Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City

A discussion with author Jorge Almazan and NYC Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick:

How does one “design a ‘spontaneous city’?” How to nurture authentic and distinctive places in giant cities like Tokyo and New York? What rules—or lack thereof—allow for distinctive elements to emerge organically rather than being imposed from above?

Join us for a discussion of this and related questions with New York City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick and the author of an acclaimed new book about Tokyo that the Economist says “offers plenty for other cities to ponder” and the Journal of the American Planning Association calls “an entertaining and informative book,” adding that “Japanese cities have a lot to teach the world.”

From the book cover: Tokyo is one of the most vibrant and liveable cities on the planet, a megacity that somehow remains intimate and adaptive. Tokyo’s success at balancing between massive growth and local communal life poses a challenge: can we design other cities to emulate its best qualities?

Emergent Tokyo answers this question in the affirmative by delving into Tokyo’s most distinctive urban spaces. Tokyo at its best offers a new vision for a human-scale urban ecosystem, where ordinary residents can shape their own environments in ways large and small, and communities take on a life of their own beyond government master planning and corporate profit seeking.

This event is hosted by the NYU Marron Institute’s Sustaining Places Initiative and is co-hosted by the Japan Society and the New York City Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. RSVP required: email tmt6@nyu.edu or register using the linked form.