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Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City

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Tokyo is one of the most vibrant and livable cities on the planet, a megacity that somehow remains intimate and adaptive. Compared to Western metropolises like New York or Paris, however, few outsiders understand Tokyo's inner workings. For cities around the globe mired in crisis and seeking new models for the future, Tokyo's success at balancing between massive growth and local communal life poses a challenge: can we design other cities to emulate its best qualities?

Emergent Tokyo answers this question in the affirmative by delving into Tokyo's most distinctive urban spaces, from iconic neon nightlife to tranquil neighborhood backstreets. Tokyo at its best offers a new vision for a human-scale urban ecosystem, where ordinary residents can shape their own environment in ways large and small, and communities take on a life of their own beyond government master planning and corporate profit-seeking. As Tokyoites ourselves, we uncover how five key features of Tokyo's cityscape - yokochō alleyways, multi-tenant zakkyo buildings, undertrack infills, flowing ankyo streets, and dense low-rise neighborhoods - enable this 'emergent' urbanism, allowing the city to organize itself from the bottom up.

This book demystifies Tokyo's emergent urbanism for an international audience, explaining its origins, its place in today's Tokyo, and its role in the Tokyo of tomorrow. Visitors to Japan, architects, and urban policy practitioners alike will come away with a fresh understanding of the world's premier megacity - and a practical guide for how to bring Tokyo-style intimacy, adaptability, and spontaneity to other cities around the world.

250 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2022

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Jorge Almazán

2 books4 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
Profile Image for Adrian Hon.
Author 6 books82 followers
June 30, 2022
A stupendously smart look at the highly dense yet highly liveable and human parts of Tokyo and exactly how they work. Accessible, clear, important – one of my books of the year.
Profile Image for Mason Jones.
590 reviews15 followers
October 13, 2022
Very interesting, and surprisingly readable, overview of a set of architectural patterns and neighborhood styles in Tokyo that emerged organically, rather than as a pure result of urban planning and purposeful effort. Being fairly well-acquainted with Tokyo, I found this fascinating, and the patterns they describe do contribute to some of my favorite areas: for example, the under-rail-track shops and bars of Koenji, and the low-rise, dense housing areas that cluster around many train stations. The alleys and unplanned common areas those give rise to result in a true "neighborhood" feel, unbroken by large car-oriented roads or high-rise apartments. The book gives terrific historical context for these developments, and by diving deeply into several examples of each pattern provides really interesting background of how they arose. Sprinkled with excellent diagrams and illustrations, the book is a fascinating analysis written in a readable way, without too much overly-academic dryness. Very enjoyable.
Profile Image for Matt Hawkins.
56 reviews
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July 3, 2024
A fascinating read regarding the organic and inorganic development of certain aspects of Tokyo. Loved the diagrams included and thought the author’s thesis of lessons to be learned from the intentional and unintentional choices of the city’s design was well argued. The book explicitly outlines what is lost in corporate, profit-focused, “safe” design which I think many of us intuitively know and feel (esp. as we walk surrounded by sterile glass and concrete). There’s a certain flattening of the human experience which becomes more obvious when reading the contrasts Emergent Tokyo outlines
Profile Image for Maxime.
12 reviews1 follower
July 15, 2024
A great book about urban design pitching top-down corporate design against dynamic emergent urban fabric. Totally accessible even as someone totally untrained in urban planning with simply an amateur interest in the subject. I can’t stop talking about this book to friends and family.
January 3, 2025
For fans of: Cute axonometric diagrams, megacity theory, and the bottom up process of shaping a city (down with corporate led urbanism).
2,700 reviews60 followers
March 3, 2023
The authors have broken up the city of Tokyo into six major categories, Village, Local, Pocket, Mercantile, Yamanote Mercantile and Shitamachi Mercantile. This book does its best to destroy so many of those clichés and stereotypes that the vast majority of foreigners make about the streets of Tokyo.

