At Digital City Briefs, we believe that the digital city is here to stay. We research and share best practices related to smart infrastructure and sustainable development.
デジタル都市ブリーフでは、デジタル都市はここにあることを信じる。私たちは研究し、スマート インフラストラクチャと持続可能な開発に関するベスト ・ プラクティスを共有します。
The subway riders in Tokyo are greeted by “Strappy”, a hanging strap which is an interactive device that connects with the phone using Near-Field Communication or NFC technology.
“When riders touch their smartphones to Strappy, a browser pops up with an advertisement, coupon, video, or whatever other marketing device companies choose to employ.”
Strappy represents the future of urban transport technology, that can connect subway riders to public information about transit fares, schedules, service updates, traffic data and so on.
There are two major trends in the 21st century. The rise of mega-cities is one, while the pervasiveness of information technology is the other. The measure of success for a city is determined by how it harnesses the information technologies for the benefit of its people.
“To adapt and compete, hundreds of established cities will undertake technology upgrades such as traffic mapping, greening buildings, linking various modes of transport through electric-car-sharing schemes (including foldable cars) and offering personalized medical care through digital interfaces.”
Tokyo has been quite successful in harnessing emerging technologies for the benefit of its people. It continues to be the largest, wealthiest, and most futuristic city on earth.
The 1964 Olympics Games triggered massive urban renewal in Tokyo. At the same time there was new awareness about disaster preparedness for earthquakes and fires, which resulted in improvement in building construction technologies.
“Under the nation-wide campaign to promote Tokyo as an international city, many of the surgical operations of the city have been executed in a short term. Futuristic metropolitan highway and the bullet train system attracted people and Tokyo became recognized as the leading city in Asia.”
Tokyo’s democratic government relied heavily on the private sector to reshape Tokyo’s urban landscape after the second World War. The government also laid out a plan to reshape the city with new boulevards and infrastructure, however their plans were not not realized because of land ownership challenges.
“Land ownership has become stronger under liberalization policy so that free standing housing and building made the city chaotic compared to the ancient Edo period with uniformed cityscape.”
Tokyo, which was formerly known as Edo, has been a capital city since 1590. The city grew in an organic pattern with wooden structures and black tiled roofs during this period. While wooden structures were suitable for the humid climate, they were susceptible to fire damage.
“Major fires have destroyed huge portion of Tokyo many times, however, Edo has been regenerated repeatedly, maintaining its historical form. This historical form of the city was kept until the modernization introduced after the end of the Edo period in 1867.”
Photo: Tokyo Sky Tree and Tokyo Sky Tree East Tower
At 2,080 feet, Tokyo’s Sky-Tree is the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest structure. The tallest structure is Dubai’s 2,723 feet high Burg Khalifa.
The Sky-Tree is a part of a commercial complex that includes an aquarium, a planetarium, office spaces and retail areas. It has two observation decks and has been designed to absorb 50 percent of energy from a seismic movement, in the event of an earthquake.
Reference: Byrnes, Mark, Scenes From the World's Tallest Tower, Theatlanticcities.com, May 22, 2012 Photo Credit: Reggaeman under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Kengo Kuma, a Japanese architect who witnessed the Great Japan earthquake and Tsunami of 3/11/2011, has published a book entitled, “The Principles of Place”. It was the destruction of 3/11 that prompted him to write this book. He rejects “concrete and steel” as products of urban-centric culture, and calls for reconstituting our link to the natural world by relying on natural materials such as wood and masonry. He refers to such architecture as “an architecture of small elements”, and states that such architecture is very democratic.
His approach to blend architecture with nature visually as well as materially would generate unique solutions for varied locales. “The 'strength' of architecture is not a physical 'strength' built into the individual unit. The total thing we call 'place' surrounding architecture is the strength that affords blessings to humans and gives them real security.”
When everything is destroyed by the force of nature, the place itself, or the memory of time built up there can never be destroyed.
