FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
ARCO13
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Tokyo. Shibuya 2002: Edited By Max Bontoft
FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft A STUDY OF TOKYO As a result of a prior trip to Tokyo, the following essay interrogates and critiques methods of representation used to grasp an understanding of settlements at a city-wide scale. An Aerial Perspective, Social-historical Infrastructure: Adaptations and Politics, Experiential Interaction are the chosen avenues of investigation. Using the city of Tokyo as my example I try to grasp the poetic significance of the cityscape through these varied viewpoints. The megalopolis is the chosen backdrop on which these methods of representation are applied because it has often been considered a mystifying city due to its vast contradictions to global city Norms, both in terms of configuration and substance. The analysis is appropriate given the crucial times we all now find ourselves living in. The 21st century will see a great change in how cities are conceived, managed, and understood. Some theorists like Fredric Jameson even suggesting we could see the next stage of human settlement, following on from cave, hut, village, town, city and megalopolis, as we as a species adapt to the challenges that lie ahead. Considering this, a search for clues on where cities are heading through analysis of current conditions would seem apt, coupled with the scrutiny of the effectiveness of the methods used to undertake the examination. How dated are they? Can they still be applied to the cities of the future in the same way they were applied to those of the past? To conclude, the dissertation proposes that although overlaps occur between the methods, only one begins to battle with the complexities of today’s Tokyo and grasp its poetic significance-that of experiential contemplations. Only through the sustained process of collecting experiences through intimate interaction with the city’s intricacies found in everyday life can these things begin to be made clear. A phenomenological exploration uncovers the relentless pace of the city, mirrored by those who reside within it. It asks if trying to understand the city would be to rob it of its charm and the endless experiences it has to offer, yet it calls for new ways to represent the vast complex forms they have undoubtedly become, as the designer continues to strive towards achieving a deeper understanding of the actual effect of a design on the individual and the landscape it inhabits.
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Front Cover 2012: Edited: By Max Bontoft
Introduction “Whether Armilla is like this because it is unfinished or because it has been demolished, whether the cause is some enchantment or only a whim, I do not know”1 Tokyo - “the global imagination’s default setting for the future”, a chaotic cacophony of a patch-work metropolis.2 To the Westerner it is rarely viewed as more than an overcrowded jumble of concrete, plastered with a confusion of fluorescent neon. The negative image is only reinforced by pictures depicting commuters being pushed into already overcrowded trains; streets of thick polluting fog, and a general sense of citywide chaos. Demolished and rebuilt 3 times in the last century, no European city resembles it. Isolated on a solitary island with only China to compete against, something unique seems to have been created, free from any exterior disturbances.3 Over the last 60 years or so, Tokyo has inspired both writers and filmmakers alike in their creative endeavours. Instead of being observed as a concrete jungle, creative minds instead tend to view it as more of an incomprehensible and infinitely multi-layered form, whose complexities offer a challenge for anyone to grasp and which they can bend to their unique imaginations. Treated by writers as something of a looking glass through which the future may be glimpsed, surpassing Manhattan as the Island which runs ahead of the rest of the world.4 Being mindful of this, it may even be possible to be glean what the future holds for our Western cities by developing a thorough understanding of Tokyo’s own poetic worth. What is it about this city? It doesn’t follow the conventional rules set out by architects and city planners. It makes no logical sense in the way it is continually perceived and adapted in the modern age; continually expanding outwards without any sort of fixed parameters. Yet somehow it still works. Why? Taking pre-established and well tested methods of analysis, both at macro and micro scales I examine the city through different filters to not only build up a better picture of how Tokyo runs on its own volition but also to establish if one perspective can begin to offer a deeper understanding of the place. The analysis will first concentrate on looking at the megalopolis through an aerial standpoint, observing urban sprawl from above and trying to make sense of spatial configurations and arrangements of the various provinces. I will then turn my attention to those who inhabit the city, investigating their mentalities and contemplating what it is to dwell as a resident in the capital through socio-historical means. Finishing with a more intimate approach, I will explore the city at a more human scale through experiential means, drawing on both my own and others 1 Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities 1997 (Vintage Classics, 1997) (Page 51) 2 Gibson, Willaim, ‘Modern Boys and mobile girls’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/apr/01/ sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.features (Accessed 6 January 2013) 3 Isozaki, Arata The Island Nation Aesthetic 1996 (Academy Group Ltd., 1996) (Page 20) 4 Macfarlane, Alan Japan Through the looking Glass 2008 (Profile Books Ltd., 2007) (Page 56) 5
experiences within the Nipponese megalopolis.
Portrayals Of The Cityscape The cityscape, perhaps the best representation of microcosms, globalisation, political unrest and innovation. Built by the people it is the most truthful representation of the hopes and dreams of the collective. Within its interior, “Nothing is experienced by itself, but always in relation to its surroundings, the sequences of events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences”.5 “Throughout the modern age, we can consider increasing literary, filmic and musical representations of the city”.6 At first the city was shown through these mediums at its best in the modern age, the triumphs of humanity reflected by the bright city lights, but as time went by a darker undertone was adopted by many writers and filmmakers and anxieties grew. Some began to hint at the idea that the city was dulling the senses of its inhabitants in the technological age. Sensory overstimulation produced a dulling of cognitive existence as individuals became accustomed to life in the new age. A new trend began where instead of people shaping the city, they instead strived to define them self in relation to the urban space. “As the city loses its haptic intimacy, secrecy and invitation, it loses its sensuality, its erotic charge”.7 Exploring these notions thus becomes of importance as one tries to understand not only the cities’ potentials but also its limitations and how people can hope to overcome them going into the future.
