2007
Proposal
Area map
Group 1 Theme: Public - Private Space
Rika Hiratsuji, Katrin Pfaeffli, Kazuhiro Sobue, Shuji Kwaguchi, Takaaki Endo, Davide Blasi
Using just a single map, one cannot divide spaces on the Yokohama waterfront into those that are public and those that are private, because many of them change in character depending on the time of day.
Rinko Park and Yamashita Park can both be identified as 24-hour public spaces to which everyone always has access, but late at night, public facilities such as Landmark Tower and Red Brick Warehouses become private spaces, closed to the general public.
We felt that in present-day Yokohama, where different elements coexist depending on the time, creating intermediate domains that are both public and private where people can get together (shakoba) could be a way of generating a new future image for the city.
We took note of convenience stores, 24-hour public spaces that are distributed all over Japan. Such stores are located on a grid of about 200 x 200 m. We tried generating places on the Yokohama waterfront where people can get together by arranging follies, that is, small structures, on a similarly-scaled grid.
These urban follies are public spaces that anyone can use 24 hours a day. The follies have frame structures and can be customized to each place. We arranged follies in three selected areas.
Each area has its own distinctive character. They express the past and the present of Yokohama and are symbolic places that must be taken into account in any consideration of the city's future.
In the Minato Mirai area, we proposed a way of creating a city that is premised on public spaces by selecting a site that is expected to undergo development in the future and arranging follies with various programs there.
Basing our idea on the "National Art" concept espoused by Yokohama City, we proposed turning Yamashita Park and the area around it into an art district by arranging studios, ateliers and galleries for artists on the Osenbashi and Yamashita piers.
In the Shin-Koyasu area, we proposed restoring to the area along the canal the liveliness it once had when the area was still a fishing village by creating public spaces that are mainly education-oriented such as studios usable as the satellite facilities of libraries and universities.
Group 2 Theme: Infrastructure - Access "UNFIELD"
Ken Aoki, Kenta Takano, Raphael Bollhalder, Rosanna Borsotti
At present, Yokohama cannot be said to be making the most of its potential as a city with a waterfront in its central district. While transportation infrastructure such as roads and railways is being developed to ring the waterfront forming the large inner harbor, means of access connecting the inland areas and the waterfront are insufficiently developed. One does not feel the presence of the sea, even in places that are only a few hundred meters inland.
Residential areas are concentrated in the inland parts of the city, and business and commercial areas are concentrated in the central district close to the waterfront. However, in neither case is advantage taken of proximity to the waterfront.
Our aim is to improve access to the sea and develop an exciting program that attracts people to the waterfront.
First, to ease access to the sea, we widen roads and develop pedestrian spaces along lines that connect the main railway stations presently scattered in inland areas to the waterfront, thereby providing direct connection to the waterfront. This will open up vistas and make views of the sea available in inland areas.
Next, we reorganize the waterfront, using a unit system. Each of the waterfront districts that together make up the entire inner harbor is one unit. Each unit has its own character, as a result of its configuration and environment. To revitalize each unit, hardware (i.e. buildings) such as cultural facilities and residential facilities and new programs are introduced.
The units are diverse in character and come in different sizes. A number of sites are partly reorganized. Together, they will compose the inner harbor as a whole. Thus, Yokohama's waterfront will be activated.
Group 3 Theme: Urban Progurams - Functions
Nicolas Hugentobler, Takeshi Yano, Atsushi Yokomizo, Guillaume Yersin
In the first half of the workshop we researched a number of waterfront areas in Yokohama (Kannai, Minato Mirai 21, Yokohama Station and Koyasu). As a result, we were able to confirm that the Yokohama waterfront is comprised of areas that are different in a number of respects, including mixture of use and scale.
However, those areas are separated by environmental and historical factors and infrastructure and have only a tenuous relationship to one another. They might be compared to different kinds of jewels, arranged one next to the other but lacking a chain to link them into a necklace. We believed it was necessary to devise that chain and create a network out of these different areas.
We thought that as a first step, the Minato Mirai 21 district ought to be improved. Though Minato Mirai 21 was intended to connect the Yokohama Station area and Kannai, two commercial districts which are at some distance from one another, it was simply placed in the gap between the two commercial districts. Composed of mega blocks, It is not humanly scaled. Its outdoor spaces are deserted, leftover areas; the programs prepared for the spaces are without any special character.
We had discovered through various case studies in our earlier research that the Kannai district had the most diverse mixture of uses and the most human of scales of all the areas. We concluded that the Minato Mirai 21 district could acquire sustainability, mixed uses, a human scale and a new ambience if the Kannai district were used as a model.
This proposal was for a first step in the northward development of an urban necklace.
