XXXVII. Tokyo, Japan — High Density

XXXVIII. Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo, Japan — Jack Collins

Composed of twenty-three special wards, twenty-six cities, five towns, and eight villages, Tokyo Metropolis, the world’s largest city, is home to 38-million people. The heart of the city, these special wards, is almost entirely mixed-use zoning and are better understood as a collection of neighborhoods.Trains serve as the primary form of transportation in the city as the nuclei for these neighborhoods.

Population:
Urban: 13,491,000 people
Metro: 38,000,000 people

Area:
Urban: 619 km²
Metro: 2,191 km²

Population Density:
Urban Average: 16,000 people/km²
Metro Average: 6,158 people/km²

Politics:
The twenty-three special wards were created after WorldWar II as a part of the surrender agreement to weaken the central Japanese government. Each ward is run by its own Mayor and council with the governor of Tokyo,an elected four-year chief executive position with no term limits, overseeing all wards.Due to its size and yearly budget (13 trillion yen, roughly 100 Billion USD),the governor of Tokyo has the most influence of Japan’sgovernors and does not have national government subsidies like other prefectures.

TopLeft: Ueno Park. TopRight: Akihabara. BottomLeft: Shibuya Crossing. BottomRight: Kabukicho.

Tokyo, Japan. High Density Building Typologies

Tokyo, Japan. Means of transportation

Tokyo, Japan. Traffic hubs and nodes

Tokyo, Japan. Sources

Tokyo, Japan. Urban Void Spaces

Tokyo, Japan - Minato:

Area: 20.37 square km
Population: 260,486 people
Population Density: 10,850 people/km²

Tokyo, Japan - Shibuya:

Area: 20.37 square km
Population: 260,486 people
Population Density: 16,140 people/km²

Tokyo, Japan - Nerima:

Area: 20.37 square km
Population: 260,486 people
Population Density: 15,653 people/km²

LEARNING FROM TOKYO

Adaptable, Sustainable, Memorable. The Urban Forest rids the standardization of high dense international design and concrete jungles by reintroducing ‘trees’ through mass timber into Minato, one of Tokyo’s 23 special wards. Having one of the lowest proximities to green space of any ward and inefficient land use, this intervention provides an adaptable framework for the neighborhood to grow as its residents’ needs diversify. Starting with ample housing units, the community will expand with more mixed use developments and educational opportunities. While these will change, communal roof space and bridging of blocks will remain constant.

The hypothetical configuration shown below is one that uses residential towers as anchor points around multiple blocks with commercial, communal, and educational infill. Unused structural pieces (timber) will be used to give the illusion of walking through a forest. These columns are arranged based on three prominent grids within the surrounding area with varying width, height, and spacings.

Urban Forest Axonometric

Urban Forest Section

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