[Feature: Post-COVID Tokyo Theory] Naoto Nakajima: Beyond Central Tokyo — The Potential of New Urbanism Brought by Art

2022/08/05

In central Tokyo, even after the spring of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic became clear, various urban regeneration projects have launched, starting with the area around WATERS takeshiba. Near Marunouchi, Tokiwabashi Tower was completed in June 2021 as part of TOKYO TORCH, a redevelopment project for the entire Tokiwabashi area that includes Japan's tallest skyscraper. In Hibiya, the TOKYO CROSS PARK vision was announced in March 2022, which aims to connect several redevelopment buildings, centered on the reconstruction of the Imperial Hotel, with Hibiya Park via a multi-level park over the road. Near Toranomon, the Toranomon-Azabudai Project is underway, which also promotes a vertical garden city consisting of multiple skyscrapers. In the Jingu Gaien district, a redevelopment plan centered on the renewal of the baseball and rugby stadiums was announced at the end of 2021, but it has sparked debate due to concerns over the felling of existing trees.

Urban regeneration projects centered on station areas are also moving forward in Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro. Around Shibuya Station, reorganization continues following the opening of MIYASHITA PARK (July 2020), a complex facility with a hotel and commercial space that incorporates a park on its rooftop. Around Shinjuku Station, based on the Grand Terminal vision, work began with the opening of a new free passage through changes in ticket gate positions and the renewal of the East Exit station square (July 2020), followed by the start of construction and planning approvals for skyscraper groups facing the West Exit station square. Around Ikebukuro Station, based on the Toshima City International Art and Culture City vision, IKE・SUNPARK, a disaster prevention park serving as the fourth hub following Minami-Ikebukuro Park, opened (partial use began in July 2020, full opening in December), and in its vicinity, the construction of high-rise residential buildings is progressing in conjunction with the opening of urban planning roads in densely populated areas.

The above descriptions touch on only a fraction of the movements over the past two and a half years, but it is certain that in central Tokyo, urban regeneration projects and redevelopment businesses involving the construction of skyscrapers, led by influential entities such as major developers, are continuing. Looking only at these projects, urban regeneration in central Tokyo maintains a continuity that makes one forget the pandemic period. Even if the content has been influenced by the pandemic, the core concepts and systems of development, such as the intensive use of land, remain unchanged.

That said, the concepts put forward by each of these development projects certainly embed the values and challenges of urban planning at that time. It makes one feel that there are trends and fads in urban planning as well. However, responses to global environmental issues, climate change, and the restructuring of urban structures based on a society with a declining population and a super-aging society are not short- to medium-term fads, but rather issues that cities need to address over the long term. Keywords like "green infrastructure," "walkable," or "15-minute city" may themselves become trends, but their substance represents long-term changes in the city—such as ecosystem services, humanity, and the recovery of neighborhoods—and is not something that just started recently.

The response to the pandemic in urban planning will likely manifest as a side that is absorbed into the short- to medium-term trends found in development projects (though development can take decades), as well as a side that gradually takes shape as a more long-term change. It is not difficult to imagine that the directions discussed in "Directions for Urban Development Triggered by the COVID-19 Crisis" (August 31, 2020), compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism based on hearings with experts in the early stages of the pandemic—such as the formation of local living spheres, the development of bicycle-friendly environments, the flexible use of open spaces, and the guidance of human behavior using real-time data—will gradually lead to the reorganization of urban structures. Furthermore, in response to the increase in remote work, it has been decided to review the survey methods for Person Trip Surveys, which serve as basic data for urban planning. Such updates to the data supporting urban planning are expected to support long-term changes in urban planning beyond fads and be fed back into Tokyo, though this will take time.

Is it not important to have discussions that look at the space between the short- to medium-term perspectives of urban planning found in redevelopment projects and the long-term perspectives that change Tokyo's urban structure? Among the initiatives I participated in during the pandemic, one that could be called an opportunity to discuss and examine the possibility of a long-term change in central Tokyo while taking the pandemic into account is the Art x Area Management Study Group (Chair: Yoshiyuki Oshita, Professor at Doshisha University), sponsored by the Otemachi, Marunouchi, and Yurakucho District Redevelopment Project Council, which began in April 2020.

The Otemachi, Marunouchi, and Yurakucho area (OMY) is a district that has led the Japanese economy as Tokyo's CBD (Central Business District). Particularly over the last 20 years, through the sequential redevelopment of blocks, the business district—which previously consisted only of office entrances and banks—has gradually seen an increase in flagship stores of global brands, and people can now be seen in the evenings and even on Saturdays and Sundays. Furthermore, the central streets where these stores are located have secured sufficient sidewalk space for pedestrians to walk easily, and depending on the time of day, they become pedestrian-only zones, turning into plaza spaces lined with movable furniture such as benches. In addition to such spatial improvements, area management activities have been developed, providing a variety of programs that office workers can participate in, such as the Morning University.