Group 4 Theme: Characteriestics
Sota Matsuura, Kei Ayashiro, Atsushi Oto, Simone Cartier, Raphaela Hurschler
The theme of Group 4 was "atmosphere". We discussed what sort of atmosphere Yokohama now possessed and how atmosphere ought to be designed.
In research preceding the intermediate presentation, we first postulated that atmosphere is the product of six factors such as landmarks, the textures of buildings and pavements, and planting. We discovered as a result a close relationship between atmosphere and as-yet unused land (what we called "waiting land").
For example, places such as parking lots that have little atmosphere have high potential and demand a new atmosphere. We deduced the existence of such bits of "waiting land".
In the second half of the project, our target area was the inner harbor surrounded by three districts--the Minato Mirai 21 district, Shinko Pier and Kannai. Various bits of land that are idle or being put for now to provisional uses such as warehouses, amusement parks and parking lots exist in this area. How is a waterfront in which many bits of "waiting land" exist to be planned?
The method that was considered was to make buildings on opposite shores of the inner harbor of uniform volume. Determining the volumes of buildings would automatically lead to those buildings being put to certain uses. A city plan usually establishes height limit and zoning by blocks, but the present proposal determines volume by the building height on opposite shores and the size of the canal. We believed that this would help form an atmosphere unique to the inner harbor.
Undertaking group research and planning on a theme as ambiguous as the word "atmosphere" was by no means easy. We discussed how each one of us felt about it a number of times and gradually came to a shared understanding of the subject. This process was extremely difficult because we collaborated with overseas students who spoke different languages, but it was also a precious experience for us.
Group 5 Theme: scale - grain - mix
Yu Momoeda,Takahiro Shimada,Lee joon-ho,Shin Yokogi,Lorentz müller,Chantal Reichenbach
In the first half of the workshop, we studied the scale of such things as buildings and infrastructure (e.g. volume of traffic, number of users) on the Yokohama waterfront in central district areas such as the Yokohama Station area, Minato Mirai and Kannai, and presented the idea of creating a central district area of higher density in the Minato Mirai 21 district.
At present, these three areas have clearly different scales and strongly expressed edges. In the intermediate presentation, we proposed mixing together different scales in order to loosely connect these edges; we also suggested increasing the FAR in central district areas.
The proposal is intended to create one strong central district by increasing density while connecting the three areas; at the same time, it would maintain the low density of areas that are likely to be developed in the future and prevent an increase in density of the Yokohama waterfront as a whole.
We proposed as a method a new architectural typology for the Minato Mirai 21 district. At present, Minato Mirai is characterized by a simple typology of high-rise buildings and public open spaces. Human activities are enclosed in buildings, and people do not appear in outdoor spaces. We therefore proposed buildings of a small-scale typology: thin, long buildings that might partition outdoor spaces. We proposed partitioning characterless outdoor spaces with buildings, and giving outdoor spaces character. The outdoor spaces would have programs such as woods, open fields and sports plazas.
The new typology would also be applied in places that are left as open spaces, as a way of zoning outdoor spaces in the entire Minato Mirai district.
The formation of a strong central district would enable Yokohama to develop into an independent city, complementing but no longer dependent on Tokyo.
Group 6 Theme: Increase - Transformation-Innovation "MIX MAX"
Yuichi Tanaka, Keisuke Kawaguchi, Tomoko Kakehata, Ryota Hirose, Piet Nieder, Kathrin Gimmel
Our research theme was "Increase-Transformation; Processes-Innovation". After field work, we first gathered all available data and classified them by means of four indices: culture, economy, demographics and environment. We then closely analyzed the Yokohama waterfront district at the three following scales.
Scale 1: Tokyo and Yokohama.
Scale 2: Yokohama as a whole.
Scale 3: Yokohama waterfront district
In the intermediate presentation, the theme of our proposal was "Water Drive--Planning the City from the Waterfront". Yokohama has acquired various identities at different scales (i.e. its international identity, local identity and identity relative to Tokyo). The intention was to reorganize the city into a single main center through the planning of its waterfront.
After the intermediate presentation, we felt we needed a more specific sense of place, a more micro-scale viewpoint from which to view things, even as we kept in mind the larger scale of the city.
We selected as the subject of our proposal the Minato Mirai 21 district, which can be a district that ties together the outskirts of Yokohama and existing urban areas such as the Kannai and Yamashita districts, Yamate and Takashima. We undertook a close analysis of specific aspects of its structure, by mapping its urban functions and studying, among other things, its population density and building volume.
We ultimately arrived at the idea of developing the entire Yokohama waterfront including Minato Mirai into one main center by programming the Minato Mirai district as a university.
The work might be characterized as suggesting a new layer on which the existing city might be evaluated--different from that suggested by the city plan of a local government--and giving a new, future direction to a city still in the process of development. We feel our proposal has succeeded in suggesting a new layer connecting urban design and architectural design.
