back to Tokyo

Y-GSA on Tokyo’s

Renaissance

18:30 – 21:00

urban condition and

Plan site /

Lecture

Student Presentation

Toyosu and

Teppei Fujiwar,

Yoyogi Youth Center

Tokyo Bay

Julian Worrall and

17:00 – 18:00

areas with

Kaoko Namori

Move by train to Ito

waterfront

lecture

development

Yoyogi Youth Center

18:00 – 20:00 Toyo Ito on Disaster Recovery Toyo Ito’s School near Roppongi

schedule

Yokohama: Tokyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Front Porch / Anastasia Sheveleva / 12 Yokohama Pier: a difficult birth / Filippo Bazzoni / 14 Yokohama Pier: a successful life / Elena Bykova / 16

Teaching how to create the future / Irina Rudnichenko / 18

Reading Tokyo with Koh Kitayama / Alexander Novikov / 20 Tokyo Metabolizing / Silvia Franceschini / 22 Room with a view / Marina Antsiperova / 24

Sunday November

10 11

27 Sunday

12 13

27 Sunday

by Filippo Bazzoni

27 Sunday

Alexander Novikov, Yokohama Pier, 2011

16 17

27 Sunday

18 19

27 Sunday

by Alexander Novikov

22 23

27 Sunday

by Marina Antsiperova

Aoyama / Elena Dendiberya / 29

Living in the midst of luxury / Blazej Czuba / 30 Omotesando-dori / Valeriya Chubara / 32 Harajuku / Ricardo Pinho / 34

A fashion brand that turns the city into a theatre / Alexandra Smagina / 36 Kazuyo Sejima. Modest architecture / Victor Ruben / 40 Shibaura House / Marina Laba / 42

Monday November

28 29

28 Monday

30 31

28 Monday

Omotesando 28 Monday

28 Monday

DORI

34 35

28 Monday

A fashion label that transforms the city into a theatre

40 41

28 Monday

42 43

28 Monday

Hidden Layers : Exploring the many facets of Tokyo University / Tatyana Polyakova / 49 Smart Shrink: A Lecture by Hidetoshi Ohno / Gustavo Caba単ez / 51

A Lonely Society: An interview with Hidetoshi Ohno / Lam Le Nguyen / 53 The Labyrinth: Exploring the Maze of Shibuya / Philipp Kats / 55

A Human Anthill: An adventure through Shibuya / Anna Siprikova / 57

Down the Rabbit Hole: Digging Deeper in Shinjuku and Kabuki-Cho / Ruslan Sabirov / 59 The Twilight Zone: Tasting Tokyo Concentrate / Nat Chamayeva / 60

Taking Art to the City: A lecture by Masato Nakamura / Maria Semenenko / 63

Tuesday November

Shinjuku: The twilight zone

A lecture by Masato Nakamura at Arts Chiyoda

Exploring the many facets of Tokyo University

An interview with Hidetoshi Ohno

Exploring the maze of Shibuya

An adventure through Shibuya 46

A lecture by Hidetoshi Ohno 47

29 Tuesday

Digging deeper in Shinjuku and Kabuki-Cho

Tokyo University

Hidden Layers

“building of the future” with movable parts within it’s structure. Another student made a double kaleidoscope

Exploring the many facets of Tokyo Unversity

that revealed combined video feeds to the viewer. One

Tatyana Polyakova

more project, named HAKOJIMA, combined architecture and design in the form of a toolkit for communi-

With over 30,000 students and 10 departments, Tokyo

cation between people of different backgrounds, with

University is one of the most reputable universities in

a focus on wind energy. I admired the students’ desire

Japan. Although the campus is very attractive with trees

to apply their artistic

surrounding classical architecture creating a serene at-

“There was a media-art student’s exhibition on display in a dark windy space”

mosphere that is conductive to education. The soul of the university lies within its hidden layers, which I found by chance while exploring the campus. On a “guideless” trek I came upon a weathered advertisement, forgotten from the days long before winter. My curiosity brought me inside a neo-classical building.

lems. Tokyo

University

very accommodating to visitors of different cul-

Lounge, which read, “Make friends with Japanese/inter-

stylish art space. Friendly students approached me and

national students and staff! Let’s have lunch and chat

enthusiastically explained their unusual ideas. I was sur-

together!”

prised to find that they were studying communications and not art.

My memories of the university are of innovative thinking and friendly social interaction.

One project featured an origami design in the form of a plant that could actually grow. It was presented as a

29 Tuesday

remember an advertisement for “International Friday”

in a dark windy space. I found great inspiration in this 29 Tuesday

solutions to global prob-

tures and nationalities. I

There was a “media art” student’s exhibition on display

talents toward practical

Tokyo University

Smart Shrink

The “Ohno Laboratory”, which is a name used by Ohno and his students of the Graduate School of Frontier

A lecture by Hidetoshi Ohno

Sciences, The University of Tokyo, presents four specific

Gustavo Cabañez

strategies: Green Finger, The Green Web, Green Partition, and Urban Wrinkle. The strategies are

“Designing to Shrinkage”

different ways to react to this phenomena with different

by Professor Hidetoshi Ohno

approaches and scales within the city. The presentation

Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo

includes the exhibitions and lectures that this research

29th November, 2011

have achieved since 2005.

“If the 20th century was the age of growth, 21st century is the age of shrinkage”

Professor Ohno proposing a design strategy which focuses on the actual situation of Japan specifically the ageing and consequential decrease in population. By 2055, the elderly population will increase to 30%, whilst the whole population will have decreased by 40%.

29 Tuesday

This design strategy was created after a very detailed

an intense questions and answers session featuring Strelka deep

students

with

concerns

and

impressions about this situation.

All

the

reactions were fully resolved by Ohno.

analysis of a “system of limits” like natural resources, economy issues and the human body and some other

For more information his proposals are detailed on the

facts like other nations similar problems, fertility rates,

following website:

lonely societies and suicide rates.

http://www.fibercity2050.net/eng/fibercityENG.html

Ohno states that, “Shrinking is inevitable, but we can do it well”. Fiber City for the year 2050 is the name for this proposal to deal with the shrinking Japan in a smart way – the “smart shrink”.