OMY has taken a leading role in enhancing the working environment as a business district—the city as a whole. Before the redevelopment of Yurakucho at the southern end of the area, the district began to consider what a new business district should be like. The awareness of the issue was how to cultivate the power to improve Tokyo's international competitiveness and the power to create new value for society and companies—in other words, creativity. With the hypothesis of placing "art" at the center, the aforementioned study group was organized, bringing together artists, art practitioners, and researchers in cultural arts policy and urban development to hold discussions. What was devised there was Art Urbanism.

The term Art Urbanism is a coined word consisting of a combination of art and urbanism that I proposed based on the discussions in the study group. Art itself needs no explanation for the time being, but the issue is urbanism. In modern language, urbanism overlaps two concepts. One is a factual concept of a way of life in the city, originating from the Chicago School of urban sociology in the early 20th century. The other is a normative concept of a system of techniques and thinking to realize desirable urban living (one of which is urban planning), originating from urbanisme in Europe from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The word urbanism, used in the English-speaking world primarily in the United States, moves freely between these two concepts. The factual concept is deeply related to living, and the normative concept to planning. In other words, urbanism is what allows the city to be discussed by both the dwellers and the makers. Urbanism is a practical exploration of urban life itself and the methods of urban development, encompassing both planning and living.

Therefore, Art Urbanism refers to a situation where art permeates both the dwellers and the makers. What makes it different from "urban development with art" or "revitalization of the town through art" is the emphasis on the presence of "artists" who are both dwellers and makers, rather than just "having art." Art is not just a work or content placed in the city; it enters and engages with urbanism itself through the artist.

Considering the behavior of artists, the practice of Art Urbanism means that creative and empathy-based activities are certainly found within the lifestyles of people in that region or city. Furthermore, in the methods of urban development, it means that a more empathetic, sensory, and craft-like value-creation approach runs alongside the traditional objective, scientific, and engineering problem-solving approach. Art participates in the core and philosophy of urban development, and artists are present in everyday scenes of the town. By developing this according to the context of each region—such as business districts, commercial areas, or residential areas—concrete Art Urbanism emerges. Proposing Art Urbanism particularly in Tokyo's business districts, where major companies gather as players in global inter-city competition or as leaders of the Japanese economy, includes a questioning of Japanese corporate management from the perspective of the city, along with an awareness of the limits of traditional urban development. The creativity possessed by artists permeates the town, bringing about a transformation in the way business itself is conducted. Of course, the reality of Art Urbanism was pursued by standing in the artist's shoes and equally treating the perspective of how to use urban development, rather than art being used by urban development. In other words, it was also about thinking of ways to answer problems such as the lack of international recognition of Tokyo's art scene and the lack of artist training systems through the junction of art and urban development.

Art Urbanism with such a perspective can also be called a trend, for better or worse. In fact, the combination of art and business has become a trend in recent years. According to Koji Mori (2021), who analyzed the popularity of business-related art books, the background is an awareness that in the era of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), differentiation cannot be achieved through data analysis and logical thinking alone. Art is expected to provide creativity, originality, sketching, contemplative observation, narrativization, creation of context, and questioning. In other words, art is a value word ("something good"). On the other hand, it has been pointed out that the concept of art in art thinking is ambiguous, and at the same time, narrow-minded, assuming Western modern and contemporary avant-garde art. To begin with, art is not the only thing that possesses creativity, and not all artists are creative. Furthermore, in "The Krebs Cycle of Creativity" proposed by Neri Oxman, outputs from the fields of science, engineering, design, and art are said to influence other fields and circulate to generate innovation. Art Urbanism is likely the result of newly applying urban development to these relationships.

From February to May 2022, an Art Urbanism demonstration pilot program (YAU: Yurakucho Art Urbanism) was developed in several buildings in the Yurakucho area. Studios (coworking spaces) and consultation offices for artists were set up, and artists visited Yurakucho. In this context, as a more direct point of contact with people in the business district, a two-month workshop was held with office workers selected through a public call and an up-and-coming stage director, resulting in the creation of a performance. "From Here, I Can See You / I Can't See You" (directed and composed by Midori Kurata), performed at the achievement exhibition "YAU TEN" held in June, was a piece where the monologues of the workers regarding their respective lives intersected from various angles, purifying their daily lives. The different physical expressions of each performer transformed a typical office space with a 6.6-meter pitch into a dynamic field, making one feel the power of the artist to draw out the sensitivity of each person working in the town, which cannot be summarized in a single word like "business district."

