Tohru Yoshikawa. 1. Introduction

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1 21st Century COE Program of Tokyo Metropolitan University "Development of Technologies for Activation and Renewal of Building Stocks in Megalopolis": Overview of the International Workshop 2006 Activation of Building Stock, Case study: Tama New Town, Tokyo Tohru Yoshikawa Associate Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University 1. Introduction On September 28, 2006, students and researchers of architecture and city-related fields from 11 countries and regions, including Japan, gathered in the hall of Inter-University Seminar House designed by Takamasa Yoshizaka, one of the leading architects in postwar Japan, in Yaen-Toge, Hachioji City. The workshop was held there to present their proposals to activate and renew Suwa and Nagayama districts. The districts were the first areas developed in Tama New Town, postwar Japan s largest suburban housing city. (Fig. 1) This international young researcher s workshop was held on September 25-28, It is part of the research program "Development of Technologies for Activation and Renewal of Building Stocks in a Megalopolis" conducted mainly by the Department of Architecture and Building Engineering, Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, with the support from the 21st Century COE program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. (See Note 1.) We report the overview of the workshop in this article. Fig.1 Open session of the workshop 2. Aim of the workshop As mentioned above, the workshop was held as part of the research program of Tokyo Metropolitan University, "Development of Technologies for Activation and Renewal of Building Stocks in a Megalopolis". So we introduce the program first and then the aim of the workshop in relation to the program. 04

2 2.1 What is the 21st Century COE Program of Tokyo Metropolitan University "Development of Technologies for Activation and Renewal of Building Stocks in a Megalopolis"? The utilization of the urban building stocks developed in the second half of the 20th century in the cities in Japan and the world has been a crucial issue in particular for Japan that now faces rapid aging of society and falling birthrates as well as serious environmental problems. Against this background, Tokyo Metropolitan University launched in 2003 the research program with support from the 21st Century COE program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, aiming at research promotion for the activation and renewal technologies and at human development of doctoral-course students in order to enhance city functions by the utilization of the urban building stocks. The program s research term was 5 years. Broad Views Project Implementation Cooperative Research Professor Students Architectural Planning Architectural Environment Practicalities Deep Professionalism Structural Engineering To address the above-mentioned challenges in the research program, a different research system from those in traditional university doctoral courses was employed for the reasons below. The system consists of project implementation cooperative researches, where students and experts in various fields work collaboratively on a project. (See Fig. 2, taken from the University s 4-Met Center web site One of the major characteristics of the urban building stocks in the second half of the 20th century is their huge scale, and another is their contradictory features, i.e. the coexistence of uniformity and diversity. Let us examine the background of the characteristics by looking at the suburban housing cities in Japan, e.g. Tama New Town. The huge scale of the urban building stocks can be attributed to the Fig.2 Project implementation cooperative research 05

3 massive construction of buildings, in particular residential houses, in a short period of time to eliminate the shortage of buildings caused by war damage, the population concentration into cities and economic growth. The uniformity is a result of the application of standard solutions that are industrialized and standardized for the massive supply of moderately-priced houses at a certain level of quality. Irrespective of the uniformity, the urban building stocks are extremely diversified for the following two reasons. Firstly, the buildings were constructed, for economic reasons, with minimum necessary functions for each purpose intended at that time. For example, the rooms of the buildings were designed to have minimum height according to the usage as e.g. residential house, school or public building. Secondly, the characteristics of the new buildings constructed in each period of time largely varied to respond to the change in the needs for the buildings due to rapid technological progress or social change. Consequently, Tama New Town where housing complexes have been built over a long period of time is now a history museum of housing complexes. Since the life of a building is usually longer than the time period of social change, the urban building stocks often fail to respond to the diversified patterns of the change in their users. One of the typical examples can be found in 5-story housing complexes with no elevators, which cannot keep pace with the aging of the residents. It is not easy to utilize these urban building stocks. In order to adapt to the diversity of the quality or the change in users, it is necessary to seek solutions for each building or each user, not the ready-made solution or the standardized solution of the past. The solution needs to respond to a number of requests for e.g. quake resistance, usability, or environmental friendliness. For this purpose, it is necessary to make links between the elemental technologies such as anti-seismic technology, universal design, symbiosis technology, etc., that have been treated separately. Namely, the cooperation of the professionals in various fields is necessary. Also, for the adaptation to the huge scale of the urban building stocks, individualized solutions made for each building, i.e. custom-made solutions, are not appropriate, as they take too much time. So we need semi-custom-made solutions, not custom-made or ready-made solutions. The present research program therefore used the project implementation cooperative research system as a methodology of research and human development, where experts in various fields solved the projects on the activation and renewal of actual urban building stocks and picked up tips on the semi-custom-made solutions in the research process. 06