The lecture finished with

29 Tuesday

This lecture was prepared for Strelka Students by

Tokyo University

A Lonely Society

welfare needed for their employees and wanted them to be more independent and make more money.” Ohno’s

An interview with Hidetoshi Ohno

central contention is that a shift to a more individualist

Lam Le Nguyen

economy has resulted in what he calls a “lonely society.” Consequently, the “lonely society” is one of Ohno focus’

Following the lecture that was given at Tokyo Univer-

in his Shrinking Cities hypothesis.

sity, Prof. Hidetoshi Ohno gave both an interview and a question and answer session to clarify some key points

Ohno argues that a “Lonely society” should be “fixed,”

of his hypothesis’ Fiber and Shrinking Cities. His main

and this forms basis of some of his proposals. Ohno

contention is that, due to the declining population (if

“These are places where people come to learn to play”

current birthrate continues, the population of Japan will halve by 2100), Japanese cities will ‘Shrink’ and thus face serious problems in the future, which are consequently the focus of his Fiber City proposal. In our interview, Ohno reiterates many of the issues raised in the lecture,

interact with each other in the community,” and “Club Med” as an ex-

this. Club Med, as Ohno explains is “a place where

changing nature of Japanese industry as a major cause a

teaching people how to play.” To counter the loneliness Ohno proposes community kitchens, which are cen-

During our interview Prof. Ohno talks about the chang-

ters where residents of areas will come together, meet

ing nature of Japanese industrial output as affecting the

and interact. Ohno envisions his community kitchens

social structure of Japan, consequently causing a “lonely

as places where people “will learn to interact with each

society” which affects shrinkage. When talking about

other.” Just as Club Med is a place where people learn

a change in working mentality, he argues that “a shift

to play, Ohno’s community kitchens are places where

from a communal to an individualistic society” has fol-

people will learn to interact.

lowed from an “increase in competitiveness”. Ohno asserts that “before the 1990s Japanese companies were

Talking with Ohno was revealing about the state of

famous for family-minded company management – the

Japanese society. Ohno’s central contention of shrinking

president would treat company employees like their

cities was demonstrated eloquently in his talk. Although

children.” He remarks that previously, “the company

we had heard in the lecture about Shrinking Cities in

was involved in every aspect of one’s life, such as lodging

relation to birth rate, by describing the lonely society,

and welfare, so once you were in a company you could

Ohno also demonstrated how a highly industrialized

feel at home.” Ohno remarks repeatedly that this was

mentality could lead to negative effects. From Professor

the case when he “was a child”.

Ohno’s interview and talk we could see that he is deeply passionate about the future of Japan, and although he

When talking about the changes, Ohno specifies the

explained the current problems it is clear that he is

1990s as the key fulcrum point. Due to globalization and

hopeful that with some interventions, the future can be

the end of the bubble economy in Japan, Ohno asserts

a bright place.

that “companies were forced to be in a very competitive situation – companies were unable to provide the

29 Tuesday

everything is prepared for holidaymakers, including

“lonely society”. 29 Tuesday

should be taught how to

ample of how to achieve

however, a significant point which he talks about is the

declares that “citizens

Shibuya

The Labyrinth

Tokyo’s center. The Seibu Railway Company played a similar role in two neighboring areas during the 1950s.

Exploring the maze of Shibuya Philipp Kats

Shibuya is an informal public space that seems less a product of architecture than of advertising. However,

The Shibuya neighborhood is at the center of Shibuya

you can still feel the human scale of nearby streets. They

ward, with nearly a million people within its bounds. It

intimate, and buildings offer public or semi-public space

is known as a center of fashion and night life. Shibuya

up to the 7th floor.

began to develop rapidly after the construction of the Yamanote train line in 1885. It has since become the

Shibuya Station opens onto Hachiko Square, which has

fourth busiest commuter-rail station in Japan.

recently been attracting flash mobs, protests against

“It has a complicated network of urbanity all converging into one magnificent labyrinth”

filled with department stores, malls, boutiques and restaurants. It has a complicated network of underground tunnels and high-level passes combining several department stores, metro stations, and JR-lines all converging 29 Tuesday

into one magnificent labyrinth.

other

gatherings

that challenge the strict control of local authorities. The square is also a popular place to hang

out, show off new styles, meet with friends, or relax for

Tokyo can be compared to a pizza; each slice belongs

a minute after shopping. Like several other areas (for ex-

to a specific conglomerate. The city was developed by

ample, Harajuku), this place has already become home

large companies who bought land and then added trans-

for new subcultures. Here you will see kawaii girls,

port lines, department stores and residential buildings.

dressed in various manga-style dresses and representa-

Before WWII, the Ministry of Transport didn’t allow

tives of dozens of other subcultures (kawaii in Japanese

private railway companies to build stations inside the

means “pretty, cute, lovely”). Shibuya is also the origin

Yamanote ring in central Tokyo. This led to the devel-

of girlish kogal subculture, which is connected to sun-

opment of new urban centers around major transfer

tanned California Valley girls. Probably, same way it will

points. Shibuya is a result of competition between two

become the origin for a lot of new subcultures that will

railway companies - the Tokyu Corporation and the

born on Shibuya streets in future.

Seibu Railway Company. The Tokyu Corporation linked the national line to suburban farmland after a major earthquake in the early 1920s, as people moved out of

nuclear plants, and

29 Tuesday

Shibuya is one of the most crowded places in Tokyo,

Shibuya

A Human Ant Hill

buy everything. Someone told me that what is in fashion now in Shibuya will be in fashion everywhere else

An adventure through Shibuya

in two years. You will not surprise anyone at this place

Anna Siprikova

with anything.

Shibuya is a popular youth district of Tokyo. Shibuya

“I wanted very badly to become a wealthy Japanese teenager, and to buy everything”

Scramble Crossing is one of the most crowded intersections in the world. It famously appeared in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” and 2 millions of people pass through it everyday. A bunch of department stores - Tokyu, Seibu, Loft, and Parco, museums, restaurants, night clubs, sex clubs and love-hotels are located at

faithful dog. There are not so many monuments in Tokyo, as in Europe, and this one is probably

ing point in the city. In the 1920s, a professor from

cause of the bright neon lights, advertising, enormous

the University of Tokyo kept a small Akita dog named

video screens, and colorful throngs of people. The in-

Hachiko. At the end of each day, Hachiko would wait

tersection gives an impression of human ant hill, it is

to greet his owner at Shibuya Station. This continued

huge, it has a great deal more than four directions, and

the train because he suffered a fatal heart attack at the

the sides.

university that day. But loyal Hachiko continued to wait for him every day at the same time for the next nine

In the daytime Shibuya is a quiet place with beauti-

years. Hachiko died on 8 March 1935 while waiting for

ful streets and shopping areas. But this may have been

his master. The statue was erected in 1934, and Hachiko

only because we were lucky and there weren’t so much

was present at the unveiling.

people that day. But there were no crowds and unusually dressed Japanese teenagers too, though, wandering

It’s worth “spending a little life” in this area for one

through the shopping malls in this area of Tokyo, which

night or one day.

is considered to be a trendsetter’s district. I wanted very badly to become a wealthy Japanese teenager, and to

29 Tuesday

until May 1925, when the professor did not return on

the green lights are illuminated simultaneously from all

29 Tuesday

you can find a statue of

the most famous meet-

Shibuya. Don’t get mad when you find yourself here be-

Also in Hachiko Square

Shinjuku

Down the Rabbit Hole

Starting

Digging deeper in Shinjuku and Kabuki-Cho Ruslan Sabirov

Shinjuku), Golden Gai is a small area of tiny shanty-style

tiny door and a bottle labelled “drink me.”

bars

is really apparent! It’s easy to start reflecting on

unique place, well-known for red-light streets, sex-

habitualness in everything around you while you roam

related establishments, small restaurants with all kind of

Shinjuku.

nightlife, bars sprawling all along the way. I should’ve guessed what it looks like, but you never know until you 29 Tuesday

part of Shinjuku Gyoen garden, but this is not true. You can find there the spirit of traditional Japanese culture:

Each night Shinjuku renews

tea house and Hanami ceremony – cherry blossom

“I should have guessed what it looks like but you never know until you find yourself here”

viewing on the Spring. Here your mind leaves you on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for yourself.

every night! People look happy when they are here. Just by walking with them you become a guest at a “mad hatters” Japanese tea party.