In the post-COVID city, with the spread of online work, the nature of offices and business districts in particular is being questioned. It is not simply a matter of shrinking office space, but rather the way the town exists as a stage for real human gathering. The direction of making business districts comfortable for workers and places they want to go out of their way to visit will likely strengthen. In addition, Art Urbanism aims to store the power to create new things within the town. What Art Urbanism aims for is something like creating new soil for the business district.

By the way, "post-COVID" is just one way of looking at the era. Besides this view, there are many historical perspectives for thinking about Tokyo's future. For example, next year, 2023, Tokyo will mark 100 years since the Great Kanto Earthquake. The Great Kanto Earthquake, which occurred on September 1, 1923, caused more than 105,000 deaths, far exceeding the number of deaths in Tokyo due to the pandemic (4,592 as of July 14, 2022). 2023 will be a year to think about a Tokyo that fosters resilience based on the lessons from such damage and the spatial heritage created and passed down through reconstruction. It will also mark the end of the 100-year post-earthquake era, during which we were fortunately not struck by an earthquake of the same scale, and the beginning of the next 100 years that will exist alongside the next earthquake.

The 100th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake does not only evoke thoughts on urban disaster prevention and physical reconstruction. In October 1925, while Tokyo was still in the process of formulating reconstruction plans and the post-disaster landscape still stretched out, the City Beautiful Research Group was organized with the intent that "Now, with the reconstruction of the Imperial Capital ahead and the business world of the city becoming increasingly busy, not only town planners and civic artists but also architects, artists, and any others with interest and enthusiasm for urban issues as urban improvers or urban researchers should not idly shut themselves away in their studies or studios" ("Establishment of the City Beautiful Research Group," Architecture Magazine, No. 477, 1925).

Reported under the headline "Movement to Beautify the Imperial Capital with a Different Set of Faces: Don't Make a Boorish Capital, Literati and Artists Join In" (Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, October 24, 1925), the City Beautiful Research Group was a movement where a diverse range of people—including urban planners, architects, journalists, painters, economists, philosophers, poets, novelists, anthropologists, collectors, and designers—gathered to carry out the reconstruction of the Imperial Capital themselves. The City Beautiful Research Group was reorganized into the City Beautiful Association the following year, 1926, with influential politicians and leading figures from the fields of architecture, civil engineering, and landscaping as presidents and officers. While maintaining close relations with Tokyo City, it engaged in activities such as making suggestions and expressing opinions related to specific projects, holding events to enlighten and spread the concept of city beauty to citizens, publishing magazines, and holding National City Beautiful Conferences. Its philosophy was to contrast urban planning by bureaucratic experts with urban art (civic art) based on civic pride and citizen autonomy rooted in civic consciousness, aiming for a reform movement in urban planning. The participation of citizens, including artists, in urban development began with the City Beautiful Movement 100 years ago. In other words, 2025, the 100th anniversary of the City Beautiful Movement, is also a 100-year milestone for citizen urban planning including artists, and a year for the rebirth of that spirit.

The City Beautiful Research Group held its founding general meeting in October 1925, and even after it became the City Beautiful Association, it kept its office and meeting place for a while at 1-1 Yurakucho, Kojimachi-ku, in the Yuraku Building (Yurakukan) in front of Yurakucho Station. This building was demolished in 1979, and the Shin-Nisseki Building now stands on its site. In fact, Art Urbanism 100 years later also begins from the same point. "From Here, I Can See You / I Can't See You" was performed at "YAU TEN" on the second floor of the Shin-Kokusai Building, which forms a single block with the Shin-Nisseki Building. Post-COVID Tokyo will also be spun within the history and stories unique to individual towns and places. I want to make the post-COVID era a time when countless stories of urbanism are created in Tokyo by various urbanists.

・Naoto Nakajima + Urbanist Association, "Urbanist: Creators of Attractive Cities," Chikuma Shinsho, 2021

・Naoto Nakajima, "What is Art Urbanism in the First Place?" On the Beginning of Art Urbanism | YAU Editorial Office

・Naoto Nakajima, "City Beautiful Movement: A History of Urban Planning in Civic Art," University of Tokyo Press, 2009

・Koji Mori, "The Popularity of 'Art for Business People' Books and Educational Cautions," Journal of Human Life and Culture, No. 31, pp. 409-419, 2021

・"Introduction to an Art-Driven Future," Forbes Japan, April 2022 Special Issue