It is interesting to see the evolution of the many districts and how they have morphed into their various, current states. We get some historical background and political motivations without getting overwhelmed with the details, which allows us some clearer perspective.

We find a tale of problems encountered, opportunities taken and lessons learned. We also see the vast differences between corporate-led Tokyo and Emergent Tokyo and how they each play out and their influence on the people and places around them.

So this is a decent account of one of the most fascinating and bustling metropolises on the planet. I thought some of the layout was a tad shoddy in places, but overall this largely succeeds in what it sets out to do and I certainly learned a thing or two along the way too.
23 reviews1 follower
June 27, 2023
This is an incredible book for anybody interested in urbanism, and particularly in how localized, small scale patterns of urban development have emerged in Tokyo that define the city and make it what it is.

Really great analysis, with a lot of ideas and suggestions that anybody can advocate for in their own cities.
April 13, 2024
Such an insightful and intriguing read. I had visited Tokyo before reading, and recently returned. I was able to see the city in a whole new light, and patterns of development that seemed inexplicable before suddenly made sense!

I’d recommend this book for anyone interested in urban planning, tokyo, or both.
Profile Image for Patrick Fay.
317 reviews5 followers
May 14, 2024
The best book of this kind I have read. It explained many things I had long wondered about and opened my eyes to many others. The explanations and figures were perfectly made to give a real feel for places I had visited many times over the years and to make me excited to see others for the first time. Lots of lessons for other cities to try out as well.
22 reviews31 followers
March 9, 2023
Graphically stunning and full of patterns and observations on the city. However, its hand-wavy pro-regulation, anti-capital stance irked me quite a bit. For a book championing “emergence”, it really doesn’t like growth-oriented strategies. A shame to be full of so much contradiction.
Profile Image for Shelby Mistor.
6 reviews2 followers
November 15, 2022
I really loved this book! I work as an urban planner at a downtown development authority, and this book has many practical insights. I found it very helpful how Almazan traced various elements of Tokyo’s urban environment back to their origins and showed how they evolved over time. I’m already a believer in small-scale, bottom-up urbanism, but I still appreciated learning how these qualities have contributed to and enriched many Tokyo neighborhoods.

I loved the graphics as well. Almazan uses many creative maps/diagrams to illustrate concepts and change over time. The graphics provide great inspiration for reports/presentations/etc!
1 review
September 27, 2024
An architectural deep dive that remains readable with great graphics to make the most salient points clearly. Ends with a hopeful message of how urbanism of the future could be guided by the best of what makes Tokyo special.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Jill.
943 reviews30 followers
December 14, 2023
Emergent Tokyo seeks to unpack the conditions - the interplay between buildings, infrastructure, local culture and practices, legal codes and ground up responses to these conditions - that led to Tokyo's unique cityscape. In doing so, it seeks to counter the myths and cliches surrounding Tokyo's development - that it is somehow the "inevitable result of Japanese culture", or that Tokyo is uniquely chaotic unlike its more orderly Western counterparts. There is nothing "inevitable" about Tokyo's character; although it has been remarkably resilient, with its social fabric, sense of place and character surviving generations of natural disasters, political upheaval, and economic transformation, it is not indestructible nor immune to threats. And in unpacking the conditions of Tokyo's development, Emergent Tokyo seeks to offer an alternative to the "corporate led urbanism" which we see in so many megacities (including in Marunouchi and Roppongi in Tokyo today), so that others can "design Tokyo-esque adaptability and spontaneity" into their cities.

Emergent Tokyo explores the city's conditions of development by examining 5 Tokyo patterns: yokocho alleyways; multi-tenant zakkyo buildings; undertrack infills; ankyo streets; dense low-rise neighbourhoods. For each pattern, Emergent Tokyo examines 2-3 examples, deep diving into their development.

