1st research, Metabolism
My research theme is Tokyo. First, let me tell you why I chose Tokyo.
This graph shows the population ranking of cities in the world in 2010.
The world population will be 11.2 billion, by 2100, and 84% of people live in urban areas.
While the population in the city will increase, some cities decrease.
Cities in Latin America, as well as cities in Japan, South Korea, and China, are expected to experience significant population declines.
This details the population forecast for Tokyo.
It will reach its peak in 2030, but then it will start to decline.
There are various uses for the city, such as the declining birthrate and aging population, but I think that cities need to think about what they can do to respond from now on.
learning about Tokyo could be a reference for other cities.
From this, In an era of population growth quite the opposite of now, knowing what people were thinking may be the key to thinking about the future.
It was around 1960.
Around that time, an architectural and urban movement was born in Japan. That is Metabolism. This time, I looked into metabolism.
Before that, in my thesis, I will define the scope of Tokyo as this Tokyo Spacial ward.
Tokyo is an economic zone with a large population, and data are changed by the situation.
metabolism
Metabolism is the name of the group, in which each member proposes future designs of our coming world through his concrete design and illustrations. We regard human society as a vital process a continuous development from atoms to nebula (cosmos). The reason why we use such a biological word, metabolism, is that we believe design and technology should be a denotation of human vitality…”
By Noboru Kawazoe, one of the metabolism members.
A major highlight is “liberate the ground”.
The problem of this era is population growth and the resulting land shortage.
The original purpose was formulated as an idea from Japan at the World Design Conference held in Tokyo in 1960.
The idea of architecture is to update the architecture by analogizing it to the ritual of rebuilding a building every 20 years, Japan’s oldest shrine, Ise Shrine.
To this, it translated the word “reproducing” “????” (translated into English) from a Marx-related book that Japanese people liked to read at the time.
I’ll introduce some examples of 4 Master Plans, 2 Area Plans, and Buildings.
Masterplan
Many of the master plans were considered, extending Tokyo Bay. The main reason for this is the difficulty in acquiring land.
The first two are, Manhattan style and Ameba type.
Kikutake’s Manhattan plan is divided into three areas in a grid plan, with residential areas on the land, a floating island near the shore, and an industrial area planned in the center of Tokyo Bay. The land area is also characterized as a recreation area.
Kurokawa’s proposal is very conceptual, and from the land, it grows in response to demand, truly thinking of the city as a cell and an organism.
The next proposal by Kenzo Tange is the most famous Axis proposal.
Tange studied the city and found that a center would result in a dense population, so instead, he extended the highway to the sea and developed the city from there, thereby changing the way the city should be.
The plan is designed to give a sense of Japan, with an office district in the center and residential complexes spread out over the sea.
Masato Otaka’s plan is a belt that stretches across Tokyo Bay, and within this belt, the city is divided into a grid, The seawater extends into the middle, which Ohtaka describes as like Venice.
These proposals considered housing, labor, and leisure in separate areas, because industry was the number one industry in Tokyo at the time, and proximity to each other would make a residential environment undesirable.
METABOLISM BUILDING.
The two examples in the upper center are actual buildings, which are smaller in scale than the other proposals.
Unfortunately, the Capsule Tower was demolished last year. This building retained the philosophy of Metabolism, with a central core and replaceable capsules, but it was never replaced.
Many of the proposals are very unique and each stands out very much.
Also, because of the proposed housing complexes and office buildings, they are large in scale.
Even at the time, they were derided as megastructures and considered just an architect’s dream.
But is it?
These are the highest buildings by era. As in any city,
buildings get higher every year. Toranomon Hills, built this year, exceeds 300 meters, and in 2027, it will be 385 meters, approaching 400 meters.
And, This is a comparison of a Metabolism building and a real building. If we compare only the height of the buildings, they don’t seem so tall, even in the existing cityscape, but when you look at the area, Metabolism may be a megastructure.
Area Plan
And finally, the area plan. I have tried to include metabolism in a modern city.
Arata Isozaki conceived of a tree structure in Shibuya.
Since that time, Shibuya has been an area with a high concentration of small buildings, and he conceived of buildings on top of them.
Below, Kikutake’s proposal is considered for an area 0m above sea level.
It considers 1250 units around the perimeter of a circle. It is 300 meters high.
This proposal thinks of a factory inside the building,, for building, maintenance, and the study of the units.
Another thing Mr. Kikutake strongly urges is that all units will be offered at the same price and that the price will not vary with height.
Strongly advocating equality, he also suggests the importance of community.
This is the introduction of Metabolism.
From the concept, everyone develops various ideas, so the core ideas of reproduction and metabolism are lost, and the focus is on the form in the public eye.
But what about existing Tokyo?
As you can see in the picture, Tokyo is a plain of buildings.
The actual building heights show that the central area is taller than the rest of the city.
Metabolism was challenged by a lack of land.
How about in modern Tokyo?
Tokyo has an area of about 630?, whereas the gloss floor area of all buildings would be 1,663?.
This is the height divided by the average height of one floor. This means that Tokyo has 2.7 times the actual area of Tokyo.
Given all of this, the following questions have been raised.
Tokyo, as a city, has no actual master plan. That itself has developed with a master plan.
People living in Tokyo may not be looking for a community connected by geographical ties, but rather a community with people connected by culture, school, and work. These things may be influencing the city.
How much area is needed per person?
Changing in industry and the demand for office space due to remote work, other factors will be required for the cities of the future.