29 Tuesday

You may have thought you can play cricket in English

find yourself there.

realise is that this happens

actors,

largest concentration of skyscrapers. The urban variety

right. Kabuki-cho is a part of Shinjuku district and it is

that night, but what I came to

artists,

can be very close to Nishi skyskrapers, which is Tokyo’s

and fun place, known well in each parts of Tokyo. I was

was a major event happening

where

Walking here through two-storeyed wooden houses you

their reaction, I assumed that Kabuki-cho is a famous

of being here. It felt like there

clubs,

“You become a guest at a Japanese Mad Hatter’s tea party”

famous architects and directors gather together.

show me the way to Kabuki-cho, they all smiled. By

lights, sounds and exhiliration

and

musicians,

When I stopped some passersby and asked them to

each night to revel in the

international

(close to the city hall of

At the bottom, you will find yourself in a room with a

itself. Different people come

with

karaoke bars on the north

Shinjuku

The Twilight Zone

and

Paradoxically, in its resilience to such large-scale

Japanese people, who are usually believed to be

Masato Otaka intended to preserve this unique

planning, Shinjuku has remained a living illustration

very restrained, calm and individual, transform here.

atmosphere while working on Shinjuku redevelopment

of metabolist ideas of fluidity, multiplication and

If you want to see that happen, come to Shinjuku

project in 1960. Their approach intended to maintain

diversification of urban forms and human practices that

after 10 pm, when streets are boiling with anticipation

the synthetic image of the district and its human focus.

remain highly adaptive and open to change.

of pleasure and people stream down here from other

Metabolist

Tasting Tokyo concentrate Nat Chamayeva

Mobility is the basic human right, says Ohno

architects

Maki

parts of the city to relax after the day’s button-up work.

University. Walking around Shinjuku, one can’t agree

“Multiplied, diverse & fluid”

more. With its largest railway station in the world, and 4 mln people passing through it daily, with its busy streets and noisy advertising, this place is the essence of mobility itself. Historically urban development of Shinjuku started around a carriage station.The district’s name derives from

it took up the form of ‘shopping town’. Multi-faceted and multi-layered, Shinjuku has no architectural landmarks

cial ground around the train

flows here, one can’t stop wondering, how all this

kids take their uniform off, dress up for cruising and

station

east

came to be. Beneath all the sparkling advertising,

stroll along restaurant alleys. Bosses take their employ-

linking

its

a dense network of corporate interests is embodied in

ees out for beer and sake. Tongues get loose, hierarchies

buildings and businesses. This district has been the cross-

go off., and in the morning all will be forgotten.

and increase the intensity of metabolism. Shinjuku would

ing point for several major transport corporations, such as

be separated into three functional areas: office towers

JR East, Odakyu Electric Railway, Keio Electric Railway,

Approaching Shinjuku’s famous red light district,

the

west,

for

the

and

shopping

amusement

tabolists

in this area. 90% destroyed in 1945, after reconstruction

Managers, bureaucrats, college students, and school

would

tury when one of the largest roads of that period was built

Looking at diversity of space and density of human

allow more flexibility for existing interactions

and

‘new’ (shin) and ‘station’ (juku), taking us back to 17 cen-

According to the plan, artifi-

west

sites

parks

in in

architectural

proposed

sides

create

the

south,

Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway. All of them represent

one notices suspicious young males picking out women

the

east.

large conglomerates of terminal department stores,

for sex industry. Kabukicho is a supermarket of sexual

me-

developers and other companies.

services, from live peep shows and video cabins

solution,

prefabricated

modular megastructures with cells connected to

Lately Shinjuku has turned into one of the

next door. Shinjuku Ni-chome, Tokyo’s largest gay area,

functional cores. Through the means of design

most vibrant districts of Tokyo. It managed

is also located nearby.

and architecture, Shinjuku as a whole would become

other than facades with blinking advertising. However,

an object of civil engineering.

you won’t mistake it for any other part of the city.

to collective blind dates that may end in a love hotel

“Retro-futuristic, upscale & trashy”

to overcome the stagnation after the bubble

Golden Gai district is another radically subversive space

collapsedin1991andbusi-

of Shinjuku. It is a former postwar black market site and

nesses declined in most

a prostitution hub with one floor wooden houses and

parts of the city. The headquarters of many large national

bars the size of a double bed. In late 60s this was a

and global businesses are located here now, as well as

vibrant counterculture center. It is still popular with

the metropolitan government of Tokyo and other

radical intellectuals and all sorts of celebrities, including

administrative offices of the city.

Rem Koolhaas, a regular guest of La Jetee bar, which

“Radically subversive”

Coming to this area today feels like having an injection of

condensed

Tokyo

experience,

a 20th century city was compressed to a 1 km cube

accomodates

guests

purchasing a bottle of your favorite booze from a local bar

and placed in the 21 century Tokyo. What used to be

and keeping it here for years. Time will pass, the bar-

a futuristic model of an ideal commercial city,

keeper will die, replaced by his breed, and Tokyo

now looks like a retro-futuristic mixture of upscale

metabolism will alter the face of the city. But your bot-

and trashy, formal and obscene, standalone and

tle will stay here with your name on it, next to those of

horizontal. Julian Worrall, an architect and our Tokyo

Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Binoche and Stanley Ku-

guide, calls Shinjuku “the twilight zone”.

brick. Waiting for you to return. And one day you will. 1. Tokyo public transport http://mappery.com/ 2, 3. Shinjuku redevelopment plan, 1960 4. Golden Gai http://goo.gl/QR1Qr

most. There is a tradition of

29 Tuesday

Hishedoshi, architect and professor from Tokyo

29 Tuesday

Fumihiko

Arts 3331 Chiyoda

Taking Art to the City

and receivers, art and the city, and Tokyo, Asia and the world. He therefore states that art should not to be hid-

A lecture by Masato Nakamura and an examination of 3331 Arts Chiyoda

den from people.

Maria Semenenko

To advance this concept, in 2010 Nakamura founded the art school called 3331 Arts Chiyoda. The key feature

The modern artist Masato Nakamura’s lecture was a

of its design is an openness to the public. The school is

logical link in the chain of events that happened to us

an art space which everyone can enter at ease, including

during our stay in Tokyo. His philosophy stresses a gen-

a wide range of spaces which visitors can enjoy for free.

eral line of openness and transparency and reveals an approach of solving problems through conversations with

In Japan names are not just names, there is always a

each other and the environment.

deep meaning that is hidden in them. So, the name ‘3331’ is the traditional ‘Edo Ippon Tejime’ handclap translat-

what the contribution of artists to the contemporary

“Art should not be behind closed doors”

society is. The answer is that art can be a tool to reduce

29 Tuesday

the barriers between the ‘city’ and the ‘community’.

“The community should be the starting point for finding answers to critical issues”

What role does the com-

ally made 3 sets of 3 claps when they want to encourage each other. So, 3+3+3 is 9 that means ‘stress’. But then a final single

clap comes to expel all that stress. Thus, ‘3331’ means the

munity play according to

motion from the stress to ‘the purified space circle’.

