Emergent Tokyo - Designing The Spontaneous City

This book examines the urban fabric
of contemporary Tokyo as a valuable demonstration of permeable,
inclusive, and adaptive urban patterns that required neither extensive
master planning nor corporate urbanism to develop. These urban patterns
are emergent: that is, they are the combined result of numerous
modifications and appropriations of space by small agents interacting
within a broader socio-economic ecosystem. Together, they create a
degree of urban intensity and liveliness that is the envy of the world's
cities.

This book examines five of these patterns that appear
conspicuously throughout Tokyo: yokocho alleyways, multi-tenant zakkyo
buildings, undertrack infills, low-rise dense neighbourhoods, and the
river-like ankyo streets. Unlike many of the discussions on Tokyo that
emphasise cultural uniqueness, this book aims at transcultural validity,
with a focus on empirical analysis of the spatial and social conditions
that allow these patterns to emerge. The authors of Emergent Tokyo
acknowledge the distinct character of Tokyo without essentialising or
fetishising it, offering visitors, architects, and urban policy
practitioners an unparalleled understanding of Tokyo's urban landscape.