|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
Overlay and Making it Add-up
Akio Yasumori
Chile is a long narrow country similar to Japan. As a spatial strategy of such countries, it seems crucial to connect the whole land along the longitudinal axis. In case of Chile, they tried to connect the center of Santiago, which is the capital city, to the northern and southern region by constructing the North-South Highway in 60's. This process is exactly the same as Japan. In the "Reorganization of Japanese Islands" (Kakuei TANAKA, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Sha, 1972), Kakuei Tanaka, who was the prime minister at that time, emphasized the necessity to construct infrastructures like super-express railways, highways and bridges, in order to unite the Japanese "four islands" as an "one-day trip territory", which we can travel in 24 hours.
As the second of this series, I would like to examine urban form and condition taking as an example infrastructure. In case of the "Reorganization of Japanese Islands", infrastructures were constructed for the sake of provincial development as a prior investment. On the other hand, what I would like to examine here can be called "overlaid" infrastructures which are added to already existing urban condition like the North-South Highway in Santiago or the Metropolitan Highway in Tokyo. When constructing infrastructures on the existing city, it is necessary to first discover land for construction. In the case of ring highways seen in most of the European cities, they discover lands on the periphery avoiding the center of the city. When trying to construct them in the center of the city such as Santiago or Tokyo, we have to discover lands more carefully. In Santiago, which is also existing from the 16th century, they discovered "disposable (state owned and devaluated) territory". In Tokyo, we discovered vacant lands like old canals from the Edo era or the edges of big parks (see "Metropolitan Highway Guidebook", Yoshiharu Tsukamoto et al., 10+1, No.16, INAX Publishing). If I point out a slight difference between these two cities, the Metropolitan Highway in Tokyo was mostly constructed over the ground as an elevated highway, and the North-South Highway in Santiago was constructed below the ground level as an "open tunnel".
Here, as a reference to "overlaid" urban space, I would like to look back to "Collage City" (1978, MIT Press) by Colin Rowe. When he discussed modern urban planning in the book, he picked up Chateau de Versailles "concerned with the primacy of the single idea" as an example of "total design", and admired Villa Adriana at Tivoli as an example of "uncoordinated amalgam of discrete enthusiasms" and "relativistically produced 'bits' ". Overlaid infrastructures in the existing cities can be composed of such bits. (In fact, he referred not only Tivoli or Rome but also Houston or Los Angeles where "the superimposition of rapid transit will, significantly, improve the scene, while we still feel disposed to salute it as an instance of ongoing 'bricolage' "). We can of course read this kind of "collision city" as a harbinger of a boom of dis-programming in the 80's architectural scene, nevertheless what is important here is that he indicated, as a characteristic of Villa Adriana, "as the simulated product of different regimes, all 'adds up'; and it adds up in so convincing and useful fashion". Regardless of the case of infrastructure, I suppose the "overlay" type of urban planning inevitably demands this kind of "making it add-up".
The North-South Highway in Chile became "open tunnel" because they constructed it together with a subway in the middle and probably had to keep it horizontal. The Metropolitan Highway in Tokyo became mostly "elevated highway" because we constructed it in a very short time for the Olympic Games over old canals, parks or existing roads. This difference of overlaying results seen in the two cities can be explained as the difference in the manner of "making it add-up" between the internal condition demanded by the form of highway itself and the external condition of discovered land like the arrangement of the vacant lands or geography. Although not an example of a highway, in Shibuya, a subway line passes through the Tokyu department store, this is again the result of "making it add-up" where Shibuya is literally a valley ("ya" means valley) and the underground level of the next station, Ebisu, corresponds to the third floor level in Shibuya.
Such operations of "making it add-up" in urban space is to give priority to one condition (for instance to keep horizontal) and to accommodate other conditions to it. Though there emerge contradictions for the accommodated conditions at a glance, can these contradictions be understood as advantages? For example in Santiago, the North-South Highway probably reduced noise than had it been constructed on the ground, and also preserved the historical district. In Shibuya, the intersection between subway and department store helped to realize the peculiar adjacency of infrastructure and interior, and also helped to form a part of the characteristic landscape of Shibuya. The new project covering a part of the highway in Santiago can be understood as repeated "making it add-up" to bear a new land over the artificial canal caused by the 60's planning.
Regardless of the construction of the highway, urban planning on the existing city is fated to demand "making it add-up" to the external conditions. By including this "making add-up"into the planning internally, the level of urban planning will be pluralized and a so-called "semi-lattice" urban form will become possible.
profile
Akio YASUMORI
Born in Tokyo, 1972. Architect and Urbanist.
1997 Member of Team "Made in Tokyo"
1998-99 the Berlage Institute Netherlands
Currently attending Doctor Course at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Sakamoto lab.)
Works= "Tokyo Suburb Void Map", "LA Surface Urbanist's Catalogue&Tutorial" ("Hunch" No.1,"10+1" No.24), "Sport-Voids Home" (Honorable Mention in Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition 2001, "JA"No.44, "Shinkenchiku"0112), "Housing in Woods" (First Place in Future Indivisual House competition, Harima Science Garden City, "Shinkenchiku"9708), "House Carving Distance" (Kazuyo Sejima Prise in the 6th S*L International Competition, "Shinkenchiku"9607) etc.
|
|
|