Nakamura? Instead of the traditional approach

Arts Chiyoda is organized like a community. There is a

when all changes are

shared space where students have a possibility to come

the result of top-down

to each other to share any information they want. At the

decisions Nakamura as-

same time students have their own private rooms where

sumes that the community should be the starting point

they can isolate themselves. On the first floor there is

for finding answers to crucial issues. This approach re-

a gallery that presents an exciting range of exhibitions

minded me of an ‘a hourglass’ - where you start from

highlighting 3331’s unique vision of the art scene.

talking with the community, then you analyze the information you got and finally disseminate the results back

Arts Chiyoda is an exciting place with a noble mission.

to the community. Thus, Nakamura stresses the role of

It can be example to all new schools for young artists

contemporary artists who shouldn’t be far away from

appearing in Moscow.

the reality. They should be open to the other world. Moreover, almost all of Masato Nakamura’s art projects are aimed to create links. He sees links between: makers

ed into numbers. Japanese usu-

29 Tuesday

What’s more, the main issue he raises in his work is

The best guide in TokyoÂ is an Australian architect / Elena Arkhipova / 68 Roppongi & Midtown / Ekaterina Pavlenko & Tihana Vucic / 72

An Objective Record of an ExhibitionÂ at the Mori Art Museum / Natalia Kopeikina / 76 Atelier Bow-Wow / Daliya Safiullina / 78

Tokyo Screen Culture / Alena Zaytseva / 80

Wednesday November

30 Wednesday

Tokyo Metabolising Exhibition

68 69

30 Wednesday

70 71

30 Wednesday

Roppongi & Midtown

Ekaterina Pavlenko and Tihana Vucic explore the easternly western district

Biography of renewal リニューアルの伝記

Japanese strength seems to come from the extreme

attached to Roppongi, i.e. he was passionate to move

fragility of the environment. The pervasive richness of

away from the problematic image of his birth place.

this layered city grew denser than ever in Akasaka dis-

Similarly, the Midtown development was triggered by

trict of Tokyo with Roppongi Hills and Midtown de-

the relocation of the Japan Defence Agency. And un-

velopment. For a city of radical changes and constant

like Roppongi Hills, there was a bid which was won by

improvement, things don’t get bigger than that.

a six-company consortium. As for today, Roppongi has

Stoked by private capital city’s new landmarks grew

an astonishing figure of 40 million visitors per year,

within the past 10 years and heavily influenced the

80% of which are repeating visitors, and together with

once notoriously western district.

Tokyo Midtown they develop a complementary rather

Not shy for one man’s vision, Tokyo adapted well to

phrase coined for the book of the same name by an

sky-high changes. All-inclusive (combination of office

American reporter Jake Adelstein, portraits the mood

and retail space, with a dash of residential and cultural

of the area still being a fertile ground for mildly

use) was the core concept of self-proclaimed philant-

disruptive behaviour ranging from naked pop-star

ropist Minoru Mori, whose vision lead him through 15

dancing in the park to drug-trafficking.

years of slow negotiations with around 500 house

owners of the area of future Roppongi Hills project.

That echoes the upscale design and makes the overall

Constellation of factors triggered the change. In the

cross-section extremely versatile. One shouldn’t forget

mid 1980s, Tokyo Metropolital Government was

to mention that the initial intention was to create

looking into modernising socially unfavourable and

these spaces as the Tokyo’s international intersection

environmentally dangerous conditions of the area. TV

gates. Still, both sights are equally obsessed with

Asahi was looking for a new headquarters in the same

renaming the predominantly commercial facilities –

place of Roppongi district. Together they approached

Mori by inventing the “Artelligence”, Midtown

Mori Buildings with a redevelopment plan. It also

importing New-York allusion – by exercising creation

coincided with the fact that Mori was personally

of an image of public and cultural centre.

30 Wednesday

than competitive relationship. “Tokyo Vice”, is a

74 75

30 Wednesday

76 77

30 Wednesday

“ Work seemed something fundamental for man, something which enabled him to endure the aimless flight of time.”

According to Kobo Abe, “it’s a dangerous dog that doesn’t bark.”

Atelier Bow - Wow

byDaliya Daliya Safiullina Safiullina by

30 Wednesday

Kaijima and Tsukamoto, the principals of architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow, reveal the secret of their title, “bowwow” being a translation of dog’s barking sound into English.

Considering the world-wide impact and that these partners have created in the field of world architecture due to their innovative housing projects and treatise on vernacular architecture, this “dog” does bark. And loudly.

Spiralling through the tiny vertical spaces I imagine how astronaut experience might be very similar to the one in this “Pet Architecture”, a term coined by Atelier Bow - Wow to describe architecture having “pet like characteristics [small, humorous and charming], existing in the most unexpected places within the Tokyo city limits”.

We find ourselves in one of the tiny back streets of Tokyo. We are standing at the embodied manifesto by Momoyo Kaijima and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto that becomes inseparable from their lifestyle. Their home, architectural office and laboratory are together behind narrow vertical strip of facade squeezed between two residential buildings on a “flag shaped site” with a floor area of only 60 square metres.

Speaking of his home and office where the team of architects behave as an extended family and yet work rigorously from 9am to 11pm daily, Tsukamoto refers to architecture playing the role of a jig for life of a human being – a jig is a preliminary device that a craftsman creates to make an object. Bow-Wow’s architecture defines the subconscious patterns of behaviour within a space. Since life is always ceremonial, Tsukamoto supposes, there should be another way to deal with time. Where as in monumental architecture time scale was perceived as a tunnel, now time is perceived as repetition. Thus, architecture acquires a ceremonial aspect – there are activities that are repeated on a daily basis and celebrate repetition.

Kaijima and Tsukamoto find inspiration in the constraints that highly disciplined and regulated Japanese society poses for architecture and environment situation in Tokyo stating that “constraints can broaden your imagination”. Since they are eager to challenge themselves and see in-between gap spaces between existing structures in a dense urban environments as constraints and reconsider the “leftover site” as the most desired one for their architecture, they are serendipitously turning disadvantages of subproduction into advantages. As we move along the unwrapping space of the Bow-Wow House & Atelier, one becomes mesmerised by the venturesome and successful attempt to enlarge one’s perception of the space and permeability of inner space flow from public to the more intimate places that commingle. Built in 2005, Bow-Wow House & Atelier fully embraces the essence of their conceptual treatise on vernacular architecture developed throughout their career. The way exterior walls are inclined by regulations and the unique sustainable micro climate designed specifically for this project govern the complex interrelationships between behaviours of inhabitants of a space, laws of nature, the built environment and urban space that are synthesised in one chrono and physical entity – architecture.

While working as anthropologists Kaijima and Tsukamoto try to integrate the design and newly formed shared, common spaces within the framework of human relationships. Re-establishing bonds with the society that has replaced personal communication with the smart phone and thus reconstructing people’s confidence in architects, Atelier Bow - Wow materializes concept of fourth generation house, defining their dream for 21st-century as “supporting and encouraging people”. Keeping in mind that the average lifespan for buildings in Tokyo is 26 years, the Atelier Bow-Wow might surprise us with the fifth generation of housing soon.