Methodology The chosen avenues of investigation arose from preliminary research undertaken into methods of cityscape representation, understanding and interrogation. “For a design to be a work of art, the impressions it produces in the participator must be not only continuous, but harmonious at every instant and from every viewpoint”.8 So in that respect the city must be interrogated from every angle to gain a deeper, poetic understanding of it. Examinations into history and how it has informed the present; politics, including social and economic conditions; and architectural exploits at varying scales together with master planning were all researched and understood. “Maps have traditionally been made by those wishing to impose order upon the city” Simon 5 Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City 1999 (Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999) (Page 1) 6 Lamarque, Hannah ‘Cityscape: Both a Concrete Jungle and a Human Zoo’ http://www.kettlemag.com/article/cityscape-both-concrete-jungle-and-human-zoo (Accessed 20/1/2013) 7 Pallasmaa, Juhani Encounters Architectural Essays 2004 (Rakennustieto Publishing 2004) (Page 143) 8 Bacon, Edmund Design of Cities 1967 (Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1974) (Page 20) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
Sadler states. “without extraordinary assistance, how do you think that a private person could have emerged from this labyrinth”?: Louis XIV’s engineer queried as he introduced the new scientific survey of Paris in 1652.9 Firstly, the city must be considered from a viewpoint consulted continually throughout the planning stages of urban development, one which is treated as a vital point of reference by town planners and architects, that of two dimensional, aerial configuration. “Once separated from everyday affairs by such a tranquil immensity, the world unmasked itself before the aerial view” claimed Corbusier in ‘Aircraft’.10 Nevertheless, “The city has gradually eliminated the specificity of place and detached verticality from horizontality.....these dimensions have become separate projections; the plan has been detached from the section”.11 As a result one must question how accurate this method of representation remains. Can it still perceptively and accurately describe the cities of today, let alone those of the futures’? Hence, this line of inquiry is deemed essential to the investigation as the limitations of the plan as an accurate and informative representation of the cityscape are pondered on. Secondly, “Cities are [also] inhabited excavations of the archaeology of culture, exposing the dense fabric of societal life”.12 The City can alternatively be considered “as a structure within which to place the political [and social] process”.13 From this angle it becomes more a decoration than a so called participant in the processes. Aristotle’s concept of city as Polis goes as far as to suggest the city is first and foremost a “political being”.14 Contemplating the socio-historical infrastructure of the city, its political agendas and its resourcefulness in terms of adaptability not only offers a backdrop to the city but a guideline to how it operates, a useful tool in trying to determine the intricacies of its workings. Rousseau’s dictum states that “....houses make a town, but citizens make a city”. There is potential it would appear then for the revealing of some of its poetic significance when examining the workings of those who live within it. Lastly, the two ingredients of architectural design at any scale are mass and space. “Awareness of space goes far beyond cerebral activity. It engages the full range of senses and feelings, requiring involvement of the whole self to make a full response to it possible”.15 A day immersed in the cityscape offers what a hundred books or a hundred films could 9 Sadler, Simon The Situationists City 1999 (MIT Press; New edition edition. 1999) (Page 34) 10 Le Corbusier Aircraft 1935 (Abada Editores, S.L. 2003) (Page 11) 11 Pallasmaa, Juhani, Encounters (Page142-143) 12 Pallasmaa, Juhani Encounters (Page 142) 13 Nawratek, Krysztof City as a Political Idea 2011 (University of Plymouth Press, 2011) (Page 22) 14 Nawratek, Krysztof City as a Political Idea (Page 22) 15 Bacon, Edmund Design of Cities 1967 (Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1974) (Page 15) 7
never hope to. It is the simple fact that the city contains more than can be described through secondary means. The phrase ‘you had to be there’ comes to mind. For although one may read about a place and the goings on within it, even perhaps attempt to conjure it within the subconscious, it is never as meaningful as experience. For like Aalto’s buildings, the cities of today, “do not reveal their subtleties through photographs; they have to be experienced in person and encountered with one’s body, in the actuality of their context.”16 This is perhaps truer of Tokyo than any other city and so to examine it through a phenomenological filter would appear essential in the undertaking of a study of this nature. “Does the city remain ‘real’ when considered from such distances, as a spectacle, a scene, and ultimately as a stage set, a backdrop” however?17
An Aerial Perspective What is an outsiders first glimpse of a city? When a tourist plans a trip abroad, what information do they want to get hold of first? It’s more than likely to be some form of map, an aerial view. Poring over the urban sprawl of Tokyo they try to make sense of the cityscape, find their bearings, points of reference and mark out routes. However, the city when examined from above appears to be no less chaotic than it is at street level. Yet, “Air photos, maps, and diagrams of density, use, or building shape might seem to be the proper ‘objective’ description of the physical form of the city”.18 Normally such a perspective would offer a more coherent picture of how things were and are slotted together but Tokyo denies the observer this. The city is elusive, spatial order is concealed behind a mask of disarray. One must attempt to prise apart the layers of its history to see its past evolution and gain an understanding of how it might evolve in the future. Tokyo was originally the town of Edo whose inception developed in traditional and geometric ways. Roads spiralled outwards from the central castle, known as Chiyoda and unlike European Medieval defensive towns it wasn’t constrained by castle walls, instead assigning numerous temples to the outskirts for its defence.19 The first calamity to hit the city, for there would be many throughout the centuries, was the great fire of Meireki in 1657. Over 100,000 inhabitants died and 60% of the city’s buildings were destroyed. From that point onwards, urban reconstruction became characterized by preventive measures, each time designed to prevent further disasters of the same nature. Firm policies of expansion were set in motion early on and as a result by 1670, Edo already covered an area of 63 square kilometres compared to London at the time which covered only an area of 2.6km.20 Staggeringly between 1600 and 1945, Edo was levelled every 25–50 years or so by fire, earthquakes, 16 17 18 19 16) 20
Pallasmaa Juhani Encounters (Page 223) Damisch, Hubert Skyline The Narcissistic City 2001 (Standford University Press, 1996) (Page 21) Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City (Page 143) Bogner, Botend The New Japanese Architecture 1990 (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1990) (Page Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture 2004 (Skira Editore S.p.A., 2004) (Page 44)
FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
