A few interesting pieces on housing, construction and real estate in Tokyo and beyond caught my attention lately. I wanted to collect them here for future reference and research. I wonder whether what was once key to understanding Japanese cities’ success in dealing with unbridled urbanisation has become an impediment to its citizens enjoying the fruits of an affluent society today.
The view from my balcony in Nakano, Tokyo (May 2016) Continue reading
How will the 300,000 or so new inhabitants Yangon gains every year live? To conclude a series on slums and the urban poor in Yangon, I wanted to highlight a few items of note I found in a presentation by the Myanmar Ministry of Construction.
Construction site, Yangon (c) Manuel Oka
As my Tokyo research progresses, I have been looking a little more closely at the history of Sumida Ward, one of Tokyo’s traditional manufacturing areas. Today I took a walk from Hikifune to Ryogoku.
Steel plating company, Sumida Ward
In lieu of a proper post in May and in order to preserve some memories from this time of the year, herewith some photos taken over the past couple of weeks.
Taipei April 2016
The second presentation I gave during the “Inheriting the City” conference in Taipei last week was on Tokyo. As with the one on Yangon, I am still debating whether I should write it up as a full-blown paper. In order not to forget what I said, herewith a summary.
Economic Miracle from Ben Bansal on Vimeo.
One of the two presentations I gave on the occasion of the “Inheriting the City” conference in Taipei last week was on Yangon’s heritage discourse. While I am still debating whether to write it up into a full-blown paper, herewith a brief summary for the records.
Tripitaka Library
Tokyo’s urban manufacturing economy is legendary. Today I visited its epicentre in Ota-ku, the capital’s southernmost ward to get a feel for what could be an interesting avenue for my research.
I walked past Azuma’s Tower House again yesterday. This amazingly small 50-year-old brick block in Gaien-Mae is perhaps the first in a long tradition of extremely small residential buildings in Tokyo. And while the architecture of scarcity brings about unprecedented creativity, it is also a reminder of what is wrong modern (real estate) capitalism.
Where is the SAAB?
As a follow-up to my post on Yangon’s slums, more browsing reveals the existence of an interesting UN Habitat project. It is called Mapping Yangon. The little information that is available about it confirms some of my earlier suspicions about the state of these informal settlements in Burma’s former capital.
House on stilts, Dala (c) Manuel Oka
Our Yangon Architectural Guide features six thematic chapters on various topics to do with the built environment. Upon reflection and with some time passing since we worked on the manuscript, there could definitely be a few more, in particular one on slums.
Man in Dala – not your typical slum (yet?) — (c) Manuel Oka