30 Wednesday

KOBO ABE, The Woman in the Dunes

u r b a n

p e r f o r m a n c e

30 Wednesday

Advertisemen are an important feature of Tokyo

Tokyo West / Matiss Groskaufmanis / 86 Yoyogi Park / Ekaterina Varionchik / 88

Nakano. Part One: Station / Ekaterina Izmestieva / 90 Nakano. Part Two: Broadway / Mikhail Kozlov / 92

Thoughts in Transit: interview with Junya Ishigami / Carlos Medellin / 94

Thursday December

84 85

1 Thursday

86 87

1 Thursday

88 89

1 Thursday

90 91

1 Thursday

92 93

1 Thursday

Architecture without originality: interview with Toyo Ito / Dace Gurecka / 100 Ito School. New type of Education / Tatiana Mamaeva / 102

Friday December

2 Friday

Interview with Toyo Ito by Dace Gurecka

2 Friday

are in

100 101

102 103

2 Friday

Mirrored City / Roman Kuchukov / 106

How to build a metabolizing city ? / Adeola Enigbokan / 107 Tokyo Backwater / Maria Kosareva / 110

Broadcast Architecture / Olga Sarapulova / 114 Radio Activity / Anton Kalgaev / 116

QR-codes are links to videos of the authorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experiences of Tokyo All videos were made by Anton Kalgaev, except for one, which was made by Adeola Enigbokan, Alexander Novikov, Carlos Medellin and Silvia Franceschini

Asakusa Oshiage

Akihabara

Yoyogi-koen

Kamiyacho

Saturday December

Mirrored City

How to build a metabolizing city? One relationship, one neighborhood at a time.

By Roman Kuchukov

By Adeola Enigbokan

The first thing you see inside the Tokyo metro is an abundance of visual information, which occupies almost every surface. In this sense, the subway is a reflection of Tokyo above ground. There are advertising, social ads and navigational information: maps, cross sections, pointers and even axonometric projections. Due to a recent program aimed at increasing the accessibility of the city to foreigners, all information is fully translated into English, including announcements in trains. In my opinion, the metro signage is one of the best examples of infographics in a public place. Each station additionally has its own index composed of a letter and a number, for instance A16 - Asakusa, so orientation on the metro system and in the station is much simpler. The Tokyo metro is one of the most expensive and most heavily used in the world. In general, stations are bigger in scale than in the Moscow metro. In some stations you have to walk more than 500m to change lines, and they are devoid of any monumental or architectural articulation, at first appearing to us to act only as transit facilities. The only exception we saw is the transition from Iidabashi station E06 on the Oedo Line, which was recently designed by Makoto Sei Watanabe(1). In addition, each station is equipped with a free public toilet, with a high level of hygiene. The price varies depending on the distance between stations, averaging 150 yen or 1.90 dollars per ride. It is particularly unpleasant that some lines are served by another operator, requiring us to pay again for some transfers. Thus, the cost of the subway was the main article of expenditure for most of us students. A curiosity that we noticed during the morning rush hour is that some cars are available only for women. We later found out that this is connected with the problem of sexual harassment in the subway cars – a surprising reversal of Japan’s overly strict rules of social behavior.

Having arrived in Tokyo it is impossible not to notice the diversity of transport networks, particularly railways, which extends below ground and through the air, on overpasses at various levels. I felt that the Japanese society is one that is always in motion. In Japan, urban culture is associated with flow, as expressed in the typology of the city. Bridges, passages, subway and train stations create the complex cityscape of Tokyo instead of streets and squares in western cities. There is special urban strategy called “railway urbanism” where living, work, consumption and leisure are integrated by the transport system, a concept which was first introduced by industrialist Ichizoh Kobayashi in 1911 (11). The major transport hubs are portals whereby many different people are ‘pumped’ into the city from the neighborhoods and suburbs. From these portals, in between the lines of railroads, there emerges a diverse and seething city environment filled with high-rise buildings, shops and restaurants. Transportation hubs are generally integrated with department stores belonging to the same company that owns the transport line, and form a single complex. Coming out of the metro or train, one arrives immediately in a trading area. At the opposite extreme of activity, I observed people peacefully sleeping in such buildings at night. Hence, transport infrastructure in Tokyo is more than just a utilitarian facility; it is the social condenser of the city. The complex of buildings is constantly updating, demolishing, rebuilding and enlarging. Alongside them grow new stations, and railway lines, therefore infrastructure is the core element of the metabolist concept. In Tokyo, you realize that the stations and railways do not cut the city into separate parts, but instead are an integral part of the urban fabric.

106

(1) Makoto Sei Watanabe (born 1952) is a Japanese architect living in Tokyo. One of his most well known projects is Iidabashi station. The station has numerous design features including a geometric green light sculpture running the length of the escalator shaft. The station’s design is also significant since it was create through computer generated forms. (11) Ichizō Kobayashi (1873–1957) was a Japanese industrialist. He is best known as the founder of Hankyu Railway. At Hankyu, Kobayashi made success in the management of the railway in a less-populated Takarazuka region, linking it with Osaka by developing residential areas and an amusement park along the railway line, as well as a department store at the railway terminal.

Landing in Narita International, on a flight out of Moscow, and hearing the soft sounds of Japanese ground control take over, I feel a great sense of relief. As a New Yorker, there is something of home for me in Tokyo. Narita recalls experiences of US airports: clear and efficient, lots of signs in English, brisk politeness and smiles–customer service. With my hair piled high, bright leggings, large sunglasses and American walk, I appear strange, even among the colorful fruits of Harajuku. Only brief looks on the subway and in the streets transmit a sense that I am out of place. At once the citizens of Tokyo cast their gaze away from me, as part of the perennial politeness, or a sense of cosmopolitan pride, or some combination of the two. This meditative withdrawal of attention fills me with relief, whether it indicates a true tolerance of difference or is simply a performance of politeness. In many ways, we strangers experience today’s Tokyo as the dream city of metabolism: networked and cosmopolitan, efficient and polite, caring and tolerant. This dream experience has a history.

3 Saturday

How the Tokyo metro channels urban surfaces, underground

According to Koh Kityama, professor of architecture and leading authority on Tokyo’s metabolism, Tokyo is a city shaped by catastrophe from above and below, within and without: earthquakes, firebombs, economic “miracles,” and tsunami.1 In reaction to such devastation, the 1960s saw the development of Metabolism as a crossdisciplinary design principle: anticipate inevitable destruction by humbling the city—each structure avoids direct conflict with fate by digesting itself every 26 years, before the next tsunami does. Arm by disarming, by opening the inside to the outside. Do not build walls to last, but design relationships that will endure.

“Tokyo Metabolizing,” lecture by Koh Kitayama at Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture, Sunday, November 27, 2011. The lecture was based on Kitayama’s curation of the Japanese pavilion for the 12th Venice Biennale for Architecture, 2011.