4 2.2 Aim of the International Young Researcher s Workshop The aim of the International Young Researcher s Workshop is as follows: The first aim of the workshop was to facilitate the project implementation cooperative researches by the students and young researchers in the research program, to contribute to one of the targets of the research program, i.e. the development of human resources who can work on the activation and renewal of the urban building stocks. So the workshop was not intended as a conventional research meeting but as an opportunity for students and young researchers in various fields from various countries to make up a team and make actual proposals for the activation and renewal of the urban building stocks. The second aim of the workshop is to make fresh proposals on the activation and renewal of Tama New Town and the suburban housing cities developed all over the world after World War II. As mentioned above, Tama New Town is a typical case of the urban building stocks developed in Japan and the world in the second half of the 20th century. In particular, the target areas of the workshop, Suwa and Nagayama districts, were developed in the early stage of Tama New Town, and their utilization is extremely important. So far, a number of proposals and attempts have been made for the activation, but few of them have been put into practice. So in the workshop, we asked for proposals from new perspectives. The proposals were expected to provide beneficial stimulation to the activation planning not only for Suwa and Nagayama districts, but also for the entire Tama New Town or other similar cities in the country. Suburban housing cities similar to Tama New Town can be found in Bijlmermeer near Amsterdam, Holland, or in Evry near Paris, France, introduced by Nicolas Bucdoud as will be mentioned below. The transmission of information on the problems in these suburban housing cities and on the work of seeking solutions was another aim of the workshop. 3. Schedule of the workshop 3.1 September 25: The first day of the workshop In the afternoon on September 25, the participants arrived at Tokyo Metropolitan University. In addition to the doctoral-course students and young researchers at the Department of Architecture and Building 07

5 Engineering of the University, the doctoral-course students and young researchers from 9 countries and regions in the world participated in the workshop. Also not only did the faculty staff at the Department join the workshop, but also the faculty staff and experts were invited from 4 countries and regions as moderators to give advice and guidance. The number of participants from different countries and regions was: 1) Students and young researchers: Japan (10, including foreign students from Korea and Taiwan), Italy (2), Indonesia (1), Australia (1, originally from Japan), Holland (1), Taiwan (1), China (1), France (1), Vietnam (1), and Hong Kong (1) 2) Moderators: Korea (2), Taiwan (1), China (1), Japan (many staff at the Department), and France (1) 3.2 September 26: Understanding the present situation This day, an explanation on the history of Tama New Town and on the target areas was given(fig. 3). The moderator Nicolas Buchoud, French city planner who has worked on city renewal, introduced the renewal work for the huge housing complex of Pyramides in Evry, developed as a new town near Paris with a population of 300,000. Though the approach might not be applied directly to Tama New Town because of the difference in the social conditions or building characteristics, we could realize that the issue of how to utilize the giant housing complexes constructed in the second half of the 20th century was important not only in Japan, but also in other countries. After that, the participants split up into four teams and reported in each team the current situation of the existing building stocks in the countries and regions that they were from. The four teams were organized so that the participants in different fields from different countries and regions were well mixed. In the afternoon, they visited Suwa and Nagayama districts for a survey (Fig. 4). Even though it was unfortunately raining, the participants walked from the former Higashi-Nagayama 08 Fig.3 Presentation of the history of Tama New Town Fig.4 Visit to Suwa and Nagayama districts for survey