tsunami, volcanic eruptions and war.21 It was in 1868 at the end of the Shogun military ruling when Edo become Tokyo. By that time, Japanese prints were already circulating in Paris, and London had started selling Japanese furnishings. In Europe, all things Japanese became fashionable. The first experimental steel building was constructed in 1895 within Tokyo and coincidently was the year Japan won control of Korea during the first Sino-Japanese war. It was then that the signs of a “disquieting growth in the Nipponese expansionistic ambitions” became prevalent.22 Ambitions which can be seen reflected in Tokyo’s growth today; still choosing to expand outwards wherever possible. As the city developed, streets were allowed the freedom to take their own course as long as the principles of space management were effectively utilised and addressed. Grid and plot patterns were superseded to allow for a layering of fantastic complexity. Streets remaining nameless constructs only lend further to the idea of their secondary status in terms of not being utilised to lay out a coherent framework.23 This practice was continually carried out to such an extent that by the end of the 20th century one writer states, the cats who ambled along the various rooftops of the districts had a better understanding of the overall space than the human inhabitants below.24 For all its modernity today, the secondary road network of the city runs rampant, with breaks, interruptions and sharp, unpredictable turns in direction. An all encompassing design which is prevalent in many of the great capitals of Europe is missing here. Within Europe, after a cities destruction by any means, planners and architects have always tried to produce a more coherent and uniform grid, unless blocked by its inhabitants. Tokyo prefers the whole to envelop its various parts.25 Anything resembling a square grid pattern, which is something of a organizational standard for much of the Western world, especially in Manhattan, can only be found in the Ginza district around the main station. “A European suburb is a single Tokyo block spread thinly on the ground”.26 Normally cities have a centre that you can journey to and return from, but here instead a paradox is maintained, for the city “does have a centre, but this centre is empty”.27 When it was Edo, the castle occupied its centre and then later when it became Tokyo the centre housed the Imperial Palace, which was and still remains strictly off limits to its citizens today. William Klauser writes “The Japanese capital, devoid of any centre and subject, was 21 Princenton Resources ‘Edo’, http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Edo.html (Accessed 22/12/2012) 22 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 48) 23 Tajima, Noriyuki and Powell, Catherine Tokyo labyrinth city Architecture in context 1997 (Ellipsis London Limited, 1997) (Page 11) 24 Isozaki, Arata The Island Nation Aesthetic (Page 30) 25 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 92) 26 Middleton, Robin Architectural Associations The Idea of the city 1996 (London E.G. Bond Limited, 1996) (Page 102) 27 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 75) 9
recognised as an alternative to the European City”.28 Everything would appear to revolve around it without having any interaction with it. Tokyo’s ‘heart’ is forbidden and indifferent to the lives of the everyday people that rotate around it. Just as Tokyo is indifferent to the advancements of the world around it, choosing instead to follow its own path. It competes, as is the nature with any city but it does so in this very magnanimous way. Over time satellite towns emerged, encircling the cities outer suburbs and strengthened by a vast metropolitan train network, which allowed more workers to commute in and around the city with great ease, speed and efficiency. Subsequently the lack of a master plan has resulted in Tokyo expanding without hindrance or evident control.29 The city is currently ranked the world’s largest with an estimated 100km+ radius.30 The key point here is the idea that the city adapted to the needs of the people, created by them, it was theirs to tame and morph to fit current demands. Like Calvino’s city of Leonia, Tokyo “refashions itself everyday”.31 Returning then to the aerial perspective, having picked apart the traces of history that have lingered despite the cities constant reinvention, it becomes clearer just why Tokyo has taken on the form it has. A culmination of unavoidable renewal and readjustment has led to the amoeba like characteristics of the current megalopolis. Nevertheless an aerial perspective of streets and architecture tell only a small part of the story. From above, the populous labyrinthal vision tends to reinforce the common Western misconception that Tokyo has no form or order. From this perspective one is cheated out of any kind of suburban detail or sensory feel for the place.
Socio Historical: Adaptations and Politics Having allowed the aerial view of the city to suggest a place similar to Calvino’s Esmeralda, where the road network is “not a straight line but a zigzag that ramifies in tortuous optional routes” one is most likely to begin seeking out supplementary sources of information.32 Therefore the next stage commonly involves the act of perusing through guide books and browsing articles. Tourist guides provide factual accounts of the city. They talk a little of the citizens and provide an overview of the place. One is given a synopsis of its various parts and the sort of cultural aspects that they are likely to be exposed to during their visit. In this way the written word begins to inform their judgement of the place long before they arrive. In Tokyo, “everyday is relentlessly long, with work extending late into the evenings, and an 28 Knable, Christopher and Rainer, Joerg Shaking the foundations Japanese architects in dialogue 1999 (Prestel Verlag, 1999) (Page 14) 29 Isozaki, Arata The Island Nation Aesthetic (Page 14) 30 Rosenburg, Matt, ‘Largest Cities in the World - List One’,http://geography.about.com/od/ urbaneconomicgeography/a/agglomerations.htm (Accessed 15/11/2012) 31 Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities (Page 114) 32 Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities (Page 88) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
overall average commuting time of four or five hours”.33 The work ethics of the labourers in Japan rival that of any in the world. “The Japanese have traditionally worked very hard in gruelling conditions to sustain a reasonable standard of living”.34 This is why changes to the city’s infrastructure can be made so rapidly and with such efficiency. Kevin Lynch writes, “A city is a multi-purpose, shifting organization, a tent for many functions, raised by many hands and with relative speed”.35 From the beginning the Japanese were faced with a particularly difficult set of constraints, soil, climate and geographical faults. This seemed however to give them greater focus. By “separating the essential from the inessential, they forged a material civilisation like no other”.36 Consequently 15 million inhabitants live within the city’s boundaries today and on their commutes “the chaotic urban landscape accompanies the traveller for very long periods” reminding them of just how big and unrelenting the city they occupy is.37 In the post-war years Japanese architects started to pursue international recognition as the country underwent reinvention in an effort to expunge its past mistakes. It would be trying to find a balance between competitive themes and traditional values that architects would have to grapple with. One traditional value that continues to inform Japanese architecture today is the idea of cosmic cycling. This notion allows for the periodic reconstruction of buildings made from degradable materials; timber for instance. For example, since the 8th century the sanctuary of Ise has been masterfully reconstructed, whereas in the West renovations would be carried out in a respectful manner to prolong the battle against the wear and tear of time. Here instead a reproduction is created using the same techniques as before, which have been passed down through the generations. An effort to use the same materials in the building process is maintained. As Ashihara puts it, “At the Iso sanctuary, the expression and spirit of the architecture is preserved rather than its physical entity”.38 In addition the cycles of nature have a role to play in the design and construction of Tokyo’s, and in fact the whole of Japan’s contemporary architecture. Those who dwell on the Island are mindful of it geographical limitations, Akio Morita summarizes this when he says, “less than a quarter of our land is inhabitable or cultivatable. This is why we consider everything we have to be precious”.39 Materials and their positioning in the landscape are contemplated carefully, more often than not, a harmony between the two is achieved, architects try to work with natural surroundings and nature: “The fact we did not use glass, concrete, bricks, for instance, made a low roof necessary to keep off the driving wind and 33 Barber, Stephen Tokyo Vertigo Extreme-City, 2011 (Solar Books, 2011) (Page 36) 34 Macfarlane, Alan Japan Through the looking Glass (Page 55) 35 Lynch, Kevin The Image of the City 1962 (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960) P.91 36 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 85) 37 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 85) 38 Y. Ashihara, The Hidden Order, Tokyo Through the Twentieth Century 1989 (Kodansha International, 1989) (Page 121-122) 39 A. Morita, Made in Japan, Akio Morita and Sony 1987 (New York: Weatherhill) 1987 (Page 32) 11