107

Kitayama presents a plan for regenerating urban centers in the wake of disaster using the idea of a “Community Core,” which provides social infrastructure that endures, even as the surrounding housing continuously



3 Saturday

photo by Roman Kuchukov

108

109

Wading through Asakusa, the city’s forgotten center

3 Saturday

By Maria Kosareva The program of our visit to Tokyo was concen- middle and lower classes. But our experience trated mostly in the western part of the city: of Asakusa mostly corresponded with the Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza and Rop- second definition. Our route started at Akipongi districts. But on our own we found that habara H15 - geographical center of historical the most interesting and new centers of cultural Shitamachi - following the railway viaduct in life are located in the East: Asakusa, Bakurocho the Sumida-river direction. It appears to be a and Sumida. It appears that Tokyo is historically less prosperous part, out of the city’s “maindivided into two parts: Yamanote (western) and stream.” Shitamachi has been historically marShitamachi (eastern). They have no administra- ginalised through association with old forms tive borders, but they present spatial metaphors of cultural, social and commercial activity and for the kind of people who live there, for different with poverty, pollution and social outcasts. approaches to life. Yamanote is a home for sala- Asakusa began as a swamp, settled mostly by ried office workers, Shitamachi for small entre- poor people of lower castes, doing menial and preneurs. Historically in Tokyo low lying districts sometimes “nasty” jobs like currying (leather located near the Sumida river were inhabited by manufacturing). lower caste or working class people, doing “dirty,” Today, Asakusa is filled with small family enlow-paid jobs. For most of the week, our program terprises and the sense of a closely-knit neighfocused on discussions, tours and exhibitions in bourhood. Families work together, often from the Yamanote part. Therefore, our goal on Satur- the front room of their house, used as a workday was to see the “other side” of the city - Shi- place. The ground floors of most buildings are tamachi, an area often referred to by our guide Ju- occupied by auto-repair shops, storages, small lian Worrall as a “depressed” area. So we became enterprises or leather shops. interested in the eastern districts such as Asakusa, Despite its history and its marginal place in our which is the center of Shitamachi. field trip agenda, it is still hard for us to call There are two possible ways of defining this area: Asakusa a depressed area. Instead we see it as 1. “The traditional shopping and entertainment an example of urban heterogeneity. All the eledistricts, geographically low lying.” ments existing in West are reproduced here on 2. “Urban districts inhabited preponderantly by another, more working class or intimate, scale. traders, artisans, and the like.” (1) There are needlework shops instead of MUJI The first definition is a typical description, which stores, packing plants instead of office highcan be found in Wikipedia or any tourist guide. It rise buildings. Even the local trucks running is usually mentioned that until 1945 (when it was along the streets with loudspeakers playing heavily damaged by US bombing ) Asakusa was music and attracting people, are small replicas Tokyo’s center for both traditional and western of well-known in Shibuya district advertising entertainments. There were theaters, cinemas, trucks announcing concerts. But after a two shopping streets and, of course, Sensō-ji, a popu- hour walk in Asakusa, it seemed to us that Tolar Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva kyoites or local authorities feel a kind of shame Kannon. This area has a more traditionally Japa- in relation to this area. Maybe that is why our nese atmosphere than some other Tokyo curators skipped excurneighborhoods in Tokyo. Besides the sions in this district. Also authorimain temple there are a lot of minties, possibly feeling responsibility iature temples and chapels around, for improving the area’s reputashops selling traditional goods like tion, are introducing new sculpmasks, ivory combs, wooden toys, tures and cultural centers around kimono, fortunetellers on the street, the neighborhood. Maybe this is theatrical performances, historically also the reason why there were no considered entertainments for the people on Sumida-river embank110

(1) New Japanese-English Character Dictionary (Kenkyūsha, 1990, NTC reprint, 1993)

In fact, the Japanese term for “city,” toshi,

which combines the characters for “capital city” and “marketplace,” is an invented term that comes into use in the 1920s and 1930s, in order to translate and discuss the works of urban planners in European, American and Chinese contexts. As a description of Japanese cities, toshi comes into use during the Second World War era. Along with toshi, comes the notion of toshi keikaku or city planning at the large, infrastructural scale. 3

The Japanese city is presented in groundbreak-

ing sociological analyses emerging in the 1960s as composed of “integrative organs,” military, bureaucratic, economic and religious, which, while apparently distinct, actively engage the input of urban dwellers through small actions in everyday life, at the scale of the neighborhood. Yazaki Takeo (1971) The Japanese City: A sociological analysis, trans. Swain, D.L. (San Francisco, CA: Japan Publications Trading Co.) 4

Unlike European and American versions of

modern urban planning, which called for the unified streetscapes, separation of traffic along wide avenues, and the placement of small suburban garden communities, Japanese planners focused on designing rings of large buildings along main roads throughout the city center, that acted as a buffer for small neighborhoods of narrow winding streets and houses covered in foliage. 5

Public lecture by Masato Nakamura at Arts

Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011.

transforms itself. Kitayama’s version of metabolism represents a strange paradox: small, free-standing buildings that can organically transform the entire megacity in tiny gestures of self-effacement or erasure, while retaining a shared core, sustained through simple practices of interpersonal relationships. Despite metabolism’s Japanese endogeny, the imagination of the city in its entirety, along with the concept of modern urban planning is fairly new to Japan.2 Urban living in Japan happens at the scale of the machi, or neighborhood. In fact, Japanese urban planning has deliberately attempted to balance largescale infrastructural projects against the organic transformations of everyday life in the machi.3 In this respect, Kitayama’s metabolistic tendencies are no exception, but follow in a strong tradition of Japanese urban planning. The tendency is to use large-scale megastructure or mega-plans to protect against catastrophe and provide space for unfolding the intimate relationships that make the fabric of each neighborhood.4 It is this polite metabolism, always new and yet so tied to its history and the specificity of its place, that I experience as I move through the lubricated tunnels and passageways of this city, where inner and outer continuously and almost imperceptibly meet. In the wake of recent world events—wars, natural disasters, vast economic fluctuations and advances in the networking of mobile technologies—cities are again targets, and the relationships between people are increasingly fragile. I recognize the vitality of Japanese metabolism, as an urgent response to these pressing problems. However, as a stranger who can never learn the complex Japanese manners for navigating the spaces between people, how can I truly understand metabolist principles? What can be translated from Tokyo’s response to catastrophe into other contexts? Artist Masato Nakamura begins with a question: What kind of society can we create in relation to this destruction by tsunami?5 Unlike Kitayama, whose work aims to protect a community core, Nakamura presents a more radical notion: “since everything is gone, there is nothing to fear.” Instead of protecting against the ravages of nature, Nakamura identifies in his interactions with survivors of the recent tsunami, an instinct towards facing nature directly, searching for the opportunity to reconstruct another 111 society, from scratch.

3 Saturday

Tokyo Backwater



3 Saturday

photo by Olga Sarapulova

112

113

Broadcast Architecture

In this state of deprivation we taste bitterness, we taste suffering but we have nothing to fear.