6 Elementary School to 3- and 4-chome in Nagayama and 5-, 3- and 2-chome in Suwa. On the way, they visited NPO Fukushi-Tei (Note 2, Fig. 5). Then they returned to the University and had a meeting to examine the result of the survey walk and create each team s own concept. 3.3 September 27: Making proposals To give shape to the concept created on the previous day, the four teams of participants spent the whole day on the creation of detailed proposals (Fig. 6). They worked late at night, and it was after midnight when the last team finished their work. Fig.5 Visit to Fukushi-Tei 3.4 September 28: Open sessions In the open sessions on this day, the four teams explained their proposals after the explanation of the aim of the workshop. The proposals that the four teams made were: 1) Orange team: A Bridge between Generations, a Bridge to the Future Installation of an arcade in the residential buildings; reconstruction of the former Higashi-Nagayama Elementary School into integrated community facilities; construction of a pedestrian deck on the north-south main street between Nagayama Station and Suwa-Nagayama districts; etc. 2) Purple team: ONE HOPE Introduction of mixed use of the first floor of the residential buildings, introduction of zigzag-shaped pedestrian roads over the Suwa-Nagayama districts; renovation and structural reinforcement of the façade of the residential buildings; etc. 3) Red team: LIVING LIGHT Change of the residential buildings into symbiosis architectures by space insertion, extension and greening of the building surfaces; development of a cherry-tree network by greening of the main street between Nagayama Station and Suwa-Minami Park; etc. 4) Green team: TAMA OCTOPUS With a view to 40 years from now, overall improvement of Nagayama-Minami Park and the facilities located in all directions (like an Fig.6 Work to make proposals 09

7 octopus s legs extending out) from the Park, such as the façades, street furniture and gardens; collaboration of the Urban Renaissance Agency, local NPOs and the companies that work on the improvement; etc. Various comments on these proposals were made from the guest commentators and Tama New Town Society members. Although the proposals were not sufficiently polished partly due to the short research term, they contained some fresh ideas and acquired a favorable reputation from the participants of the session. 4. What to learn from each team s proposals We could learn in particular the following points from each team s proposals. 4.1 Possibility and propagating effects of the improvement of urban landscape by partial renovation of facade It was noted that more than one team proposed renovation, including the addition of new elements and partial destruction, of the façade of the existing residential buildings. In suburban housing cities developed after World War II not only in Japan, but also in many other countries, concrete or mortar was used for the construction of residential complexes to give an extremely simple and uniform appearance. This choice was made for the elimination of decoration in modernism architecture, for the simplification of appearance to reduce cost, and for standardization. The appearance created the sophisticated, modern city landscape, but also gave a gray impression. Recently, the material degradation across the years has caused lower evaluation of the city landscape. Most of the renovation works for the residential complexes in Japan conducted to respond to this issue do not include appearance renewal or just include uniform repainting of the appearance. One of the reasons for this is that people in the residential areas developed in the postwar period tend to have low consciousness about the city landscape and prefer something new for the appearance of the buildings that they live in. On the other hand, activities of the renovation taking advantage of the current appearance and the quality improvement of the city landscape that maintains the memory of the city have just begun. This indicates that Japan s postwar society has underestimated the propagating effects of the city landscape on the local activation. From this point of view, these proposals were significant since they showed the possibility that partial renovation of 10