rain”.40 It would be a blunder however to assume that these traditional cultural loyalties in anyway hamper the pursuits of the cities architects and planners. Instead the embedded beliefs act as a kind of mental abstract, always present at the back of the mind, casually informing but never becoming a intellectual hurdle. Architect Kazuyo Sejima supports this when she states “I think it is the Westerners who analyze Japanese architecture in these terms rather than the Japanese themselves”.41 The cultural values only add to the depth of meaning found in Japanese construction. Unrestrictive building regulations have provided architects with a level of freedom unique at a citywide scale. The same low levels of restrictions aren’t found anywhere else in the world. The resulting cityscape then has become something of a inter-locking puzzle, where contrasting styles and scales are all arranged together. “these icons just as much as every other element, fail to add up to something coherent or orderly, imparting instead a kind of visual uncertainty”.42 It is this variety which gives the city its adaptability for its citizens. While rigid masonry architecture hampers European cities as they make continual alterations to adapt to the needs of the 21st century, Tokyo is repeatedly finding that its alternative, flexible forms makes it easier to implement these necessary changes. It is important to note one particularly key event in Post-war Tokyo which showed the world the advances Japan had made so quickly and efficiently, again complimenting the efforts of the metropolis’ work force. This event was the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Tokyo was the first Asian City to be awarded the honour of hosting the games and as a result the government was determined to show the world their impressive organisational skills and technological advances, resulting in the city undergoing many modifications and improvements in preparation. In hosting the games, the Japanese were determined to use all resources available to them in an effort to show the Western world that they were as able to stage a games on a equal scale. New materials were used in the construction of the stadiums and in the equipment of the sporting events, both in an effort to make the 64 games more impressive and more memorable. Fibreglass poles were used for the first time in the polevault while Computers were introduced as a means of results record keeping and during the competition and subsequently stopwatches were no longer necessary as an official means of time keeping.43 Kenzo Tange was given the honour of designing the Olympic stadium and Yoyogi National Gymnasium which many critics believe is the pinnacle of his architectural career and earned him the Pritzker Prize. The stadium itself was constructed by combining concrete and steel cables to form a bold sweeping shape of two semicircles, slightly displaced. The finished structure was impressive and boasted the height of architectural technology at the time, similar to the Olympic stadium designed by Günter 40 Tanizaki, Junichiro In praise of shadows 2001 (Vintage Classics; New Ed edition 2001) (Page 29) 41 Sejima, Kazuyo Saper credere in architettura 2003 (Napoli 2003) (Page 48-49) 42 Bogner, Botend The New Japanese Architecture 1990 (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1990) P.14 43 Olympic Org, ‘Tokyo 1964’ http://www.olympic.org/tokyo-1964-summer-olympics (Accessed 3/1/2013) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
Behnischin in ‘72.44 As for the Gymnasium, old and new styles architecture were married in architectural harmony and the building became a benchmark in the Metabolist Movement.45 The Japanese were able to use Tokyo as an advertising means and yet again the city was refashioned to meet the citizens desired needs. Tokyo is again campaigning to host the games in 2020, yet again this would lead to the possibility of another citywide overhaul. If this does happen, the world has something to look forward to on a monumental scale, beyond Beijings’ in 2008 perhaps. The religious beliefs that many of the citizens follow, have an effect on how they inhabit and work within the city. The majority follow the spiritual beliefs of Shinto, an ethnic religion focused on the land of Japan, hence why it is so rarely practiced outside the country.46 For those who practice it, there is no afterlife, no divine purpose to their existence and as a result they “just exist, the moment is all”.47 It would seem this idea is personified in the very city itself. The Author experienced this firsthand when walking through the backstreets of the city. Unique patterns of wiring make things look ugly and unappealing but are there because of the frequency of earthquakes. Long-term aesthetics were dismissed in favour of short-term practical solutions. Architecture constructed for the immediate future, not as an object to stand the test of time as an invention for future admiration or one to be inhabited by distant ancestors; something much of the Western world aims for in their own constructions.48 Perhaps the inevitability of the question concerning the next great disaster as a ‘when’ and not an ‘if’ contributes to the frantic pace at which locals go about their daily lives. It is the unstoppable-like development of this city, tsunami like in its charge, discarding any hindrance, which defines its existence. Aristotle in ‘The Politics’ states that “...a city is composed of different kinds of men; similar people cannot bring a city into existence”.49 The political values that governor the people of the metropolis merely aid in unifying this bond. Thriving competition stems from political unrest and as a result, companies in Tokyo have developed rivalries, in some cases historic ones. Tokyu and Seibu, both chains in the investment sector have had a long and competitive rivalry resulting in public transport stations transmuting “into extensive multifunctional structures which take up considerable portions of the city with their multiple exits”.50 Sacchi comments saying, “you feel the city is governed by the laws of economics, where chaos and a complete lack of interest in physical quality or the planning of space go hand in hand with functionality, efficiency, vitality, and comfort”.51 44 Great Buildings, ‘Olympic Arena’ http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Olympic_Arena.html (Accessed 1/1/2013) 45 Koolhaas, Rem and Obrist, Hans Ulrich Project Japan Metabolism Talks..., 2011 (TASCHEN 2011) (Page 78) 46 BBC, ‘Shinto at a glance’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/ataglance/glance.shtml (Accessed 12/12/2012) 47 Macfarlane, Alan Japan Through the looking Glass (Page 143) 48 Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City (Page 50) 49 Aristotle The Politics 2000 (Penguin Classics, 2000) (Page 10) 50 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 90) 51 Kuma, Kengo and Alini, Lugi Kengokuma Exhibition 2007 (LetteraVentidue 2007) (Page 73) 13
Through the course of reading about the city and learning about its strongly rooted cultural beliefs, one still cannot help but see the city in much the same way as it is portrayed on a map, unregulated variety coupled with a forced juxtapositioning of architectural accomplishments, each clamouring for attention but few being given the breathing space to stand alone and gain the recognition they deserve by the public and architectural historians.