For yokocho alleyways, the warren of narrow streets with small bars and restaurants, Emergent Tokyo zooms into Shinjuku's Golden Gai, Shibuya's Nombei Yokocho and Nishi Ogikubo's Yanagi Koji, which sits in the suburbs along the Chuo Line. Emergent Tokyo notes that yokocho had their beginnings as temporary black markets that emerged in the post war period, which gradually transformed to bars for snacks and drinks from the late 1940s. The Stall Clean Up Order of 1949 did not eliminate these bars but sought to regularise them, by relocating them to nearby areas. Yokochos have a unique management structure - each lot is owned by an individual proprietor and the alleys are not public land but shared private property among all the landowners and maintained by them. (In the case of Nombei Yokocho, the land is by the association and each store owner owns only the building and the right to run their business.) The small footprint of each establishment lowers start up costs and risks, allowing them to serve as incubators for young restauranteurs. The small scale also allows owners to create niche offerings, allowing for diversity. Golden Gai landowners have faced pressures from developers to sell up so that the plots can be consolidated but in 1986, some bar owners banded together to protect their interests. This group also works to improve the collectively owned infrastructure in the area.

Zakkyo (meaning "vertical miscellany") buildings, the multi-storey , multi-tenant buildings containing a mixture of offices, and a range of consumer establishments, their facades plastered with neon signs, are the polar opposite of large department stores and office towers. The latter required developers with "the patience and capital to acquire and merge multiple plots over the years or even decades". By contrast, zakkyo buildings are often pencil thin buildings sitting on narrow plots. These came about as a result of regulations on building heights and access to natural heights (which shaped the form), and ground up processes where different commercial enterprises moved into the buildings and placed commercial signages on the staircases and elevators to advertise their offerings. The next generation of zakkyo buildings built on this foundation, with wider entrance lobbies, panoramic elevators and more orderly displays of advertisements. Emergent Tokyo zooms into the zakkyo of Yasukuni Ave, near Shinjuku Station, Kagurazaka Street in Shinjuku Ward, and the Karasumori zakkyo block in Shimbashi.

The authors contrast zakkyo buildings with other buildings like shopping malls; while both draw the public into vertical spaces, shopping centres "do it by routing pedestrian flows internally in ways that decrease the pedestrian density of their surrounding environs and walling themselves off from the public view [while]….zakkyo buildings achieve their vertical density by opening directly onto the street…when they cluster together they not only preserve pedestrian laneways but strengthen their central, connective role in public life". Like yokocho alleyways, the authors argue that zakkyo buildings offer a prime urban location for relatively small establishments. One will see independent and smaller businesses in zakkyo buildings even in fairly central locations, as opposed to franchises and chain stores.

On undertrack infills, these sprang up under the elevated sections of railway tracks, raised up to avoid competing with vehicular traffic at crossings under the national policy of "grade separation". The spaces under elevated railways were initially occupied by black markets after the war but the authorities (like in the case of Ameyoko Shotengai) regularised these by working with the railway companies to offer micro-lots to vendors under the tracks. Subsequently, those built in the 1960s and 1970s were built with the commercial use of undertrack space explicitly in mind. While viaducts can disrupt the urban fabric, in Tokyo, undertrack infills have helped to stitch together the urban fabric. But HOW the undertrack infills are designed have a profound impact on the urban fabric; undertrack spaces designed as windowless, inward-facing shopping malls deactivate the street while those that face outward and have independent shops add life to the street. Emergent Tokyo features three undertrack infill sites: Ameyoko Shotengai under the elevated JR lines between Ueno and Okachimachi Stations, the undertrack infills at Koenji Station on the Chuo Line and the Ginza Corridor, a 12m deep and 420m long undertrack area in the Ginza district.

On ankyo ("dark canal") streets, former watercourses that have been covered over and turned into paths and roads, Emergent Tokyo examines them as communal spaces of calm in a busy, sometimes frenetic, metropolis. Given that many ankyo are narrow, they tend not to have much vehicular traffic. Emergent Tokyo looks at 3 sites: the Mozart-Brahms Lane in Harajuku (near Takeshita Street); Yoyogi Lane and the Kuhonbutsu Promenade near the suburban station of Jiyugaoka.