Tokyo’s Sky Tree Tower stands at the border between architecture and advertising

As we go into the mountains to collect wood, we have the opportunity to imagine another life. We are not defeated by anyone or anything. We are not defeated by the city. We are not defeated by the world.

ously introducing facilities and functions that will manifest the charm of the Shitamachi spirit and produce a synergy effect”(v) Various commercial attractions, including two observatories, an aquarium and planetarium, restaurants, stores and other facilities will open at the foot of the Sky Tree to satisfy the needs of regenerated area. Coming out of the subway at Oshiage A20, I enter into a typical Tokyo environment—dense buildings, clean streets and cozy entryways. The figure of the tower tears through this compact urban structure, obsessively declaring its intentions and confirming Kitayama’s statement that billboard architecture is absolutely separated from the context. The best way to observe the Tower is from a distance, where it can be perceived as proportionate to environment. But as I approach the Tower, it becomes bigger and bigger swallowing my body, making me a part of this object. At the same time, I begin to recognize myself as a consumer ready to absorb brand-new items from the market. I follow the stream of tourists into

3 Saturday

“The architecture creates an icon that is detached from the surrounding townscape ...As a billboard, the building makes use of the image of the area where it’s located, but in order to become an icon, it must be detached from the townscape...And because its recognition as an icon in the area is essential, the building’s interior is of little concern...The exterior and interior spaces are completely autonomous of each other.”(1) Koh Kitayama In December 2003, six major media broadcasters in Japan joined forces to create the “New Tower Promotion Project,” planned for completion in February 2012. This project includes the design and construction of a new edifice equipped to broadcast in digital formats. Named “Tokyo Sky Tree,” the completed tower will be the world’s tallest of its kind. Tobu Railway Company, the second largest private railway operator in Tokyo, later joined the New Tower project as its leader, organizing the design competition and financing a significant part of the project. As a leading proponent of railway urbanism, the company’s current policy is based on developing its substantial properties in areas along railway lines. According to the company’s website, “[Tobu Railway Co.] position[s] our railway stations as our most important management resource due to their power to draw customers and, consequently, attract tenants.”(11) Out of 15 possible neighborhoods targeted for the New Tower, Sumida, an area in Shitamachi, Tokyo’s east side, was chosen. According to the project organizers, Tokyo Sky Tree will become the “Gate to Urban Revitalization” (111), helping to preserve traditional Edo culture (1v), bringing new life into the area and connecting local residents, providing a varied lifestyle. The facilities are developed with the aim of producing a community brand transmitting new local values to the world “by gener-

(1) “Tokyo metabolizing” published in 2010 to the Venice Biennale’s 12th International Architecture Exhibition. (11) Tobu Railway Co. www.tobu.co.jp (111) www.tokyo-skytreetown.jp www.tokyo-skytreetown.jp (1v) The base of the tower is triangular because this is the smallest stable unit. It was also chosen because it is symbolic traditional form of the crossing area of two ancient rivers – Sumida and Ara. The main silhouette, with smooth curves that change from the top to the base creating a space filled with air, is characteristic of traditional Japanese architecture. (v) www.tokyo-skytreetown.jp www.tokyo-skytreetown.jp

These statements of tsunami survivors, collected as part of Nakamura’s “WA WA Project,”6 clear the path towards an individual creativity that has the potential to re-build a new society. These statements form the basis of machizukuri, the art of making the small town or neighborhood through sustained community efforts. Machizukuri, according to Nakamura is the daily creative process of making a happy family, of cultivating good relations with others. As a term, machizukuri is contemporaneous with the rise of the metabolist design movement, coming into wide usage in the 1960s, to describe the machi-based grassroots activism that arose in Japanese cities in opposition to nuclear ambitions and large-scale infrastructural planning efforts.7 Unlike governmental responses to disaster, which mobilize and deploy resources rapidly and at large scales, efforts undertaken through machizukuri necessarily take longer, as they are determined by the speed of cultivation of relationships.8

3 Saturday

By Olga Sarapulova

Walking in the side streets that weave through Tokyo neighborhoods, one can feel the efforts of constant machizukuri. There are old women sweeping the pavement outside their homes, carefully tending flowers. This spirit is infectious. Accidentally dropping a chewing gum wrapper, I rush to pick it up, almost falling in my desperation to avoid making a mess in a space that seems as cared for as a family’s living room.

http://wawa.or.jp/en/

Carola Hein (2001) “Toshikeikaku and Machizukuri in Japanese Urban Planning: The Reconstruction of Inner City Neighborhoods in Kobe.” Jarbuch des DIJ (Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien). 13: 221-52.

114

Ibid.

Nakamura’s notion of machizukuri aims not simply to oppose toshi keikaku, or large-scale, top-down urban planning, but to find ways of establishing a line of creative development that can link different levels of society, producing inclusive flows of communication and decision-making. For Nakamura, the job of imagining and enacting such flows is necessarily an artistic task. He asks: “How do we as 115 artists contribute to the making of our



3 Saturday

photo by Anton Kalgaev

116

117

cities and our communities?” “Art” in this formulation is not limited to the white cube of the gallery or museum, but must extend into the street. By the same token, “artistry” is not the province of the trained professional, but is developed in face-to-face interactions between people in the neighborhood.

By Anton Kalgaev

3 Saturday

“Radioactivity harms people’s mind before it affects their bodies ... Now I am cell of bacteria which constantly propagating itself. What I think will be known by all the people.” Material and man Noboru Kawazoe, 1960

It happens that you visit a city, spend some time cal background or biological metaphors, but the there, move away and feel that you missed every- way they communicate with the public. Honestthing. You haven’t been there, haven’t seen this ly speaking, I didn’t expect this. and haven’t heard that. After some time you be- Being in the habit of seeking the “essence”, I gin to realise that you caught something impor- confused “hidden” and “leaves”. It is hard even to tant, maybe much more significant than places imagine the TV-show where Kisho Kurokawa is or ideas of your particular interest. discussing his fantastic Helix city or interviewing Probably it is best to describe my conversation the Prime Minister, or Kenzo Tange appearing in with Kayoko Ota, outstanding curator and editor the magazine as the best-dressed man in archibased in Rotterdam and Tokyo, who was our ad- tecture. And the most obvious parallel between viser during the field trip. I might have asked her Mishima (writer, actor, bodybuilder and naabout curatorship as a whole, how it is to make tionalist) and Kurokawa (architect, anchorman, significant books, how it is to work with Kool- dandy and politician) can be found in the way haas and Kurokawa. But as we talked, travelling they perform their publicity, propagating themunderground from Yoyogi-koen C02 to Toyo Ito selves. The metabolists’ incredible popularity school in Kamiyacho H05, I didn’t know that it wasn’t just an instrument to promote their ideas, was the last opportunity for conversation with but also the method to make common people her in Tokyo. Probably that’s why we were speak- think about their national future. In preserving ing about death in architecture, a field I’m per- the group and performing as a unified front, mesonally interested in. tabolists remind me of Pasteur’s (111) followers, I was explaining my intuitions about the essence who convinced the whole world of the existence of “metabolist theory” as apoptosis (the prepro- of microbes (1v). The most incredible metabolist gramed death of a cell, “leaf fall”) and its meta- projects weren’t built, some of them have been phorical connection to Hagakure (1) (“hidden by demolished already, but people are arguing about the leaves»); about the possible parallels between them again and again, making exhibitions and Yukio Mishima (11) and Kisho Kurokawa. I was writing books. Maybe now is the time when measking Kayoko about the popularity of their tabolist radio-activity has finally started to “affect ideas in contemporary Japan, about bodies”? postmortal perspectives of metabolist buildings. It seems that Kayoko, despite her politeness, didn’t like the way this conversation went. In the very end of our talk she said that the most interesting thing about the metabolist 118 group for her is not their philosophi-

(1) “Hagakure” is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior. It was written in the 18th century. Hagakure is also known as The Book of the Samurai. The essence of the book is often described by the quote “The way of samurai is found in death”. (11) Mishima, Yukio (1925–70), Japanese writer; pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake. His books include The Sea of Fertility (1965–70), which looks at reincarnation and the sterility of modern life. An avowed imperialist, he committed hara-kiri after failing to incite soldiers against the postwar regime. - The New Oxford American Dictionary (3rd edition, 2010). (111) Pasteur, Louis (1822–95), French chemist and bacteriologist. He introduced pasteurization and made pioneering studies in vaccination techniques. - The New Oxford American Dictionary (3rd edition, 2010).