Experiential Interaction With the first two methods of research examined, it remains to undertake a third, the experiencing of the place for oneself. To walk through the labyrinth, to visit the architecture discussed in the guide books. It is only then, that the physicality of being there; taking wrong turns and losing oneself in the backstreets that Tokyo starts to reveal its inscrutable essence. At street level, everything is brought to the foreground, there are no real distances, everything seems to hang down from unforeseen heights around you, suspended on apparent frameworks. It’s almost like “Venice with the water drained away”.52 You are made to interact with the spaces first hand at the experiential level. Whilst walking the streets, experiencing both narrow backstreets and wide avenues, one must acclimatise oneself to the idea that cars speed above and below them, almost as if one inhabited an old futuristic sketch.53 It is only at ground level that you begin to grasp the true scale of things and the range of styles. Areas and provinces suddenly become clearer from this perspective, more so than from above. The notion that one cannot walk the length and breadth of the city without reaching an edge seems implausible.54 One cannot help but marvel how easily the Japanese navigate this urban sprawl. It is a testimony to their way of life that are able to thrive and prosper in such an environment. The city streets imitate Calvino’s Eudoxia, “which spreads both upward and down, with winding alleys, steps, hovels, a carpet is preserved in which you can observe the city’s true form”.55 The true form, that cannot be known through any other means than the individuals exploration of those streets. “Shops line the street, open up, spill out. Clothes on racks and sides of beef alike are shoved onto sidewalks. The fish shop’s scaly glitter is right there, still gasping. Baby televisions, miniature computers piled high blink eye to eye”.56 Homogenisation of building types and architectural styles has never been attempted in this city and the heterogeneous range of styles have over time formed the cities dense, crazy patchwork appearance. Tokyo’s only real style is that of an absence of style but one begins 52 53 54 55 56
Mitchell, David Number9dream 2001 (Hodder and Stoughton, 2001) (Page 3) Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 90) Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City (Page 31) Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities (Page 96) Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City (Page 37)
FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
to realize this makes it more appealing. This is its unique style. There is much to see and explore, an array of architectural experiments which litter the streets, “The compulsion to touch and see the city induces a kind of prolonged excoriation of the skin and retina”.57 Tokyo “sometimes captures some aspect of change with a fidelity hard to match with mere words”.58 It defies rationality by inhabiting the senses, “In this labyrinth it is chance and surprise that reign supreme, witnessing the defeat of pure reason”.59 Pockets of green space take up only 5% of the cities total area compared to 30% in London but instead of being seen as a negative statistic, here, those green spaces become tiny hidden treasures that lie waiting to be discovered by the wanderer.60 The scattered nuclei that make up these city realms contain an array of activities and methods of inhabitation. “Traditional building grows unconsciously out of an interaction of landscape, soil, climate, materials, and type of culture. Just as a bird shapes its nest with its own body, so the traditional community shapes its habitat with its collective memory”.61 Comparable to a city of ‘crumbs’, where every plot of land can be treated as discontinuous and autonomous, as if each space inhabited takes on its own individual characteristics. It has been said that one may visit a different attraction every weekend for 10 years without running out of official tourist attractions; illustrating just how much there is to see and do without leaving the city’s boundaries. “Preservation of the common environment through the confirmation of feelings, lifestyles and pleasures in the everyday humanly scaled and personally comprehensible environment” is the potent quality the city upholds always.62 It should be noted that “somewhat paradoxically considering the size of the conurbation - that experiencing Tokyo on foot gives a more concrete idea of the city’s hidden urban structure”.63 Much of the presumed chaos that one gets a feeling for from above is found to be subdued at ground level by the highly disciplined citizens whose organizational skills are to be marvelled at. Their formality gives form to the perceived turmoil. Therefore though the metropolis’ grid may not be straight with everything arranged into neat right angles, one cannot help but feel a sense of this straightness and careful arrangement on the ground because of it. Charlotte Perriand visited Tokyo in 1956 and wrote “I imagine that I am returning to Paris straight out of the middle ages with all its ancient customs preserved, but embellished by modern buildings”. Here modernisation has not expunged tradition, instead it has complemented it. The two have been seamlessly harmonized in much the same way as temples harmonized with nature and the cycles of the planet. John Barthes concludes from his travels to the city that one cannot orientate themselves by any book but 57 Barber, Stephen Tokyo Vertigo Extreme-City P.28 58 Popham, Peter Tokyo, The City at the End of the world 1996 (Kodansha America 1986) (Page 28) 59 Chemins da Sagesse, Traite du Labyrinthe 2006 (Fayard, 2006) (Page 23) 60 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture P.45 61 Pallasmaa, Juhani Encounters (Page 73) 62 Berthelsen, Chris ‘The Non-Intentional Landscape of Tokyo’ http://thisbigcity.net/the-non-intentionallandscape-of-tokyo/ (Accessed 2/1/2013) 63 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture P.85 15