Finally, on dense, low-rise neighbourhoods, the authors highlight that notwithstanding the stereotypical image of Tokyo as this neon-lit metropolis of ultra-modern buildings, the city is actually home to numerous intimate, highly-communal residential neighbourhoods. In particular, they examine the suburban neighbourhood of Higashi-Nakanobu in Shinagawa Ward, the historically planned district of Tsukishima in Chuo Ward and the north end of Shirokane.

Overall, it was fascinating learning about Tokyo's urban development context - how Japan's system of strong property rights has made it challenging for real estate developers to do large scale redevelopment; it was only with the 2002 Law on Special Measures for Urban Renaissance, which designated specific areas of the city as special zones where existing urban regulations were suspended, that developers could negotiate case-by-case deals with local government officials to redevelop these parts of the city. The authors note that this was something "the old system never would have permitted".

Emergent Tokyo argues that the regulatory system in place that allows for small, fragmented ownership, rather than privileging large developers, has created the conditions for diversity, resilience and community. For instance, "the system [in yokochos] allows owners and managers to customise their spaces, invest in them as a long term project, and get involved in decision-making affecting the yokocho as a whole. This emphasis on smallness and fragmented egalitarian ownership has fostered an emergent sense of community and shared responsibility." But what wasn't quite clear to me was how strata titled malls in places like Singapore - where individual units are owned by different owners rather than a single landlord - has led to the opposite outcome where unit owners have traditionally underinvested in common facilities.

Emergent Tokyo is a lovingly researched book with gorgeous, detailed visuals - maps showing how land use and plot sizes evolved over the years, building cross-sections to show building use and its evolution over time, photographs. Whether you are someone who is interested in urban design, or you just love visiting Tokyo, this book has something for you. I borrowed Emergent Tokyo from the library but really wanted to buy the book and a plane ticket to Tokyo to visit all the places that the book examines.

4.5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ari Rickman.
81 reviews1 follower
May 4, 2024
What an aesthetic book. Beautiful illustrations, nice layout (with string binding even)! And the book does a good job giving the reader the feel for the neighborhoods it describes, helping us visualize them and see why they are special.

But at many points it feels like aesthetics are all the book is concerned with. For example, it does not answer some pretty obvious questions in the chapter on under-track development. How do these developments deal with noise? How do under-highway developments deal with pollution? How is Tokyo able to build in these spaces when most cities can't? Are the answers technical, are Tokyo's trains quieter than New York's? Or are the answers regulatory, do other cities simply choose not to allow development under train tracks? I understand that this book isn't really a comparative study, but the author does promise "a practical program of action for the world's cities to learn from" (p.4). The author has convinced me under-track development is a good idea, but left me without some of the knowledge necessary to practically advocate for these kinds of spaces.

In a similar vein, the author bemoans 'corporate-led development' throughout the whole book. But many of his criticisms are aesthetic. He does not provide much evidence that these developments are less fiscally or environmentally sustainable, nor that they are bad places to live (other than elevator malfunctions during the 2011 earthquake). The author claims the buildings might fuel displacement (p.210) but again, doesn't really provide any empirical evidence this has happened.

Yet the book does provide many useful policy insights. It shows how Japan's permissive zoning allows individuals to create small businesses in residential neighborhoods, making the neighborhoods more vibrant and fostering intimate, distinctive bars, shops, and tiny restaurants. The book also describes some other land-use policies that cities around the world should adopt. These include the Transit Oriented Development on rail-road owned land near suburban stations (p.167) and the ways in which Zakyo buildings allow many independent businesses to exist on very expensive downtown land by stacking on-top of one another - sort of like a vertical strip mall (p.79)

The book also provides some interesting urban history. I particularly liked the first chapter on Yokocho alleyways, which made me think of the Barracas of Maputo; these low-status but intimate alley bars must have been what Yokocho felt like in the 1950s. The many history lessons in the book also backed up the author's arguments against essentializing Tokyo's urban form as an idiosyncratic result of Japanese culture. And the author practiced the nuance he preached, he discussed some of the less ideal elements of Tokyo, even the parts of Tokyo he loves the most (namely the lack of public space and precarious lack of preparation for natural disaster).