8 residential complexes in Japan could improve the city landscape and trigger the local activation even without entire reconstruction of the buildings or entire renewal of the façade. 4.2 Use of main street in lower land Interesting proposals were also made in the workshop with regard to the use of the main street in a north-south direction running in the center of the target areas. There is a large difference in elevation between the street and the residential land and the street divides the areas into two. On the other hand, the green slopes along the street are important local green resources for the residents (Note 3). The Orange team and Purple team proposed building a pedestrian bridge over the street. The proposals intended to eliminate the disconnection between the areas, as the disconnection was a serious problem for the areas that should be unified. The Red team proposed to change the main street to a pedestrian road. The proposal apparently seems ridiculous but it reflects the potential problem of the target areas. Pedestrians cannot comfortably enjoy the green slopes since the slopes lie on both sides of the main street. In addition, for the convenience of aged people who use on-road transportation such as buses, secondary main streets with small elevation differences from the residential land are preferable to the main street with a large elevation difference. The Red team s proposal was to use the main street and the green slopes as a valley park in the residential areas. An example of a valley park that is highly evaluated by local residents is Todoroki Valley in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. The Red team s proposal showed that the complete change of the fundamental structure of Tama New Town where houses are on the hills and main streets in the valley was feasible without large-scale reconstruction. The proposal made us realize that we, who knew Tama New Town well, had actually been trapped by stereotypical views. 4.3 Reevaluation of Neighborhood Center Now let us focus on Nagayama-Minami Park and the Neighborhood Center in the central area of the target districts, which the Green team used as a base for local revitalization. The Neighborhood Center, located next to the Park, was built when the districts were developed. In the Center, there were facilities such as stores and a bank, necessary for daily life. The Park works as a junction of pedestrian roads. After 11

9 the development of motorization, shoppers drive to large stores on the main street and many stores in the Center, except the supermarket, are now closed. However, in the coming aging society with a rapid increase in the number of residents who cannot drive a car, the Neighborhood Center will be required to have necessary functions for their daily lives. Therefore, Nagayama-Minami Park should be the right place as a future base of the target areas, and the activation proposals focusing on this point are sufficiently convincing. 5. Conclusions As summarized in the above, every proposal presented in the workshop was very interesting. In particular, it was impressive that the Suwa-Nagayama districts were basically highly evaluated by the foreign participants. This indicates that the potential local "power" of the districts is stronger than we think. We expect that the proposals will help for future proposals of the activation and renewal taking advantage of this local power. After the workshop, we found significant quality improvement of the students of the Department of Architecture and Building Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, for example in their positive attitudes toward presentations at international conferences. The successful examination of the possibility of project implementation cooperation researches based on these results was also a major achievement of the workshop. We would like to thank NPO Fukushi-Tei for their warm hospitality with coffee for our survey walk in the rain. We also acknowledge those who participated in the open sessions and gave us valuable comments and thank all the staff involved. Note.1) The web site of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science ( introduces the 21st Century COE program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan as follows: "Based on a MEXT report entitled "A Policy for the Structural Reform of Universities," this program was established in 2002 to cultivate a competitive academic environment among Japanese universities by giving targeted support to the creation of world-standard research and education bases (centers of excellence). By thus raising the standard of both education and research at them, the program seeks to elevate Japanese universities to the world s highest echelons, while fostering people of talent and creativity who will be qualified to assume roles as world leaders." Note.2) Fukushi - Tei is an NPO which runs a community café at a vacant store of the Neighborhood Center in the Suwa- 12 Nagayama districts. The organization started the café in January 2002 and was established as a specified nonprofit corporation in February In the Suwa-Nagayama districts with aging population, it provides food and a daytime meeting place to promote inter-generation exchanges. The activity has attracted attention and has sometimes been mentioned in newspapers, television, and research papers. Note.3) On March 23, 2006, Tama City bought, for the purpose of conservation, a part of the green slopes southwest of Nagayama Station, from the Urban Renaissance Agency, formerly the Japan Housing Corporation that was one of the main governmental organizations for the development of Tama New Town. The action was taken because the Urban Renaissance Agency intended to build commercial and business facilities on the green slopes to cover the deficits in Tama New Town development and the local residents waged an opposition campaign.