by ethnographic means. He states “every discovery is intense and fragile, it can be repeated or recovered only by memory of the trace it has left in you”.64 Almost as if the marks the city leaves on the individual become the clues that they can draw from, to comprehend the city at the level required to dwell within it. This would then dispel any misconceptions or prejudgements one might have picked up through other means of representation. Streets running more than 500m in any direction are nonexistence and instead curves and bends continuously run through their lengths. There are no distances, no vanishing points of any kind. Unlike in cities such as New York where the pedestrians eye cannot help but be drawn down the street instead here, the architecture becomes the focus of admiration. Surrounded there is nothing else to observe but the play of pedestrian and facade. G.K. Chesterton wrote “What a glorious garden of wonder this would be to anyone who was lucky enough to be unable to read” on viewing Broadway in New York.65 The same is true for the outsider in Tokyo, to the foreign who cannot read the lurid Japanese signs on building’s facades, which for the majority of the time spell out nothing more than simple slogans and sign posts for the locals. For the foreigner however the signs take on a new meaning, they instead represent a visually stunning array of colours in the in the urban jungle. “Other streets in another countries may strive for this riot, but they are handicapped by zoning laws, by citizens’ associations and the like. Not so in Tokyo, or not to the same extent”.66 As dusk descends, one begins to witness firsthand the Tokyo most commonly portrayed on film, fluorescent neon signs glaring at passersby, “vision cascades up and down, in stratified ocular trajectories, transecting the extremes of sensation. At night the megalopolis pulls free both dream and reality”.67 Just when one thinks it has nothing left to offer, a whole new world opens up, night after night, the outsider is thrown into a state of conscious enlightenment as the city entices them to carry on exploring. Tanizaki states: “our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty’s end.”68 Perhaps nightfall then signifies a deeper connection between the inhabitants and their city, and this is reflected in the cities nightlife. The play of shadows against the cities architecture, momentarily illuminated by the flash of a neon sign before they are once again plunged into darkness only to be illuminated again moments later in an endless loop. The city too, fades, worn down by the onslaught of time but like the facades of the buildings, it recreates itself without end, willing itself back into existence, refusing complete obliteration. The Designer must become the participator. Edmund Bacon in ‘Design of Cities’ discusses the lack of any kind of satisfying experience in walking through Vällingby, situated just outside Stockholm. He suggests the reason for this is chiefly because the majority of design 64 Bogner, Botend The New Japanese Architecture (Page 14) 65 Chesterton, G.K. What I Saw in America 1922 (Tredition 2012) (Page 102) 66 Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City (Page 38) 67 Barber, Stephen Tokyo Vertigo Extreme-City (Page 47) 68 Tanizaki, Junichiro In praise of shadows (Page 29) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
was done through blocks, “which were placed and moved on a cardboard box.....[resulting in an anti-climax on the ground after the promise of the city,] when viewed from the air”.69 This lack of satisfaction is not felt in Tokyo because its urban sprawl has never been conceived on any scale primarily from the air. Tokyo calls for designers worldwide to devise new ways of representing present day concepts, and the “necessity of achieving a deeper understanding of the actual effect of a design” on an individual.70 Cities need an individual response. With street level contact one begins to see the “disjointed spatial connections; the spontaneous happenings; the capricious appearance and disappearance of spaces”.71 Treated as a maze of opportunities there is a myriad of what can be seen and experienced. A city always in flux, never content in the present. Tokyo hints at its restlessness in all of its structures. “Pulsating with the shock waves of reinvention whose sensations generated the visual core of the megalopolis”.72 Like the Behemoth of Jewish legend. The city devours everything it comes across, assimilating masses into functional constructs.73 To try and understand the enigma of Tokyo would be to rob it of its intensity. The compulsion to fathom its illogical yet successful development results in an “infinite obsession” , one which perplexes its visitors long after they have left with its endless experiences.74 The problem with cities of the 21st century is that they spend much of their time showing off their wealth through towering giants, they forget about the little people inhabiting the spaces that make the city. Their activities adding a human scope. “In the small-scale wooden houses, shops, or kiosks, you find that human relationships parallel the longevity of the structures they inhabit”.75 Away from the towering concrete giants, in the narrow backstreets is where life and its interaction is really going on. Here can be found a real sense of society as infrastructure is superseded by “community self-determination”.76 Adam Caruso believes for Architecture to work it must be sensitive to the emotional qualities that define cities, “melancholy, expectancy, pathos, hope”.77 He goes on to say, “The complexity and interconnectedness of the city is sustained by such instances of profound invention”.78 In Tokyo one can leave expectations at home. The formality of the inhabitants belies the informality of its planning and perhaps traditional parameters allow for freedom of expression because architects are able to build on this fact. 69 Bacon, Edmund Design of Cities (Page 29) 70 Bacon, Edmund Design of Cities 1974 (Page 29) 71 Isozaki, Arata The Island Nation Aesthetic (Page 30) 72 Barber, Stephen Tokyo Vertigo Extreme-City (Page 11) 73 Pelaia, Ariela ‘What is the Behemoth?’ http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishhistory/a/What-Is-The-Behemoth. htm (Accessed 24/1/2013) 74 Barber, Stephen Tokyo Vertigo Extreme-City (Page 115) 75 Knable, Christopher and Rainer, Joerg Shaking the foundations Japanese architects in dialogue (Page 71) 76 Echanove,Matias ‘The Tokyo ‘default’ Model’ http://www.airoots.org/2008/08/the-tokyo%E2%80%9Cdefault%E2%80%9D-model/ (Accessed 23 January 2013) 77 Caruso, Adam The Feeling of Things 2009 (Ediciones Poligrafa 2009) (Page 40) 78 Caruso, Adam The Feeling of Things (Page 40) 17
