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.
