Resumo de Order And Anarchy: Tokyo From 1868 To The Present

Order and Anarchy: Tokyo from 1868 to the Present

This article traces the development of Tokyo from the end of the Tokugawa period to present day. The main focus is on architectural and infrastructural changes. The main idea behind the article is that Tokyo is a city of change and despite this change, it has managed to retain a sense of order and a relationship to its past.
At the end of the Shogunate?s rule, Tokyo was in a state of decline and its population had decreased because of the discontinuation of the alternate attendance system. When the Meiji government took over it aimed at westernizing Tokyo to project a progressive image, but there were no Japanese architects trained in the western styles so it was necessary to employ architects from abroad.
There was a major fire in 1872, this provided the government a chance to modernize the city. It employed Thomas Waters and he built the Ginza district in a neoclassical style with brick buildings and colonnades. This led to the widespread adoption of brick as a material for building since it was fireproof, but it was vulnerable to earthquakes.
The most influential architect of the Meiji period was Josiah Conder who ushered in the Second Empire style. He built the Rokumeikan (hall of the crying stag), which was a club used for interaction between the Japanese and foreigners. Conder was also placed in charge of building the Hibiya-Marunouchi area owned by the Mitsubishi family, he built it in his Second Empire Style in imitation of the financial district in London; this came to be known as Mitsubishi Londontown. With the construction of a railway line between Shimbashi and Ueno in 1914 this became the major financial district.
The Tokyo station building was built by one of Conder?s Japanese students in a style that was grander than the Rokumeikan and Londontown.
The Japanese experimented for a short period with German styles, although initial plans were rejected. Japanese were sent to Germany to learn new styles and techniques and they applied these in Tokyo. This led to the building of the most influential building of the period, the Akasaka palace that was in a German baroque style and was extremely modern, functional and earthquake proof.
On the whole there are two problems with this period; the first is that image was more important than function and second that classical Japanese tradition was ignored.

There was a major earthquake in 1923, which wiped out most of the city; a notable exception is Frank Lloyd Wright?s Imperial Hotel. Another phase of large scale planning in the western style took place, with emphasis on zoning, building fireproof buildings and increasing street size. Charles Beard was hired as an assistant to aid this planning. However this massive overhaul was hindered by the unwillingness of many residents to leave their traditional homes. The Japanese incursion into China in 1937 led to a wave of nationalism and the abandonment of this international style. The depression and military problems of the time made development difficult, however quite a lot of structural change and urban planning had taken place as a result of the post Earthquake reforms.

The fire bombing of the world war destroyed much of Tokyo. The occupation forces were eager to rebuild Tokyo and envisioned long term plans, but the Japanese were more concerned with immediate needs like temporary shelter and food. However, they both were concerned with the reconstruction of Tokyo.
The 1964 Olympic games were aimed at projecting an image of confidence to the world; the Olympic complex, the bullet train and the Yamanote train loop are notable developments.
The Metabolic movement under Kenzo Tange emerged, the basic idea of this movement was that the city should be capable of change and should not be a static entity. However there was a huge gap between what was planned and what was implemented.

The 60s and 70s saw the economic boom and also a deterioration oof city life. Air and noise pollution as well as congestion were common. This led to a disordered street structure and a jungle of pedestrians, cars, bikes, traffic signs, telegraph poles etc. Even the overhead expressways were considered bottlenecks rather than arteries.
People struggled from a lack of space living in prefabricated houses and there was a lack of greenery in order to make space for residences. This led to the horizontal expansion of Tokyo and after 1960 there was a major vertical expansion as well (skyscrapers).

The oil crises of the 70s stopped this expansion and instead led to a consolidation of space. As a result people were encouraged to think in terms of community living (concepts of ?My Tokyo?) and the government enacted certain legislation, for example it regulated sunlight availability.

There are similarities between present day Tokyo and Edo. Much of the spatial arrangement is still the same, and the city retains the spiral swirl structure (The Yamanote line traces this loop and expressways are also built in this pattern). Although there have been changes in architectural styles, much of the street layout has also been preserved.

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