Conclusion “You take delight not in a city’s seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.”79 The conclusive verdict then? It would appear you must walk Tokyo’s streets, this is the only true way to get to grips with its spatial configurations. Only by assembling a collection of experiences can one begin to make sense of order amongst the supposed chaos. As Donald Richie puts it, to offer a ‘logical, straightforward, obvious historical description’ of Tokyo would be to ‘misrepresent this illogical, subtle, brash, teeming and utterly human place’.80 Its complexities cannot be grasped through normal means, because the city has not evolved in the archetypal westernised manner. Pre-conceived notions must be set aside and instead one must immersive themselves in bodily contact and remember that here in Tokyo “rationality is just one of several systems”.81 Then we can appreciate the workings of the city, its failures and its successes, its poetic rhythm, the everyday beat of its heart, and its rush of emotions. It would appear methods one and two only provide outlines, frameworks from which cities can be understood at a fundamental level. But it’s the inhabitation and appropriation by people of these devised frameworks, and then subsequently the memories of phenomenological encounters within them, that allow for a deeper understanding of their lived reality. “..it is through patterns of activities and personal relationships that people actually encounter places and get to know them”.82 This is something that cannot be artificially represented. Genius loci “has to evolve, to be allowed to grow and change from the direct efforts of those who live and work in places and care about them”.83 This notion supports the idea that the first two interrogated methods of cityscape representation provide predominantly functional, and potentially sterile representations of a cities workings. Required solely for use in physically altering the constructed landscape, to implement materialistic interventions but remain unable to represent its rhythmical nature. For a city does not exist merely on an X and Y axis. “when analyzing the city as an object, how can we take the human element into account in terms other than numerical ones?”84 Returning to Le Corbusier’s ‘Aircraft’, it becomes apparent that the city he envisioned benefits from the first vantage point but it validated by the second, once the individual’s feet are placed firmly back on the ground. For even this iconic figure who praised high altitude surveying,
79 Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities (Page 67) 80 Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City (Page 7) 81 Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture (Page 95) 82 Seamon, David and Mugerauer, Robet Dwelling, Place and Environment: Towards a Phenomenology of Person and World 1986 (Springer Press, 1986) (Page 36) 83 Seamon, David Dwelling, Seeing, And Designing Toward A Phenomenological Ecology 1993 (State University of New York Press, Albany, 1984)(Page 38) 84 Damisch, Hubert Skyline The Narcissistic City 2001 (Standford University Press, 1996) (Page 17) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
concluded his book by stating when ‘everything was visible, nothing in particular was’.85 Poetic qualities cannot be represented through 2-D grids, facts or figures but instead must be perceived through the Z axis, taking into consideration its three dimensional compositions. “Place, in effect, is intimacy through the mystery of the body”.86 Tokyo calls for designers worldwide to devise new ways of representing present day concepts, and the “necessity of achieving a deeper understanding of the actual effect of a design” on an individual.87 Perhaps then Tokyo is best left unfathomed, as stated before, it would be like robbing the city of its charm to try to find an all encompassing explanation for its workings. Trying to predict the future of cities seems much the same. Doing so would be to rob architecture of its ability to surprise and thrill. In 2001 Hurbert Damisch wrote in his book ‘Skyline The Narcissistic City’, “Unlike the philosopher’s piece of wax, the city is irreducible to something extended, flexible, and infinitely changeable. The city is not a thing, nor can it be restored to some basic substance”.88 From what has been understood from Tokyo this notion would appear dated. One must let the city of the future evolve and change independently, embracing the notion that at times it will be out of planners and architects hands but this is only because it is being adapted by the people who are left to inhabit it. This is implicit in Tokyo and hence is the reason it exists as it does. And what of this cities poetic significance? Best represented through experiential interaction because visual representations and the written word just seem to fall short of the mark. Take the seven wonders of the world. Architecture reaching the heights of human possibility. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Lighthouse of Alexandria, we have images of them, written accounts of what they were like but we can never actually witness them with our own eyes. Nothing can replicate or replace physically seeing these creations. Tokyo is much the same. You can look at pictures and read books about the place but unlike other cities you cannot hope to understand it this way. Its poetic significance then comes from this notion of an endless source of concealed wonders, from the smallest gesture of kindness by a local to the discovery of an urban oasis hidden amongst a network of streets. The filmmaker, the writer, the artist, all find these experiences to draw on and manipulate. Pieces of the hidden urban metropolis can be brought forward and enhanced because they have been witnessed instead of heard about through secondary sources. Architecture is not portable. You cannot send it around on exhibitions unlike paintings, sculpture, drawings and music. Any copies are models. In order to understand an architect’s vision or the organic way a city has developed you have to ‘be there’. See it in the 3D, in its vastness, on its true scale, in community with its surroundings.89 85 Corner, James and MacLean, Alex S. Taking Measure Across the American Landscape 1996 (C&C Offset Printing Co Ltd., 1996) (Page 15) 86 Seamon, David and Mugeraor, Robert Dwelling, Place and Environment (Page 74) 87 Bacon, Edmund Design of Cities 1974 (Thames and Hudson, London 1974) (Page 29) 88 Damisch, Hurbert Skyline The Narcissistic City (Page 16) 89 Article published in Monu - Magazine on Urbanism #6 http://jarrikouburg.com/writings/90-text-project 19
The city through scale and density is able to bring the observer to a standstill, to detach them from their hasty way of looking at things, which has become a inherent trait through the continued exposure to modern society. “It brings the observer in a state of total surrender to its environment combined with utmost concentration on that same environment. In such a state beauty can be expected around every corner”. 90 “Today the city is no longer a place but a condition”. Kirkland Hu suggests “if one were to seek an existence in which his or her sense of wonder and drive for exploration is never exhausted, Tokyo would be the place to go”. For its poetic encounters are without number.91 Tokyo then is more of a signpost than an archetypal portrayal of the future city. That ‘city’ is out there, invisible and Tokyo acts as more of a doorway to it than actually being the thing itself. “Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.” Polo answers: “Without stones there is no arch.”92 Without Tokyo, there is no future city.