Ultimately, I enjoyed learning about Tokyo's built environment, and appreciated many of the author's aesthetic ideas, I just wish I knew a little more about what concrete policies other cities could do to foster similar spaces.
Profile Image for Arsh Siddiqui.
53 reviews1 follower
February 3, 2025
This feels like one of those lightning in a bottle moments, where aimlessly watching videos online or surfing the web actually leads you to a book or organization that intrests you greatly. I came across this book thanks to Dami Lee and her videos on architecture, notably one on the development of Tokyo.

I am no urban designer or architect, I merely find these subjects to be quite interesting, probably in part due to greater online discourse in these subjects (notably urban planning) in recent years. Unfortunately, a great deal of this online discourse is very euro-centric, tending to miss valuable insight that other cities from around the world. Tokyo, however, does tend to get discussed a great deal even with the euro-centrism present in these communities, however this leads to a very orientalist view of Tokyo (and Japanese cities more broadly), other-ifying a city and community that we can learn a lot from. Jorge Almazán's book *Emergent Tokyo* is one of the few pieces of reading I have engaged with that has laid this fact bare, and then analyzed Tokyo with this understanding.

The lens by which the principles of Tokyo's ground-up development are discussed (through emergence), is incredibly interesting, and something I feel a lot of modern urbanists neglect. I think a lot of people know that corporate-led urbanism tends to feel unsavour, or tends to feel rather exclusionary, but, at least for me, it tends to be difficult to fully understand why I feel that way. Almazán's analysis on how these environment are shaped, and on how they differ to more agglomerative, community-based environments, makes the distinction bare. Now it seems I won't be able to not see any of the things he discusses or warns about in this book in the cities that I have lived in.

This is a really great read.
Profile Image for Thomas.
4 reviews1 follower
December 1, 2023
I found the various graphs, diagrams, images, and especially the detailed views that supplemented the text a joy to look at and they helped me better understand what the author was trying to summarize about the city.

My favorite section was the one on ankyo streets. Ankyo means 'dark canal'. Tokyo used to be a water city of the likes of Venice, but most of the waterways were covered up (sometimes hastily) over the past century. This is a sad fact, but on the positive side many of these covered waterways are now used as intimate walking spaces and as extensions of residences or businesses. The narrowness of these streets along with the topographical lopsidedness compared to neighboring streets prevents car access. It seems fitting that on these streets you can see greenery growing as a result of the water still flowing underneath. The waterways are trying to provide something to us even as we have done our best to cover them up and forget about them.