Facing six cold months in Moscow as a foreigner, I recognize how much both Nakamura’s and Kitayama’s methodologies depend upon the connection of the artist and the architect to his place and his history. In order to negotiate these tiny spaces between people and their environments, one must feel a certain sense of “home.” As an artist interested in making the city, how am I to approach a city that is not my own? Nakamura’s response to my question is slow and considered. He has not faced this one before. His answer is surprisingly simple: “Look for need, meet the need” he says in halting English. “Talk to people. Say ‘hello.’ Come to the same level. Don’t be a ‘professor.’” Landing in Moscow’s Shremetyevo International Airport six days later, I am confronted by my own strangeness in this cold context. A sea of Russian envelops me, and I search for familiar symbols that can anchor me to this space. The agent at passport control scrutinizes my picture and my face for several minutes. I must control an impulse to snatch my documents and run laughing back into the plane, which is continuing on to London. Instead I accept my papers from the expressionless agent with a polite “spasiba,” and the hint of a bow.

(1v) This process is described in detail by sociologist Bruno Latour (1993) in his book The Pasteurization of France, (Cambrige, MA: Harvard University Press).

119

3 Saturday

Radio activity

Thanks to

Julian Worrall Julian Worrall is an Australian architect, scholar, and critic based in Tokyo, where he holds the posi-

the following individuals for acting as our guides and instructors, and for giving us their invaluable insights into the workings of Tokyo

tion of Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at Waseda University’s Institute for Advanced Study and runs the research-based practice LLLABO. He holds a PhD in Architectural and Urban History from the University of Tokyo, and has worked for leading architectural practices

Kayoko Ota Became assistant to Kisho Kurokawa for organizing exhibitions and international conferences, after finishing international law studies in Tokyo. In 1987 she set up an office for cultural and educational programs on architecture and urban issues in Tokyo with Akira Suzuki, where they launched Tele-

including Klein Dytham Architecture and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. His writings have been published in Domus, Icon, 2G, Mark, La Repubblica and The Japan Times. His book 21st Century Tokyo: A Guide to Contemporary Architecture was published by Kodansha International in 2010.

scope magazine and organized summer schools with the AA School of Architecture in London. Ten years later, she became independent to work on exhibitions and publications in Tokyo. In 2002 she moved to Rotterdam to join AMO, a creative thinktank of Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Starting with Content, a major retrospective exhibition of OMA and AMO, she has worked on Prada’s Waist Down and The Gulf exhibitions, while editing Post - Occupancy with Rem Koolhaas. Meanwhile, she was on the editorial board of Domus magazine in Milan for three years from 2005. Since 2008 she is based in Tokyo and Rotterdam. Teppei Fujiwara 1975 Born in Yokohama, Yokohama National University graduates. 2001 - present Architecture office Kengo Kuma & Associates, 2006 - present Director Architect. 2008 - present visiting Lecturer, Yokohama National University. Established Teppei Fujiwara Architects Lab since 2009. Established the NPO International Drifters in 2010, present Director. And, visiting Lecturer in Tokyo University of Science.

Tokyo diary team Justin McGuirk

Koh Kitayama

Mikhail Smetana

1950 Born in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan / 1978 Established “WORKSHOP” architectural studio with

Kuba Snopek

two other people / Master of Architecture from Yokohama National Univ. / 1995 Associate Prof. at

design by Tamara Muradova

Yokohama National Univ., established “architecture WORKSHOP” / 2001 Prof. at Yokohama

proofreading by Julia Newcomb

National Univ. / 2007 Prof. at Yokohama National Univ., Y-GSA (Yokohama Graduate School of

Strelka Educational Program

Architecture) / 2010 Commissioner of the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Prize of AIJ/

Yury Grigoryan / Director

2011 Director of Y-GSA.

Anastassia Smirnova / Curator of Studio Generale

Mariko Terada

Anna Krasinskaya / Deputy Director

Born in Kanagawa, JAPAN. Graduated from Department of Housing and Architecture, Japan Wom-

Alina Vasilenko / Coordinator

en’s University in 1990, Worked at SD Editorial Department, Kajima Institute Publishing Co., Ltd.,

Anna Shirokova / Coordinator

1990 - 1999. Assistant curator, Netherlands Architecture Institute, 1999 - 2000, Curator, Inter-office,

Students

Inc., 2001 - 2002, Independent curator. Part-time instructor, Kuwazawa Design School, 2006 - 2009, Studio Manager of Y-GSA, 2007. Yukinobu Toyama Architect, Lecturer at Yokohama National University. 2011 - Lecturer at Yokohama National University. 2010 - Design Assistant at Y-GSA (Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture). 2010 - Yukinobu Toyama Architects. 2007 - 2010 Foreign Office Architects (FOA) | London | UK. 2005 - 2007 Studio Gang Architects | Chicago | USA. 2006 Illinois Institute of Technology (M.Arch). 2004 Yokohama National University (M.E) 2002 Yokohama National University (B.E)

Adeola Enigbokan, Aleksandra Smagina, Alexander Novikov, Anastasia Sheveleva, Anna Siprikova, Anton Kalgaev, Blazej Czuba, Carlos Medellin, Dace Gurecka, Daliya Safiullina, Ekaterina Izmestyeva, Ekaterina Pavlenko, Ekaterina Varionchik, Elena Arkhipova, Elena Bykova, Elena Dendiberya, Elena Zaytseva, Filippo Bazzoni, Gustavo Cabanez, Irina Rudnichenko, Lam Le Nguyen, Maria Kosareva, Maria Semenenko, Marina Antsiperova, Marina Laba, Matiss Groskaufmanis, Mikhail Kozlov, Natalia Kopeikina, Natalya Chamayeva, Olga Sarapulova, Penghan Wu, Philipp Kats, Ricardo Pinho, Roman Kuchukov, Ruslan Sabirov, Silvia Franceschini, Tatiana Mamaeva, Tatyana Polyakova, Tihana Vucic, Valeriya Chubara, Victor Ruben This Booklet (the Work) is designed for informational, non-commercial use and you must not use it in any other way without our consent. You must not licence or sell the Work or any materials or information in the Work or the structure, overall style and program code of the Work.