(Accessed 2/1/2013) 90 Middleton, Robin Architectural Associations The Idea of the city 1996 (London E.G. Bond Limited, 1996) (Page 102) 91 Kirkland Hu ‘The Beauty of Getting Lost in Tokyo http://opencityprojects.com/blog/aesthetics/the-beauty-ofgetting-lost-in-tokyo/(Accessed 31/12/2012) 92 Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities 1997 (Vintage Classics, 1997) (Page 82) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
Author in Tokyo: Edited By Max Bontoft
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Bibliography Aristotle The Politics 2000 (Penguin Classics, 2000) Bahelard, Gaston The Poetics of Space 1964 (Grossman Publishers Inc., 1994) Barber, Stephen Tokyo Vertigo Extreme-City, 2011 (Solar Books, 2011) Barthes, Roland Mythologies 2009 (Vintage Classics, 2010) Blaser, Werner Structure and Form in Japan 1963 (Vertag fur Architektur, 1963) Bogner, Botend The New Japanese Architecture 1990 (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1990) Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities 1997 (Vintage Classics, 1997) Caruso, Adam The Feeling of Things 2009 (Ediciones Poligrafa 2009) Chang, Amos Ih Tiao The Tao Of Architecture 1981 (Princeton University Press, 1956) Chemins da Sagesse, Traite du Labyrinthe 2006 (Fayard, 2006) Corner, James and MacLean, Alex S. Taking Measure Across the American Landscape 1996 (C&C Offset Printing Co Ltd., 1996) Damisch, Hubert Skyline The Narcissistic City 2001 (Standford University Press, 1996) Bacon, Edmund Design of Cities 1974 (Thames and Hudson, London 1974) Garfield, Arie Cities in Transition 2001 (OIO Publishers, 2001) Chesterton, G.K. What I Saw in America 1922 (Tredition 2012) Huang , Tsung-Yi Michelle Walking between slums and skyscrapers Illusions of open space in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai 2004 (Caritas Printing Training Centre, 2004) Ishiguro, Kazuo An Artist of the Floating World 1986 (Faber and Faber Limited, 2005) Isozaki, Arata The Island Nation Aesthetic 1996 (Academy Group Ltd., 1996) Knable, Christopher and Rainer, Joerg Shaking the foundations Japanese architects in dialogue 1999 (Prestel Verlag, 1999) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
Kuma, Kengo and Alini, Lugi Kengokuma Exhibition 2007 (LetteraVentidue 2007) Koolhaas, Rem and Obrist, Hans Ulrich Project Japan Metabolism Talks..., 2011 (TASCHEN 2011) Leatherbarrow, David Uncommon Ground Architecture Technology, And Topography 2002 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000) Le Corbusier Aircraft 1935 (Abada Editores, S.L. 2003) Macfarlane, Alan Japan Through the looking Glass 2008 (Profile Books Ltd., 2007) MaGee , Chris World Film Locations Tokyo 2011 (Intellect Books, 2011) Middleton, Robin Architectural Associations The Idea of the city 1996 (London E.G. Bond Limited, 1996) Mitchell, David Number9dream 2001 (Hodder and Stoughton, 2001) Murakami, Haruki Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World 2001 (Vintage, New Edition 2001) Nawratek, Krysztof City as a Political Idea 2011 (University of Plymouth Press, 2011) Pallasmaa, Juhani Encounters Architectural Essays Popham, Peter Tokyo, The City at the End of the world 1996 (Kodansha America, 27 Feb 1986) Richie, Donald Tokyo: A view of the City 1999 (Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999) Sacchi, Livio Tokyo City and Architecture 2004 (Skira Editore S.p.A., 2004) Sadler, Simon The Situationists City 1999 (MIT Press; New edition edition. 1999) Sassen, Saskia The Global City New York, London, Tokyo 1991 (Linotron Caledonia, 1991) Seamon, David and Mugerauer, Robet Dwelling, Place and Environment: Towards a Phenomenology of Person and World 1986 (Springer Press, 1986) Sejima, Kazuyo Saper credere in architettura 2003 (Napoli 2003)
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Skyes, A. Krista Constructing a New Agenda Architectural Theory 1993-2009 2010 (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010) Tajima, Noriyuki and Powell, Catherine Tokyo labyrinth city Architecture in context 1997 (Ellipsis London Limited, 1997) Tanizaki, Junichiro In praise of shadows 2001 (Vintage Classics; New Ed edition 2001) Whyte, Iain Modernism And The Spirit Of The City 2003 (Routledge, 2003) Wingo, Lowdon Cities and Space The Future use of Urban Land 1966 (The John Hopkins Press 1963) Zumthor, Peter Atmospheres 2006 (Birkhäuser, 2006) Zumthor, Peter Thinking Architecture 2010 (Grossman Publishers Inc., 2010) BBC, ‘Shinto at a glance’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/ataglance/glance. shtml (Accessed 12/12/2012) Berthelsen, Chris ‘The Non-Intentional Landscape of Tokyo’ http://thisbigcity.net/the-nonintentional-landscape-of-tokyo/ (Accessed 2/1/2013) ‘Edo’, http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Edo.html (Accessed 22/12/2012) Gibson, Willaim, ‘Modern Boys and mobile girls’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/apr/01/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.features (Accessed 14/11/2012) Great Buildings, ‘Olympic Arena’ http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Olympic_Arena. html (Accessed 1/1/2013) Kirkland Hu ‘The Beauty of Getting Lost in Tokyo http://opencityprojects.com/blog/ aesthetics/the-beauty-of-getting-lost-in-tokyo/ (Accessed 31/12/2012) Lamarque, Hannah ‘Cityscape: Both a Concrete Jungle and a Human Zoo’ http://www. kettlemag.com/article/cityscape-both-concrete-jungle-and-human-zoo (Accessed 20/1/2013) Olympic Org, ‘Tokyo 1964’ http://www.olympic.org/tokyo-1964-summer-olympics (Accessed 3/1/2013) osenburg, Matt, ‘Largest Cities in the World - List One’, http://geography.about.com/od/ urbaneconomicgeography/a/agglomerations.html (Accessed 15/11/2012) FATHOMING THE POETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE CITY: Max Bontoft
Image References All images by author
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