I also enjoyed the section on undertrack infills, and I wish cities in the US would incorporate these. A lot of times the empty spaces underneath expressways and elevated rail tracks are pretty sketchy. It would be nice to have shopping or restaurant facilities built underneath. It seems like a much better use of space.
724 reviews11 followers
September 19, 2024
I've been trying to convince my book club to read this for a while, but finally gave up because everyone else was finding it too hard to obtain copies, and just read my copy on my own. While it wasn't as much a general history of post-World War II Tokyo's development as I'd hoped, it was still a very interesting book that taught me a lot about Tokyo's urban form. Some of it, to be clear, stuff the authors assumed their audience already knew, since the book is written as an attempt to explain the origin and persistence certain characteristics of Tokyo's urban form rather than as an introduction for someone who isn't already familiar with them. That said, I still felt myself wishing it was longer and more in-depth, and that I had come away with more of an answer to certain questions, such as why zakkyo multi-story, multi-tenant retail/commercial buildings with retail on more than just the first floor seem to work so well in Japan and other rich Asian countries, but not at all in North American and European cities: they seem like an effective way to increase some sorts of density, but I'm not at all sure what it would take to make them exist and be functional, even if they were made legal by zoning.
Profile Image for David Castillo.
46 reviews2 followers
September 26, 2024
I’m not an architect, and I know nothing about urbanism or Tokyo, but this book was pretty interesting.
I like the authors’ approach of writing it for architects as well as anyone interested in learning about Tokyo’s emergent urbanism patterns. The way it’s written makes it super easy to follow (I only had to google one term once: F.A.R.)
The book is full of diagrams and pictures, which makes it even more digestible and clear.
I also appreciated the authors’ (as far as I can see) well-balanced appraisals of emergent patterns and their alternatives (e.g. low-rise neighborhoods vs high-rise luxury developments). They are upfront about each example’s shortcomings too.
One thing I missed is more examples of the emergent patterns they propose: yokochō, zakkyo buildings, ankyo streets, undertrack infills and low rise dense neighborhoods. For each of these, there are 3 examples in modern Tokyo, but although they imply (and in fact highlight in a map) other instances, it would have been nice to at least see a list of them so that the curious reader can explore each pattern/ location further.
Profile Image for Kevin Postlewaite.
415 reviews6 followers
September 13, 2023
Excellent categorization of different types of urban areas in Tokyo. Tokyo is unique in its density and public transport and this book conveys how it has historically been achieved in Tokyo. Interestingly, Tokyo achieves many things desired in modern urban planning as espoused by Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl but with patterns that differ from those in other cities. Seeing Tokyo's implementation of various pattterns gives an idea of alternatives to standard ideas and acts as a foil to better understand what's desirable about the dense patterns of, say, Copenhagen. Additionally, this book succeeds excellently in explaining Tokyo's development as a result of just one historical path that is not a uniquely Japanese or Asian, but could have resulted in a Western city given different urban and political constraints.

My only quibble is that the anecdotes and description of current day make it sound like Tokyo is more moving away from spontaneous design rather than continuing the path of spontaneous design, contrary to the book title.
16 reviews
February 7, 2025
This book is undeniably fascinating to a Japan and urbanism nerd like me. Unlike a lot of books of its ilk, it’s extremely readable and avoids getting bogged down in academic jargon (aside from the last chapter, which is clearly settling some internal academia beefs). More importantly, the obvious enthusiasm and love for Tokyo shines through, making me even more desperate to visit. There’s a glaring omission though. Amidst the depressingly normal academic tilt towards degrowth, there is absolutely zero mention of the one factor driving so much of the conversation in the States: affordability. For all the author’s grumbling about “soulless” shining towers, there is no acknowledgement that dense infill housing is necessary to keep a growing population safely housed and able to spend money in all these lovely commercial areas.
36 reviews
February 4, 2025
Lovely little book, but not as general interest as I hoped it would be. Has a bad case of academic writing voice with stuffy unconcise passages. Its recommendations for how to design urban environments boil down to: the human scale and heterogeneity of "emergent" urban design is desirable; this can be facilitated by private ownership of many small lots; mixing private and public space is good, separating cars from people is better. Or something like that. I agree! But unless you're dying to know the exact century long pattern of development in various Tokyo neighborhoods, you'll find it repetitive.

Still, an admirable project with some absolutely delightful diagrams. Would recommend as a coffee table book.
Profile Image for Erik Strand.
15 reviews
February 19, 2025
Excellent read - not just as a study of Tokyo, but also for its broader distilled insights into modern planning. The book clearly and thoughtfully draws out the aspects of Tokyo’s built environment that are so appealing to visitors - I found so much of the language to describe what I felt, but could not articulate, in my visit there. Yet it also manages to avoid - and outright critique - the orientalist lens of attributing Tokyo’s uniqueness to some abstract quality of Japan. The last chapter does a fantastic job of drawing everything together, emphasizing the importance of emergent design and planning (economies and places of agglomeration) in a moment dominated by oligarchic corporate urbanity.

Great read, whether or not you’ve visited Tokyo!
Profile Image for Olivier.
21 reviews1 follower
February 12, 2023
La qualité des images n’arrive pas à sauver la pauvreté de l’analyse. Les informations sur les particularités de Tokyo ainsi que leurs origines sont intéressantes, mais la recherche s’arrête là. Quand les auteurs tentent de dresser le portrait des tendances actuelles, ils sont obnubilés par la vision manichéenne du corporatisme contre les forces émergentes.

Il n’y pas non plus d’analyse économique qui pourrait tenter d’expliquer pourquoi le Japon se sort relativement bien de la crise du logement dont la portée est internationale. S’il y a une leçon à tirer de cette ville, ça me semble être celle-là. Dommage que les auteurs n’aient pas vu l’intérêt de la documenter.
Author 30 books2 followers
June 9, 2023
A unique look at Tokyo from architectural and commercial communities' and (briefly) historical perspectives. Not claiming to be comprehensive, the focus is five structural community types: (1) tight alleyways, (2) zakkyo (tall, narrow, multi-purpose buildings with plentiful signage, (3) under-rail track phenomena, (4) ankyo (covered river streets), and (5) dense, low-rise neighborhoods. The author favors bottom-up emergent urban space development versus corporate uniformity with limited public space. Pages 196-99 provide further readings on Tokyo architecture, planning, and other relevant topics.
Profile Image for Rahul.
22 reviews
September 23, 2023
I absolutely adored this book. I've been so often frustrated by the tension between wanting cities to densify and build more and how "soulless" new development usually end up feeling. It's been hard for me to articulate why new development feels "soulless" and what it takes to give a city "soul", but I've always felt that Tokyo certainly had it.

This book clearly and beautifully explains the conditions that make Tokyo, how they arose, and why they don't have to be unique to Tokyo. It's given me an inspiring new framework for understanding cities, and I'm inspired to see how I can work to encourage more "emergent urbanism" in my own city of Seattle. Thank you Jorge and team!
7 reviews
January 1, 2024
3.5-4 stars. Critical urbanism that rejects Japanese cultural exceptionalism, but centres on the lessons that arise from Tokyo and how they can be applied to other cities. Very well researched, complete with detailed drawings/pictures. Good coverage towards the end of how Tokyo has been thought about by international and Japanese authors. Nonetheless, authors could have approached the intersection of neoliberal urbanism and what they term “emergent urbanism” more critically — the idea was glossed over without substantial exploration of what a meaningful intersection could entail (e.g., how to engender emergence within corporate-led urbanism).
Profile Image for Nick.
Author 5 books11 followers
March 21, 2024
This book takes a deep look at several particular urban amenities of Tokyo, recalling the history of why they exist and why they work. The paperback is full of amazingly detailed diagrams and photographs from across the city. It's very easy to imagine yourself being there or how these amenities could work in your own city.

Overall, this book is not a fetishization of Tokyo but an appreciation at a level so deep that it actually ends up feeling more like a blueprint for your own community. At the same time, it also goes a long way to explain these shouldn't be blueprints copy-and-pasted but reimagined based on first principles to build better communities everywhere.
26 reviews5 followers
August 26, 2023
One of the best laid out books I have ever read. The side of the paper is colored slightly to indicate the graphic sections, making it easy to navigate between chapters or to just skim the pretty diagrams if that's what you want. It has accurate and striking graphical / visual design. This beautiful book is well worth buying and keeping on your shelf.

Oh the actual content is alright. It talks about how light city planning and decentralized market forces produce the delightful lived environment of Tokyo. Seems true idk
Profile Image for Mick de Waart.
76 reviews1 follower
July 2, 2024
As an urban planner, I wish every city had a book like this written about it. The authors expertly describe Tokyo's most idiosyncratic urban typologies and clearly explain the factors that made them come into existence. They strike a perfect balance by not overly focusing on spatial, institutional, or social aspects alone, but by demonstrating how these elements interact and influence each other. Throughout the book, the writing remains highly accessible, complemented by images that illustrate the authors' points very effectively and elevate the book even further.
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